Nease, Flagler Palm Coast and Lake Minneola are still one, two and three without racing since opening weekend. Everything from fourth down is new: Niceville fixed its pack, Hagerty took 24 seconds off its average, and Newsome walked into sixth on its first race.
Florida Class 4A boys cross country team rankings through two weeks: August 21-29, 2026
The top three have not moved and did not race. Nease, Flagler Palm Coast and Lake Minneola are still one, two and three on what they did on the opening weekend, and they are also two, three and five in the state across all classes.
Everything from fourth down is new. Niceville went back to Pine Forest and fixed the exact thing that cost them in week one. Hagerty took 24 seconds off its average at Trinity Prep. Newsome raced for the first time and walked into sixth. And the three teams that did not race — George Steinbrenner, Creekside and St. Cloud — all slid, because that is what happens when everybody else runs.
A warning about the scores. There were 61 scoreable teams in this class a week ago. There are 91 now, the biggest field of any classification. 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 — or did, without the returners the projection is built on — 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 4A 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, 3A boys and 4A girls.
1. Nease — 99 points
Cecil Field, five-man average 16:09.8, spread 0:55.0, finishing 5-10-23-25-36 in Class 4A. Rishi Chopra 15:39.0, Matthew Ishee 15:54.0, Gideon Churchill 16:20.0, Joseph Morley 16:22.0, Colin Lasota 16:34.0, with Ayden Dixon and Matthew Myers at 17:00.0 and 17:08.0.
The best five-man average in the class and the second-tightest scoring five in it. They took twenty boys to Spikes & Spurs and the five who scored averaged 19:00, which is a B squad, not a result. First in 4A, second in Florida, 40 points clear here, and they have not been threatened by anything except their own schedule.
2. Flagler Palm Coast — 139 points
Spikes & Spurs, converted average 16:20.1, spread 1:19.7, finishing 3-20-26-38-52. Douglas Seth ran 15:59.5 on the day, worth 15:31.7 at Cecil; Dylan Ciardi, Mateo Almeida, Enzo McGovern and Owen Stackpole all landed inside 16:52. They won that meet with 23 points.
Hold this one loosely, for the same reason as last week. Their entire ranking rests on the Spikes & Spurs course rating, which is the least reliable one we have — fourteen matched runners whose mean says +43.1 and whose median says +16.5, published at +27.8. Read at the median, Flagler's average is about 16:31 and they are fourth or fifth. They also have one returner from the 2025 state meet. They are at the Florida Horse Park on Saturday, which will answer it.
3. Lake Minneola — 217 points
Cecil Field, average 16:23.0 — third-best in Class 4A, better than Niceville's and Hagerty's — and third, because of a 2:42 spread, the widest in this top ten. Quentin Thompson 15:16.0 is the fastest 4A mark on any scoreable team in Florida, by a tenth of a second. Jacob Kelly 16:07.0, Drew Sasson 16:08.0 and Matthew Lydiard 16:26.0 follow inside nineteen seconds of each other. Then Joshua Ping at 17:58.0.
Their first four finish 1-16-17-29 in the class. Their fifth finishes 154th, which is worth more than the other four put together. Nothing has changed since week one and nothing will until that gap closes. They are entered at the Horse Park Saturday.
4. Niceville — 241 points
They did the one thing we said they had to do. At Cecil Field their two-through-five went 16:56, 17:17, 17:21, 17:26 behind Bryant Olson and the spread was over a minute and forty. At Pine Forest on August 29 they won with 25 points and a converted average of 16:45.9 on a 1:02.7 spread — Olson 16:13.6, Sebastian Riemer 16:57.5, Carson Jackson 17:06.8, Brayden Riemer 17:09.8, Brody Mathis 17:16.3 raw, with a sixth man 12 seconds later.
Sixth a week ago, fourth now. Under the swing test below they are third. Six runners inside 17:30 on the same day is the version of Niceville the preseason projection was built on, and the only reason they are not third here is that Lake Minneola's top four are faster than anything they have.
5. Hagerty — 263 points
Trinity Prep, converted average 16:46.5, spread 1:21.8, finishing 22-27-39-47-128. At Spikes & Spurs a week earlier the same five averaged 17:10.6; at Trinity Prep they averaged 16:46.5, better by 24.1 seconds, with the identical scoring five — Nate Winslow, Camden Thompson, Reid Henson and both Lizons.
Eighth to fifth on a straight-line improvement from the same group, which is the most encouraging kind. Elijah Lizon at 128th in the class is the only thing standing between them and third: their first four are 22-27-39-47.
6. Newsome — 309 points
New to the top ten, on their first race of the season. At Lake Region on August 29 Newsome converted to a 16:50.4 average on a 1:40.2 spread, finishing 7-51-62-88-101, and put seven boys inside 18:09.
