Belen Jesuit is first in Class 3A, first in Florida, and the only team in the state under a 16:00 five-man average. Behind them, three of the top ten owe their position to one Saturday at Whispering Pines and one course rating we are not sure of.
Florida Class 3A boys cross country team rankings through two weeks: August 21-29, 2026
Belen Jesuit is not just first in Class 3A. They are first in Florida, they are the only team in the state with a five-man average under 16:00, and they have not raced since August 21 because they have not needed to. In a 3A-only field they score 53 points; the next team scores 181.
Behind them the class rearranged itself. Vanguard won Whispering Pines and moved from fifth to second. Tavares, who lost that meet to Vanguard, moved from seventh to fourth. Ponte Vedra and Leon, who were third and fourth and did not race, are fifth and sixth. Three of the ten teams below Belen owe their position to one Saturday in Inverness, and one course rating we are not certain of.
A warning about the scores. There were 52 scoreable teams in this class a week ago. There are 77 now. Bigger field, bigger place numbers, bigger scores. Compare the order and the five-man averages, not the points.
As always this is data plus judgment, and we will miss somebody along the way. A (P) beside a team means it did not put five runners on a rateable line and is entered on what its returners ran last November. How we sorted it all out is at the bottom for anyone who wants it. Races are not won until the kids have run. Enjoy.
About the times. Every mark below is the time the runner actually ran that day. The number in parentheses after it is what that time is worth at Cecil Field, which is what the scoring uses. On a neutral course — Cecil Field itself — there is only one number. A projected team's marks are its runners' 2025 state times.
The 3A individuals are here, and the week 1 edition of this list is here. Statewide: week 2 boys top 10 and the week 1 boys team top 10. The other class team lists this week: 1A boys, 2A boys, 4A boys and 3A girls.
1. Belen Jesuit — 53 points
Cecil Field, five-man average 15:54.4, spread 1:17.0, finishing 1-5-8-19-20 in Class 3A with the sixth and seventh at 24th and 43rd. Armando Cruz 15:06.0, Jack Michalak 15:47.0, Liam Salom 15:54.0, Nicholas Veloso 16:22.0, Dominic De Armas 16:23.0, then Davi Bodoh 16:31.0 and Santiago Muniz 16:51.0.
Seven runners under 16:52 and five of them in the first twenty of the class. Marcelo Mantecon still has not run — the best returning boy in Florida is not in that lineup, and the gap to second is 128 points anyway. Belen is entered at the Florida Horse Park on Saturday, where they went one-two and won with 39 points last September.
2. Vanguard (Ocala) — 181 points
The biggest riser in the class and the shakiest ranking on the page. Vanguard won Whispering Pines with 59 points, beating Tavares 59-75, and posted a converted 16:43.7 average on a 1:13.4 spread — better than the 16:59 they ran at Cecil Field a week earlier. Trevor Berquist 16:34.1 (16:20.0), Lachlan Bryniarski 16:43.6 (16:29.5), Christopher Taylor 16:50.5 (16:36.3) and Jacob Rogers 16:53.4 (16:39.2) finished inside nineteen seconds of each other, and Cooper Gumpert closed it at 17:47.5 (17:33.4).
Here is the caution, and it is the same one on the statewide page. Whispering Pines is rated +14.1 from 42 matched runners and its own median says +4.1. Swing that rating to the other end and Vanguard is third, not second. This is the team on this list whose ranking leans hardest on a number we are least sure of.
3. Bishop Kenny — 219 points — (P)
Thomas Milton 16:35.9, Ethan Reid 16:36.5, Brian Martinez 16:41.3, Quinn Mullaney 17:15.6, Dayne Kimball 17:16.6 on projection. Average 16:53.8, and a 0:40.7 spread that is the tightest projected five in Class 3A.
Second in week one, third now, and still not on a line. They have exactly five returners with state times, which is the minimum to be ranked at all — there is no sixth or seventh runner behind them in this projection, which means one injury and there is no team. They are entered at the Horse Park Saturday. Under both stress tests below, Bishop Kenny is the No. 2 team in 3A.
