Niceville won a third straight meet with another pack finish and stays first; a win never counts against a team. Bishop Moore won the Horse Park with 141 points in the deepest girls race of the season and is second, and the eight ranked teams in that race reordered most of the list below them.
Florida girls cross country team rankings, through three weeks: August 21-September 5, 2026
Niceville did it again in the panhandle. At the Pace Patriot Invitational on Saturday they scored 20 points with five girls across the line in 21:05.2, 21:05.7, 21:06.0, 21:07.0 and 21:07.1, the only runner in front of them Gulf Breeze's Ashton Dahlem. Three meets, three wins, and a pack finish in the last two. A win never counts against a team on this list, so they are ranked on the race that shows the most, the Pine Forest run of August 29, and on that they are still the best five in Florida.
Bishop Moore won the Florida Horse Park Invitational with 141 points out of 67 teams, in the deepest girls' race Florida has had this season. Creekside was second, Ponte Vedra third, Episcopal fourth, Lourdes fifth, Chiles sixth, Doral Academy seventh and Carrollton eighth. Eight teams from the top fifteen of last week's list in one race, and the race settled most of this page. Niceville was not in it. That is the meeting the season is waiting on.
A week ago five of the top ten were projections. Now only Bishop Kenny is.
How this works, briefly. Every runner is scored on her whole season, with the most recent race counting most: this week three times, last week twice, opening weekend once. A school's five best runners on that basis go into one virtual race with every other school's, scored the way cross country is scored. Top five count, sixth and seventh displace, five finishers required, low score wins. Times are leveled to Cecil Field through the runners who ran both the 2025 state meet and the course in question. A meet a team won is never allowed to lower its figure. Where two teams raced each other this week, the result on the grass orders them. A team that has not raced at all is projected from its returning five.
Points climb every week as more teams enter and are not comparable to last week's; compare the order and the averages. The averages below are converted season figures; the times next to each runner are what she actually ran. Out-of-state entries are excluded, and IMG Academy is not an FHSAA member; there is a word on them at the bottom. The girls individual top 10 is here, and the boys' team rankings are here.
1. Niceville, 4A: 291 points
Three wins in three weeks: Cecil Field by two points over Chiles and Creekside on opening night, Pine Forest with 15, Pace with 20. The Pine Forest run is the one that ranks them, Anais Almonte 20:04.0, Harmony Holland 20:04.2, Riley Marise 20:04.3, Sophie Clapp 20:05.1, Carolina Ramos 20:05.3, and folded together with Cecil the season averages 19:39.7 on a twenty-second spread. Nobody else in Florida has five girls that close.
Saturday's Pace run was another pack finish, on a slower course, and it is left out for the plain reason that they won it. What the clock has not been shown yet is the front of this team racing: Marise ran 19:17.0 and Almonte 19:18.0 at Cecil. Bishop Moore is the team they have not seen, and until they meet, this is the argument of the season.
2. Bishop Moore, 3A: 422 points
Won the Horse Park with 141, 42 points clear of Creekside, the best team result any Florida girls' program has produced this fall. Annabella Tomasic 18:28.4, Ella Valentina Valenzuela 19:05.6, Lauren Susnis 19:25.9, Caroline Byrnes 19:58.5, Ava Hryciw 21:15.5: a converted 19:43.0 on a 2:47 spread.
They beat Creekside, Ponte Vedra, Episcopal, Lourdes, Chiles, Doral and Carrollton on the same day on the same course. The virtual race, which punishes a 2:47 spread hard in a 346-team field, has them sixth; the race they actually ran has them second behind the one team they have not raced. Tomasic ran nearly a minute slower than she did on this grass a year ago and they still won going away. Close the gap to the fifth girl and there is no soft spot on this team at all.
3. Bishop Kenny, 3A: 335 points (P)
Three weeks, no varsity race, and the last team in the ten that has not run. Five returning state qualifiers inside 1:36: Taylor Lawhon 18:26.0, Camila Giles 18:48.1, Jillian Jakab 19:07.8, Rebecca McEnany 19:29.2, Ava McEnany 20:02.0, all from last November. On paper that five is a few seconds a runner better than Bishop Moore's Saturday, and paper is all it is. A team that has won a 67-team race is ranked ahead of it, and it stays there until Bishop Kenny runs.
4. Creekside, 4A: 341 points
Second at the Horse Park with 183: Eva Delaney 18:44.8, Emma Godfrey 19:03.3, Ivey Edgell 19:20.6, and then a 1:43 wait for Elena Schultz 21:03.9 and Kaitlyn Chapman 21:22.0. Their Cecil Field run two weeks earlier had the same front three and Hadleigh Roberts at 19:30.0, and the season averages 19:36.9, the best in the state. Their second and third girls beat Bishop Moore's second and third on Saturday. Their fourth and fifth did not, and that was the race. They beat everybody else who was there.
