The best girls team in Florida is in Class 3A and it did not enter a meet. Neither did the third-best team in the class, or the fifth. The three that did race all beat their own November baselines. Here is how the 3A girls stack up.
Florida Class 3A girls cross country team rankings, after opening weekend: August 21-22, 2026
The best girls cross country team in Florida is in Class 3A and it did not enter a meet. Neither did the third-best team in 3A, or the fifth. Bishop Kenny, Bishop Moore and Dillard sat out opening weekend entirely — eighteen returning state-meet athletes between them, not one of them on a starting line.
A ranking that left them out would be a ranking of who showed up in August rather than a ranking of who is good. So they are in it, marked (P), and priced deliberately harshly.
What week one did establish is that the teams that raced are ahead of their own baselines. Chiles by eleven seconds a runner, Lourdes by eighteen, Vanguard by twenty-one. If that holds across the class, the projections are all ranked a shade too high — including the one at the top.
As always this is data plus judgment, and we will miss somebody along the way. 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.
The statewide lists: Week 1 girls team top 10 and Week 1 girls top 10. The 3A individuals are here. The other class team lists: 1A girls, 2A girls, 4A girls and 3A boys.
1. Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville) — 84 points — (P)
Taylor Lawhon 18:54.8, Camila Giles 19:16.9, Jillian Jakab 19:36.6, Rebecca McEnany 19:58.0, Ava McEnany 20:30.8. Projected average 19:39.4, spread 1:36.0.
They are the No. 1 girls team in Florida in any class, and they got there while being charged half a minute a runner for not racing. Reclassification moved all five of them up from 2A with the scoring core intact, which dropped a state-title-caliber team into the deepest girls class in the state.
The honest caveat runs both ways. Nobody has seen this team in 2026, and five runners is exactly five — there is no sixth on the board, so an injury is a scoring crisis rather than an inconvenience. But 84 points in a forty-six-team 3A field, from a projection that assumes nobody got any faster, is not a placement you argue with. It is a placement you go beat.
2. Chiles — 107 points
Cecil Field, and the best actual performance by a 3A girls team this weekend. Average 19:45.4, spread 1:52.0. Emma-Claire Tanenbaum 18:48, Kaia Ables 18:59, Charlotte Sikes 20:04, Chloe Molen 20:16, Madeline Brockmeier 20:40, then Savannah Stanley 21:18 and Katherine Baker 21:44.
Their returning six projected to a 19:56.6 average. They raced to 19:45.4 — eleven seconds a runner faster than their own November baseline, in August, on a neutral course. All six returners came back and all six ran. That is the cleanest evidence any team in this class produced.
Tanenbaum and Ables eleven seconds apart at the front, a sixty-five-second gap to third, and then three runners inside thirty-six seconds. Fourth in Florida overall, and the highest-ranked 3A girls team that has actually raced.
3. Bishop Moore (Orlando) — 126 points — (P)
Annabella Tomasic 18:04.3, Ella Valentina Valenzuela 19:45.9, Lauren Susnis 20:14.4, Carolyn Susnis 20:31.1, Ava Hryciw 20:44.9, with Kate McWhorter 21:33.8 and Marisol Ambrico 21:56.6 behind them. Projected average 19:52.1, spread 2:40.6.
Tomasic is the No. 1 individual in 3A and the reason this projection is worth what it is. She is 1:41 clear of her own No. 2, and in a scored race a front-runner like that is worth more than the spread suggests. Seven returners is the deepest projected roster in the class — this is the one sat-out team with a real sixth and seventh.
The 2:40.6 spread is the widest in the top six. That is the vulnerability, and the projection is not hiding it: those are the same five gaps they had at state.
4. Lourdes — 150 points
Cecil Field. Average 20:10.4, spread 1:45.0. Sofia Jimenez 19:21, Alessandra Perez 19:43, Marisa Mantecon 19:52, Ava Barrera 20:50, Emilia Volz 21:06, then Mika Macdonald 21:43 and Carlota Tamayo 21:45.
Projected off their returning five at 20:28.0; they ran 20:10.4, eighteen seconds a runner better. Jimenez was their fourth-fastest returner in November and led them in August, which is the kind of internal reshuffle that usually means a team is fitter than its returning order.