4. Tavares — 247 points
Whispering Pines, converted average 16:50.7 — third-best in the class, better than Bishop Kenny's projection — on a 2:15.0 spread, finishing 4-35-39-49-120. Liam Ilea 16:00.6 (15:46.5), then Navid Lozano, Emiliano Lozano and Nicholas Alvarez inside sixteen seconds of each other, and Eric Chen 64 seconds later.
Seventh a week ago, fourth now, and they got there in the same race Vanguard did — sixteen points behind them on the day. Their whole argument with the three teams above them is Eric Chen's place: 120th in a seventy-seven-team class field, within seven points of what their other four scored put together.
5. Ponte Vedra — 248 points
Spikes & Spurs, converted average 16:55.6, spread 1:53.6, finishing 2-51-55-66-74. Luke Ross 16:04.9 (15:37.1) is the second-fastest 3A boy on any scoreable team, and then Colin Bovee, Logan Hunt, Jasper Graham and Aiden Killoran arrive in a thirty-second band from 17:28.2 to 17:58.5 (17:00.4 to 17:30.7), with two more inside 18:03.
Third a week ago, fifth now, one point behind Tavares, and they have not raced since. Seven runners inside 18:03 is a genuine pack; the trouble is that the pack starts 83 seconds behind their own No. 1. They are at the Horse Park Saturday.
6. Leon — 261 points
Dueling Summits, converted average 16:58.7, spread 1:45.1, finishing 14-27-41-63-116. Isaiah Renn 17:09.8 (16:13.4), Carson Weiss 17:30.3 (16:33.9), Asher McGrew 17:45.4 (16:49.0), Andrew Barnes 18:14.9 (17:18.5), Sam Ito 18:54.9 (17:58.5).
Fourth to sixth, on no new information at all — they have not raced since August 22. Three runners inside the first forty-one of the class is as good a front three as anybody has behind Belen; the fourth and fifth are where the points went.
7. Fort Myers — 273 points
Cecil Field, average 17:01.2, spread 1:23.0, finishing 15-17-54-92-95. Reed Hagen 16:19.0 and Trae Britton 16:20.0 a second apart, Noah Lefko 17:06.0, Elijah Brown 17:39.0, Brock Jackson 17:42.0.
Sixth to seventh with nothing changed. That 1:23 spread is the fourth-tightest in this top ten and their problem is not shape, it is that three teams raced in week two and all three ran well.
8. Fleming Island — 350 points
Cecil Field, average 17:12.4, spread 2:10.0. JP Strombeck 15:58.0, Luke Janke 16:43.0, Andrew Lou 17:13.0, then 47 seconds to Ryder Muyres and Isaac Garrison, with Jack Loehr and Jude Harmer right behind them.
Eighth in week one, eighth now. Five runners inside 18:09 and a fifth, sixth and seventh separated by 27 seconds: this is a team whose next twenty seconds of improvement are worth more than most.
9. Chiles — 357 points
Cecil Field, average 17:13.2, spread 2:30.0 — the widest in this top ten. Jonathan Kiros 15:47.0 is sixth in the class field, and Jack Nottingham at 16:52.0 is 44th.
Ninth to ninth. Kiros is one of ten 3A boys under 16:00 on a scoreable team and Chiles is ranked ninth, which is the cleanest illustration in this class of what a team ranking measures. They are entered at the Horse Park Saturday.
10. River Ridge — 373 points
New to the top ten. Whispering Pines, converted average 17:19.0, spread 1:56.8, finishing 21-34-60-109-149. Andrew McKay 16:37.9 (16:23.8), Daniel Williams 16:55.0 (16:40.8), Gavin Hurtado 17:30.9 (17:16.8), Caiden McCarthy 18:07.0 (17:52.9), Jason Szymanski 18:34.8 (18:20.6).
The third team from Whispering Pines in this top ten, which means the same warning attached to Vanguard applies here — though River Ridge has more room, since they are thirty-five points clear of Lincoln behind them. They are at the Horse Park Saturday, on a course we can rate with confidence.