5. Ponte Vedra, 3A: 556 points
Third at the Horse Park with 190, on Savannah LaVasser 19:43.8, Piper Ross 19:50.4, Cailyn Douglas 20:06.7, Rio Ossi 20:10.4 and Olivia Kaminsky 20:43.5, a converted 20:09.6 on a 1:07 spread. Two weeks ago at Spikes & Spurs they were LaVasser, Ross and 1:25 of nothing; Ossi has taken 1:23 off since. On Saturday they beat Episcopal, Lourdes, Chiles, Doral and Carrollton, and every one of those teams is ranked behind them now.
6. Episcopal, 2A: 635 points
Fourth at the Horse Park with 215: Stella Krueger 19:05.3, Holland McKinney 19:39.0, Audrey Brice 20:11.1, Whitney Morgan 20:57.3, Graziana Gowdy 21:06.3, a converted 20:16.0 on a 2:01 spread. They were fifth a week ago as a projection, opened with a real result, and beat Lourdes, Chiles, Doral and Carrollton doing it. The 2A favorite, three places clear of the next 2A team.
7. Lourdes, 3A: 628 points
Fifth at the Horse Park with 219, ahead of Chiles, Doral and Carrollton: Alessandra Perez 19:30.8, Marisa Mantecon 19:32.3, Sofia Jimenez 20:08.5, Emilia Volz 20:59.8, Ava Barrera 21:06.8. With the Cecil Field run folded in, the season averages 20:17.5 on a 1:29 spread. Two races that agree, and a head-to-head over the team ranked directly behind them.
8. Chiles, 3A: 418 points
Sixth at the Horse Park with 252: Emma-Claire Tanenbaum 19:00.2, Chloe Molen 19:54.8, Charlotte Sikes 20:10.6, Savannah Stanley 21:19.2, Katherine Baker 21:24.7. Their Cecil Field run, with Kaia Ables at 18:59.0 and Tanenbaum at 18:48.0, was better by 41 seconds a runner, and the season averages 19:47.0, the fourth-best in the state. The virtual race has them fifth on that. The Horse Park had them behind Bishop Moore, Creekside, Ponte Vedra, Episcopal and Lourdes, and the race wins. Ables did not score on Saturday; with her in the five, this is a different team.
9. Carrollton, 2A: 401 points
Won the Pine Crest meet on August 28 with 42, ahead of Doral, then finished eighth at the Horse Park with 275: Gabriella Socarras 19:25.4, Eva Martinez-Lejarza 20:01.7, Antonia Beltran 20:20.2, Lauren Martinez-Lejarza 20:38.5, Alexandra Prado 21:59.8. Daniela Hernandez, their No. 1 at Pine Crest in 19:16.7, did not score on Saturday. The season averages 19:51.4 on a 1:05 spread, third-best in the state, and the virtual race ranks them fourth on it. They lost to five teams above them on Saturday and beat Doral, so ninth is where the results put them. Get Hernandez back in the five and they move a long way.
10. Spanish River, 4A: 484 points (P)
Still a projection, and for a specific reason. Spanish River has raced twice, third at Pine Crest and second at Dr. Garcia behind Cardinal Newman, but Alba Antunez-Perez and Lailani Levy, their two best returners, have not run, and a team that fields five without at least two of its returning scorers stays on its returning five. Those five, from last November: Antunez-Perez 18:20.3, Levy 18:42.2, Makaela Morilla 19:14.5, Julia D'Emic 20:03.8, Olivia Downes 20:40.5. Without the front two they ran a 21:06 average on Thursday. With them, this is a top-five team. Until they open, this placement is a floor and a guess at the same time.
Just missed
Nease (677) and St. Thomas Aquinas (687) are still on their Cecil Field runs and have not raced since. Doral Academy (702) was seventh at the Horse Park with Nicole Lewis fifth in 18:43.0, a week after finishing second at Pine Crest; the loss to Carrollton on Saturday is what keeps them out. Dillard (770) is projected. Bolles has not raced since Cecil. Vanguard (Ocala) was ninth at the Horse Park with Lyla Hallick second in 18:22.5 and a 3:40 spread behind her.
Sarasota won the Wellen Park Invitational with 53. Cardinal Newman won Dr. Garcia with 50 over Spanish River. Hagerty won at DeLand with 38 and Plant won Parker Valby with 29 on Katherine Eudaly's 18:48.7.
The girls ranked second, third and fourth in Florida run for teams nowhere near this page: Riverview (Sarasota), Lake Nona and Wiregrass Ranch. The individual list and this one are almost different sports.