Three girls inside 19:52 and then a fifty-eight-second gap. Eighth in Florida overall. They and Chiles were in the same Cecil race and Chiles beat them comfortably, which is the only head-to-head data point among the top five.
5. Dillard (Fort Lauderdale) — 186 points — (P)
Shynah Collins 19:37.2, Miley Gill 20:30.1, Peyton Williams 20:37.3, Kelly Greene 20:38.7, Maddison Simpson 21:15.7, with Paris Sapp 23:48.7 sixth. Projected average 20:31.8, spread 1:38.5.
Gill, Williams and Greene finished within 8.6 seconds of each other at the state meet — a genuine three-runner pack — and Collins gives them a scorer nearly a minute clear of it. The projection prices all of that at exactly its November value.
The sixth runner at 23:48.7 is the number to watch. This is a five-and-a-half-deep team on paper, and in a class this crowded the difference between fifth and eighth is one athlete stepping into that gap.
6. Ponte Vedra — 196 points
Spikes & Spurs. Converted average 20:22.5, spread 2:37.3. Piper Ross 19:06.1, Savannah LaVasser 19:19.0, Mary Chase Fender 20:43.9, Rio Ossi 21:00.3, Sasha Chandlee 21:43.4, with Lucy Lommel and Harlee Howton behind.
Two girls inside 19:20 and thirteen seconds apart, and then an eighty-five-second drop to the third scorer. They put forty-eight girls on the line, the largest single-school girls entry at any Florida meet this weekend, and the depth behind the five is real even if the gap in the middle of it is not flattering.
This is the one ranking on the page resting on a course we cannot honestly price. Spikes & Spurs is not measurable from the girls who ran it — the overlap with the state meet is thin, and the only local reading we can take says the course runs slightly fast where the estimate we use says slow. Ponte Vedra is fifth to eighth in 3A across the whole range. We use the same number the statewide list uses and we say it is an estimate. It is also why Piper Ross is not on our 3A individual top ten.
7. Vanguard (Ocala) — 212 points
Cecil Field. Average 20:22.4 — a tenth of a second better than Ponte Vedra's — spread 3:21.0, the widest in this top ten. Lyla Hallick 18:37, Cierra Mills 19:23, Reese Cartwright 20:39, Annalise Hallick 21:15, Natalie Lammens 21:58, then Anya Bryniarski 22:56.
Projected at 20:43.7 off their returning five; they ran 20:22.4, twenty-one seconds a runner faster, the biggest gain of any team in this top ten. Lyla Hallick transferred in from a 4A school and immediately became one of the four fastest girls in the class. She is why Vanguard is here at all, and the 3:21 spread is why they are seventh rather than fourth.
Their fifth scorer comes home at 21:58. Five of the six teams ahead of them have a fifth scorer under 21:16.
8. Tavares — 286 points
Jim Ryun, at Holloway Park, on the firmest non-Cecil conversion on the girls' side. Average 21:03.5, spread 2:03.7. Laken Hartley 20:13.6, Isabella Neal 20:25.6, Jimena Nava Garcia 20:27.8, Sophia Maldonado 21:53.3, Caitlyn Noll 22:17.3, Cassidy Noll 22:49.5.
A tight front three — fourteen seconds covers all of them — and then an eighty-six-second gap. Same shape as the Tavares boys team seventh in their own class: strong three or four deep, then a cliff. Both Tavares squads are top-eight in 3A on the same profile, which suggests a program building from the front.
9. St. Petersburg — 366 points
Ragin' Storm. Converted average 21:28.3, spread 2:43.3. Isla Trunk 20:18.6, Caitlin Williams 20:48.1, Ellah Durliat 21:09.0, Lucy Hammond 22:04.0, Isabella Grasso 23:01.9, then Mackenzie Rood 23:26.1.
Eighty points behind Tavares and four in front of the next team, which is where this class finally opens up. Trunk, Williams and Durliat inside fifty-one seconds is a solid front three; the fourth and fifth are fifty-five and 113 seconds off it.
10. Osceola (Seminole) — 370 points
Ragin' Storm, four points behind St. Petersburg on the same course on the same day. Converted average 21:32.4, spread 2:43.0. Luna Mehltretter 20:10.0, Quynh Tollon 20:11.6, Ashlynn Clements 21:42.8, Lyncoln Jones 22:44.7, Lindsey Geiger 22:53.0, with Cadence Mayer and Kennedy Hummer next.
