Axel Sallault won West Orange in 15:23.9, Quentin Thompson was the first Floridian at PR'ville in 15:32.7, Isaiah Howdeshell comes out of the ten after an injury, Jaxon Kiper goes to honorable mention after five weeks without a race, Fletcher Rodbro and Bryant Olson come in, and JP Strombeck's Bale-N-Trail win is not enough to pass the boys who have beaten him.
Florida boys cross country, through six weeks: August 21-September 26, 2026
A quiet week at the top. Belen won the STU Bobcat Invitational with 26 points without Mantecon, Cruz or Michalak, and only two of the ten boys on last week's list raced to the finish. Axel Sallault won West Orange in 15:23.9, 26.6 seconds clear of Maleik Lewis of Horizon, and Quentin Thompson went to Huntsville and was thirteenth in 15:32.7 in the 334-runner Championship race at PR'ville, the first Floridian across the line, and Lake Minneola's boys were third of 37 teams. The top five do not move.
Two boys come out. Isaiah Howdeshell was injured after his win at Seffner Christian on September 12 and did not finish the Todd Howsare Memorial on Saturday, so he is off the list until he is back racing. Jaxon Kiper comes out too: he has not raced since he won Jim Ryun on August 22, and five weeks on one race is too long to hold a spot. He is our honorable mention. Sean Cunningham and Douglas Seth move up a place, Luis Rivera two, Fletcher Rodbro is back in at ninth and Bryant Olson at tenth.
JP Strombeck of Fleming Island won the Bale-N-Trail Elite race in 15:47.9, the fastest run of his season, and it does not put him in the ten. Thompson and Jack Michalak have beaten him twice each, and at the Horse Park he was also behind Jonathan Kiros, Landon Watkins, Jonas Williams and Liam Ilea. A loss stands until they meet again.
Every time is weighed against where it was run, using runners who raced both that course and last November's state meet, with Cecil Field as the yardstick. A runner is ranked on his whole season, with the most recent race counting most, and a race he won never counts against him. We use the data and our own eyes, and we will get one or two wrong along the way. The girls' list is here.
1. Marcelo Mantecon, Belen Jesuit, Sr., 3A
Did not race. Won the Southern Showcase championship race in 14:41.6 on September 19, still the fastest time by a Florida boy this fall, two weeks after winning the Horse Park over Cruz. Runner-up at the Brooks national championship and fourth at Nike Cross Nationals last year. Two races, two wins, and he has beaten every boy on this list he has faced.
2. Armando Cruz, Belen Jesuit, Sr., 3A
Did not race. Second to Mantecon at the Horse Park and again at the Showcase in 14:58.6, after winning Cecil Field in 15:06.0 with Mantecon absent. He stays second until he beats his teammate.
3. Axel Sallault, East Ridge, Sr., 4A
Won West Orange in 15:23.9 out of 174, 26.6 seconds ahead of Maleik Lewis of Horizon: four wins in five starts, after Whispering Pines, Astronaut and Hawks on the Hill. The West Orange course ran fast on Saturday, so as a win it does not count against him, and his 15:05.9 at Hawks still ranks him. He beat Thompson there, and Thompson beat Olson and Michalak at Cecil Field, which carries Sallault above both of them although both finished ahead of him in August.
4. Quentin Thompson, Lake Minneola, Sr., 4A
Thirteenth of 334 in the Championship race at On Twilight at PR'ville in Huntsville in 15:32.7, with teammates Matthew Lydiard (15:37.6) and Jacob Kelly (15:42.6) right behind him, and Lake Minneola was third of 37 teams with 210 points. We did not put a number on the Huntsville course: the only Floridians who ran it and last November's state meet came from two teams, Thompson among them, and their readings are all over the map. The run is on the record, not in his figure. Second at Cecil Field in 15:16.0, third at the Horse Park, second to Sallault at Hawks on the Hill; that last result is why he is fourth and not third.
5. Jack Michalak, Belen Jesuit, Jr., 3A
Did not race. Third at the Southern Showcase in 15:01.7 behind his two teammates, ahead of Cunningham, Seth, Rodbro and Olson. Thompson beat him at Cecil Field and the Horse Park, which is why he sits behind Thompson. Last week he was ranked above Howdeshell on a call; with Howdeshell out, that call has nothing left to decide. Watkins and Williams were ahead of him at the Horse Park, but he has since beaten Seth, who beat both of them that day, and the newer result counts.
6. Sean Cunningham, Providence, Sr., 1A
Ran 21:25.0 in the Bale-N-Trail 11th-12th grade race on Saturday beside a seventh-grade Providence teammate. That was not a race, and it is not counted. Eleventh at the Showcase in 15:15.7, the fastest time by a Class 1A boy this year, ahead of Seth, Rodbro, Olson and Kiros. Strombeck, Reed Hagen and Brody Johnson beat him at Cecil Field in August; all three finished behind Kiros that night, and Cunningham beat Kiros by 21 seconds at the Showcase. Up a place with Howdeshell out.
7. Douglas Seth, Flagler Palm Coast, So., 4A
Did not race. Thirteenth at the Showcase in 15:20.7 as a sophomore, a second ahead of Rodbro; won Spikes and Spurs in August and was fourth at the Horse Park in 15:52.7, ahead of Watkins, Williams and Kiros. He sits behind Cunningham, Michalak and Thompson on their results and ahead of Rodbro on his.