Where the virtual race disagrees with this list
The virtual race, on the season figures alone, reads Niceville, Bishop Kenny, Creekside, Carrollton, Chiles, Bishop Moore, Spanish River, Ponte Vedra, Lourdes, Episcopal. The Horse Park overturned most of it:
- Bishop Moore from sixth to second. They beat Creekside and Chiles by 42 and 111 points, and a 67-team win beats a projection.
- Ponte Vedra, Episcopal and Lourdes each move up. All three beat Chiles and Carrollton, and finished in that order.
- Chiles from fifth to eighth and Carrollton from fourth to ninth, on the same results.
- Niceville did not race anybody on this page this week, so their season figure stands, and it is the best in the state.
Method notes
- One virtual race, Cecil Field equivalents, top five score, sixth and seventh displace, five finishers required. Every runner is scored on her whole season, weighted toward the most recent race: her best converted time from each week she raced, averaged with week three counting three times, week two twice and week one once. A race a runner won is never allowed to lower her figure, and a meet a team won is never allowed to lower the team's. A school's five best runners on that basis are its team. This replaces the best-single-meet rule used in weeks one and two. Where two ranked teams met this week, the result orders them. 346 scoreable teams, eleven of them projected.
- Scores inflate as more teams enter and are not comparable across weeks. Order and averages are.
- Projections (P) enter on their returning five's 2025 state times. A team with five or more returners that fields five without at least two of its returning scorers is also projected; Spanish River is the only girls' team that triggered it this week. Two of this top ten are projections, down from five.
- Fifty-two courses are in the season and 37 can be rated for the girls. Nine week-three courses could not be and rank nobody. The IMG course and DeLand were both priced at their more conservative readings; neither touches a top-ten team.
- Out-of-state schools are excluded. Non-FHSAA programs are named and not scored.
- Classes are 2026-27, resolved against the FHSAA classification documents.
A word on IMG Academy
IMG Academy in Bradenton is not an FHSAA member, which means no district meet, no regional and no state meet in November, and it is not scored on this list. It should be said plainly where it would sit if it were. IMG won its own Summit Challenge on Saturday with 16 points, Emma Balaban 17:14.1, Sydney Johnson 18:01.0, Rashida Reinhardt 18:16.1, Brooklyn Brown 18:35.0 and Brooke Pelkey 18:46.8, a converted average of 18:19.3. That is more than a minute a runner better than any team above, and in the virtual race it would be first in Florida by a distance. Balaban, Johnson and Reinhardt are ranked on the individual list, where the same caveat applies: one race, on their own course, against nobody on this page.
Every result behind this list is on the site: the rankings section carries the week 3 lists next to weeks 1 and 2, and the full Saturday is in the Horse Park recap. Where this started: the week 1 girls team rankings.
Photo: AVERA VISUALS, from the 2026 Whispering Pines Invitational.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are these Florida girls team rankings calculated? expand_more
Every runner is scored on her whole season, with her best converted mark from each week averaged and the most recent week weighted highest: week three counts three times, week two twice, week one once. A race a runner won, or a meet a team won, is never allowed to lower that figure. Each school's five best runners on that basis go into one virtual race with every other school's, scored by standard cross country rules. Where two ranked teams raced each other this week, the result on the grass orders them.
Who is the No. 1 girls cross country team in Florida? expand_more
Niceville, unbeaten in three meets: Cecil Field by two points over Chiles and Creekside, Pine Forest with 15 and the Pace Patriot Invitational with 20. Their Pine Forest run, five girls inside 1.3 seconds at a 19:40 converted average, is the best five-runner figure in the state, and a meet a team won never lowers its figure.
Why is Bishop Moore second after winning the Horse Park? expand_more
They won the 67-team Florida Horse Park Invitational with 141 points, 42 clear of Creekside, beating seven other teams from the top fifteen on the same day, which puts them ahead of every team they raced and ahead of Bishop Kenny's projection. They have not raced Niceville, and Niceville's season figure is the better one. That meeting is the one the season is waiting on.
Why is Bishop Kenny ranked third without having raced? expand_more
Their returning five from the 2025 state meet is the best on paper in Florida, inside a 1:36 spread, and a team that has not raced is projected from those times. A projection is a floor, not a forecast, and a 67-team win ranks ahead of it.
Where would IMG Academy rank if it were an FHSAA member? expand_more
First, by a distance. IMG won its own Summit Challenge with 16 points behind Emma Balaban's 17:14.1 and Sydney Johnson's 18:01.0, a converted average of 18:19.3 that is more than a minute a runner better than any FHSAA team. IMG is not an FHSAA member, so its team is named but not scored; its three fastest girls are ranked on the individual list.