Mehltretter and Tollon finished 1.6 seconds apart and are the fastest front pair of the three teams at the bottom of this top ten. Then ninety-one seconds of nothing.
This is the only pair of ranked 3A girls teams below the top four that actually raced each other. St. Petersburg won it by four points and both teams have the same problem: two good runners and a ninety-second hole.
Just missed
11. Aubrey Rogers, 443 — Lehigh, average 21:56.9, spread 0:58.8, the tightest five of any 3A girls team in Florida. Brooks Lyons 21:31.3 through Ella Sindledecker 22:30.1. No front-runner anywhere, and the Lehigh conversion is well supported. A pack team with no star is exactly the profile that climbs.
12. Fleming Island, 450 — Cecil Field, 21:59.0 average, 1:10 spread, with Eve Schlotthauer, Madison Moore and Mercy Gillaspy inside eleven seconds. Seven points behind Aubrey Rogers with a similar shape.
13. Fort Walton Beach, 452 — Dueling Summits, 21:51.5 average, 1:40 spread, Mia Jucha 20:37.6 leading. Their conversion comes off a four-runner sample, so this placement carries the widest error bar on the page.
14. Fort Myers, 527 — Cecil Field, 22:19.6 average. Four runners inside 22:41 and a fifth at 23:20, and then their sixth is nearly four minutes further back. Five returners, seven finishers, no room.
How we ranked them
- Courses do not all run the same speed, so we do not compare raw times. Cecil Field is the yardstick. For the other meets we look at girls who raced both that course and last year's state meet, and use the gap to work out what a time was worth.
- Then every 3A team in Florida goes into one virtual race, scored the normal way: five count, six and seven displace, five finishers required, low score wins. This is a 3A-only field, so the point totals do not compare to the statewide list — only the order does.
- Forty-six 3A girls teams scored. Six are entered on projection and marked (P), and three of them are in the top five.
- A projection is a tax, not a favor. A team that did not field five is entered at its returning five's state times plus the half-minute the girls' field gave up between November and August. That credits it with no summer of training, no improvement and no incoming freshman, while every team that raced is stuck with exactly what it ran on the day.
- Spikes & Spurs is the one course we cannot honestly convert, and it carries Ponte Vedra at sixth. The overlap with the state meet is thin and the only local reading available contradicts the estimate we use. Ponte Vedra is fifth to eighth across the whole plausible range. The disputed Lecanto conversion, which moves runners elsewhere on our boards, touches nothing in this class.
- Class is the 2026-27 FHSAA classification, not last year's. Bishop Kenny's whole scoring five moved up from 2A, and Lyla Hallick arrived at Vanguard from a 4A school.
- Georgia and Tennessee runners at Cecil Field and Dueling Summits are left out.
Half of this top ten has not run a step in 2026, and week two is when that gets settled. Chiles is twenty-three points behind Bishop Kenny in a forty-six-team field, and Chiles is the team that has proven something. Check back for the updated top ten, and the full opening weekend recap with all eleven meets is right here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the No. 1 Class 3A girls cross country team in Florida in Week 1? expand_more
Bishop Kenny of Jacksonville, on 84 points, and they are the No. 1 girls team in Florida in any class. They did not enter a meet and are ranked on a returning five that all moved up from 2A together. Chiles is second at 107 and is the highest-ranked 3A girls team that actually raced.
How harsh is the projection for teams that did not race? expand_more
It gives them nothing. A team that did not field five is entered at its returning five's 2025 state times plus the half-minute the girls' field gave up between November and August. No summer of training, no improvement, no incoming freshman. Every team that raced is stuck with exactly what it ran on the day.
Which Class 3A girls teams beat their own preseason projections? expand_more
All three of the ranked teams that raced. Chiles came out eleven seconds a runner faster than its returning-five baseline, Lourdes eighteen and Vanguard twenty-one. If that pattern holds across the class, the projected teams are all ranked a shade too high, including Bishop Kenny at the top.
Why is Ponte Vedra's ranking uncertain? expand_more
They raced Spikes and Spurs, which is the one course on the girls' side we cannot honestly convert. The overlap with the state meet is thin and the only local reading available says the course runs slightly fast where our estimate says slow. Ponte Vedra is anywhere from fifth to eighth in 3A across that range.