Just missed
11. Lincoln, 408 (P). Tenth a week ago, eleventh now, still unraced, and their projected 0:58.4 spread is the fifth-tightest in the class and the second-tightest of any projected team in it.
12. Fort Walton Beach, 425. The number of the week in any class: their five covered 0:22.9 at Dueling Summits — Nolan Ibsen 18:24.1 (17:27.7) to Connor White 18:47.0 (17:50.6) — which is the tightest scoring five run by any boys team in Florida this season, in any classification. It is also why they are twelfth: nobody in that five is inside the first sixty-seven of the class.
13. Rockledge, 447. Brody Johnson 16:04.9 (15:55.4) and Noah Childrey 16:09.4 (15:59.9) finished 9-11 in the class at the Kowboy, the best 1-2 in Class 3A outside Belen Jesuit, and their third man is 86th. 14. St. Augustine, 467.
How much of this is the courses?
Both stress tests do the same thing to this class, and it is worth taking seriously. Swing every disputed course rating to the other end of its range and Bishop Kenny goes to second and Vanguard to third; Ponte Vedra rises to fourth, Leon to fifth, Fort Myers to sixth and Tavares falls to seventh. Fort Walton Beach climbs into ninth.
Take the week-two courses 13.2 seconds less generously — the size of the measured week-one-to-week-two drift for boys — and you get almost exactly the same board: Bishop Kenny second, Vanguard third, Tavares seventh, Chiles up to eighth and Lincoln into the top ten.
In plain terms: Belen is first no matter what, Bishop Kenny is the second-best team in 3A on every reading except the one we publish, and the Whispering Pines teams — Vanguard, Tavares, River Ridge — are the three most likely to move when the Horse Park settles it on Saturday.
How this works
Every August mark is converted to a Cecil Field equivalent using the runners who raced both that course and the 2025 state meet, matched on name and school. Each school is entered on its five fastest converted times from its single best meet — not a mix-and-match of its best days. Those five, and the sixth and seventh where they exist, are dropped into one virtual race against every other Class 3A team and scored the way cross country is scored: top five count, sixth and seventh displace, five finishers required, low score wins.
Because the field is Class 3A only, these scores are not the ones on the statewide team board. A team's rank there and here can differ: the statewide list scores it against 319 teams, this one against 77.
A school that did not field five runners on a rateable course — or that fielded five without at least two of its returning top-five scorers — is entered on its returning five's 2025 state times plus the August constant, and marked (P). Five returners with state times are required, so a program with four cannot be ranked at all. Seven of the twenty-nine courses run in the first two weeks could not be rated against the state meet, and results from them are not in these numbers. Classifications are the FHSAA's finalized 2026-27 lists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the No. 1 Class 3A boys cross country team in Florida in Week 2? expand_more
Belen Jesuit, on 53 points. Their Cecil Field race produced a 15:54.4 five-man average, the only one in Florida under 16:00, with five runners in the first twenty of the class and seven under 16:52. They are also the No. 1 team in the state across all classes, and Marcelo Mantecon still has not raced.
Why did Vanguard jump from fifth to second in Class 3A? expand_more
They won the Whispering Pines Invitational on August 29 with 59 points, beating Tavares 59-75, and converted to a 16:43.7 five-man average on a 1:13.4 spread, better than their Cecil Field race a week earlier. The caution is that the Whispering Pines rating is +14.1 from 42 matched runners while its own median says +4.1. Read at that end, Vanguard is third.
Which Class 3A team had the tightest scoring five? expand_more
Fort Walton Beach, whose five covered 0:22.9 at Dueling Summits, from Nolan Ibsen at 18:24.1 to Connor White at 18:47.0, worth 17:27.7 and 17:50.6 at Cecil. That is the tightest scoring five run by any boys team in Florida this season in any classification. They are twelfth in 3A because none of those five is inside the first 67 of the class.
Why are the Week 2 scores higher than the Week 1 scores? expand_more
There were 52 scoreable Class 3A boys teams a week ago and there are 77 now. Every place number in a bigger virtual field is larger, so every team score inflates. Compare the order and the five-man averages, not the points.