8. Luis Rivera, St. Cloud, Sr., 4A
Did not race. Won the North Port Invite elite race in 15:20.2 on September 19, ten seconds ahead of Reed Hagen, his third win in four starts after Kowboy and his own St. Cloud Invitational. Kiper beat him at Jim Ryun in August and sits out this week as an honorable mention; that result still stands the day they meet again.
9. Fletcher Rodbro, IMG Academy, Jr.
Did not race. His 14:54.0 at the IMGA Summit on September 5 is still the fastest time run on a Florida course this year, and he was fifteenth at the Showcase in 15:21.6, behind Michalak, Cunningham and Seth, ahead of Olson and Kiros. He stays behind those three until he meets one of them again. He has never raced Rivera; on figure he would sit above him, and we have kept last week's order between them until one of them races.
10. Bryant Olson, Niceville, So., 4A
Did not race. Fifth at Cecil Field in 15:44.0 in August, ahead of Michalak, Sallault and Kiros, then wins at Pine Forest and the Pace Patriot Invitational, and sixteenth at the Showcase in 15:27.6, a place behind Rodbro. Rodbro, Seth, Cunningham and Michalak all beat him in Huntsville, and all four are above him. A sophomore, and in at tenth with Howdeshell and Kiper out.
Honorable mention
Jaxon Kiper (Strawberry Crest, Sr., 4A) won Jim Ryun in 15:54.3 on August 22, beating Rivera, and on that one race he still has the second-best figure in the state. He has not raced since. Five weeks on a single August run is too long to hold a place in the ten, so he sits here until he races again, and the day he does he moves to wherever that run says.
Just missed
Isaiah Howdeshell (Largo, Sr., 3A) was sixth a week ago. He was injured after his win at Seffner Christian on September 12 and did not finish at the Todd Howsare Memorial, and he comes out until he is racing again. His Cecil Field results over Michalak, Cunningham and Olson are still on the books when he does. Malcolm Spence IV (Flanagan, Sr., 4A) did not race; his win at BCAA Quiet Waters says ninth on figure and his thirteenth place in the Spanish River Race of Champions two days later says wait. Dominic Ferguson (Rocky Bayou Christian, Sr., 1A) won the Argonaut Invitational in 16:17.3 on a course that runs slow; Olson beat him at Pace. JP Strombeck (Fleming Island, Sr., 3A) won the Bale-N-Trail Elite race in 15:47.9, 2.9 seconds ahead of Bryce Motycka of Bartram Trail, with teammate Luke Janke third. Gabriel Harris (Lake Wales, Sr., 3A) won the Lake Wales Invitational in 16:11.0, and Jeb Bremerman (Naples, So., 3A) won Lakewood Ranch in 16:02.2.
Method notes
- A head-to-head loss stands until the two runners meet again. Where results form a loop, the most recent meeting decides, and a newer chain of results outranks an older direct one. This week that keeps Sallault above Michalak and Olson (Sallault beat Thompson at Hawks, Thompson beat both at Cecil Field), Michalak above Watkins and Williams (Michalak beat Seth at the Showcase, Seth beat both at the Horse Park) and Cunningham above Strombeck, Hagen and Brody Johnson (Cunningham beat Kiros at the Showcase, Kiros beat all three at Cecil Field). Every pair among the top 26 was checked.
- Two calls that are not rule outcomes: Howdeshell out of the ten after an injury (a DNF on Saturday, last finish September 12), and Kiper out as an honorable mention because his only race was August 22, although he beat Rivera at Jim Ryun and his figure is second in the state. Rodbro ninth, below Rivera, whom he has never raced, carries last week's order.
- Group runs are not races. At Bale-N-Trail, Nease's top group crossed together at 18:57 in the 11th-12th grade race while a second seven ran the Elite race, and Cunningham ran 21:25 with a younger teammate. None of those times is counted, for the runners or for the course reading.
- Course readings this week, in seconds against Cecil Field, from boys who ran both the course and the 2025 state meet: West Orange -53.7 (n=25; the median reads -71.8 and we used the less generous figure), Todd Howsare -56.3 (n=16), Stampede Sprint -43.6 (n=19), Bale-N-Trail -24.4 (n=47, with the group runs left out), Lakewood Ranch -28.3 (n=10), STU Bobcat -25.6 (n=13), Jensen Beach -25.0 (n=14), Marathon -37.5 (n=9), Larry Wooten -4.6 (n=11, disputed), Lake Wales -9.8 (n=4), Argonaut +33.4 (n=16, disputed; the median reads +15.3), Wildwood +17.4 (n=4).
- Not rated: On Twilight at PR'ville (n=9 from two Florida schools, readings from -22 to -183; it measures two teams, not the course), Weeki Wachee, the Azalea City Classic, Chief, FSDB Home Meet 3, Graceville, Lightning Invites 4 and both Lake Jackson runs. Those results are on the site and count for nothing here until a runner from one of them races a rated course.
- Out-of-state teams at PR'ville and the Azalea City Classic are excluded. The high school times from the Inaugural Run Florida XC Invitational are on the site's performance lists and are not used in these rankings.
- A race a runner won never lowers his figure. Sallault's West Orange win is listed and not counted against him.
Every result behind this list is on the site in the rankings section, and the full weekend is in the weekend recap. Last week: the week 5 boys list.
Featured image: the Belen Jesuit shield, the school's own logo, credited to Belen Jesuit Preparatory School (Miami).