Jonas Williams at 16:16.5 (15:43.1) is seventh in the class individually. Behind him Johnathan Robison, Ronald Ramos, Drake Jones, Chance Fowler and Caden King came in 17:24.6 through 17:57.0 — five runners in 32 seconds. That is a proper pack, and it is the reason a team nobody ranked a week ago is sixth. They are entered at the Horse Park Saturday.
7. George Steinbrenner — 313 points
Jim Ryun, converted average 16:52.7, spread 1:26.7, finishing 14-37-58-95-109. Jack Bronder 16:41.3 (16:03.1), Oliver Day 17:12.7 (16:34.5), London Paladino 17:35.2 (16:57.0), Luke Bronder 17:57.2 (17:19.0), Punya Desai 18:08.0 (17:29.8).
Fourth to seventh, and it is worth being clear that they did race in week two — they went to West Hillsborough on August 26 and averaged a converted 17:29.3, well off their Jim Ryun number, which is why the board still uses Jim Ryun. Three teams that improved passed a team that did not. They are at the Horse Park Saturday.
8. Creekside — 336 points
Cecil Field, average 16:57.8, spread 1:30.0, finishing 24-35-50-87-140. Eli Scharf 16:21.0, Samuel Cassiani 16:33.0, Bryce Cunningham 16:51.0, Chase Petrick 17:13.0, Spencer Halasz 17:51.0, with Zachary Thomas and Harrison Lafser 19 and 26 seconds behind Halasz.
Fifth to eighth without racing since opening weekend. Their sixth and seventh are close enough to their fifth that the fix is available in-house. They are entered at the Horse Park Saturday, and under the drift test below they are fifth.
9. St. Cloud — 382 points
Kowboy Invitational, converted average 17:02.8, spread 1:51.5, finishing 11-68-75-93-135. Luis Rivera 16:04.6 (15:55.1), then Brody Ansbaugh 17:14.8 (17:05.3), Koda Harkema 17:18.1 (17:08.6), Carson Devlin 17:28.1 (17:18.6), Marcos Quinones 17:56.1 (17:46.6).
They did race in week two, and improved — 17:08.3 at Jim Ryun became 17:02.8 at the Kowboy — and still fell from seventh to ninth, because the teams around them improved by more. Rivera beat Rockledge's Johnson by three tenths to win the Kowboy.
10. Wiregrass Ranch — 465 points — (P)
Read this one carefully, because it is the least trustworthy number on the page. Wiregrass has raced twice, at Ragin' Storm and at Whispering Pines, and put nineteen boys on the course at the second one. Not one of their five returning scorers has run. The squad that raced converts to an 18:42.8 average. The projection they are ranked on is 17:16.9.
Our rule is that a team which fields five without at least two of its returning top five is entered on the projection, because the raced squad is not the team. That rule is doing an enormous amount of work here: 86 seconds a runner. Ninth a week ago, tenth now, and until Bogdan Anghel and Avi Bhatia pin on a number this ranking is a statement about last November. They are at the Horse Park Saturday.
Just missed
11. Melbourne, 467 — two points out, on their Indian River Fairgrounds race. 12. East Ridge, 495. Axel Sallault is the No. 3 individual in Class 4A and East Ridge's 1-5 covers 3:32.3, the widest of any team inside the class top fifteen; their first two finish 4th and 30th and their fifth finishes 281st.
13. Bartram Trail, 501. Tenth a week ago; four runners inside 17:20 at Cecil Field and a fifth at 19:05. 14. Buchholz, 506 — Andrew Sides 15:49.0 is ninth in the class field and their fourth man is 167th.
Two names that are not on this page. Jaxon Kiper of Strawberry Crest is the No. 2 individual in Class 4A and Strawberry Crest is 54th as a team. Antonino Pipia of Plant is sixth and Plant is 24th. Neither team has the other four runners, and in a ninety-one-team class that is the whole difference between an individual ranking and a team one.
How much of this is the courses?
Swing every disputed course rating to the other end of its range and the top two hold, Niceville moves to third and Lake Minneola to fourth, and nothing else in the top ten changes.
Take the week-two courses 13.2 seconds less generously — the size of the measured week-one-to-week-two drift for boys — and the teams that raced in week two give back what they gained: George Steinbrenner returns to fourth and Creekside to fifth, Niceville drops to sixth, Hagerty to seventh and Newsome to eighth. The top three are first, second and third in every version.
That is the honest summary of this class: Nease, Flagler and Lake Minneola are settled, and places four through eight depend on whether you believe week two was fitness or a systematically generous set of ratings. Six of these ten teams are entered at the Florida Horse Park on Saturday, on a course we can rate as well as any in the state.
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 4A 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 4A 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 91.
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 4A boys cross country team in Florida in Week 2? expand_more
Nease, on 99 points, unchanged from week one. Their Cecil Field race produced a 16:09.8 five-man average, the best in Class 4A, on a 0:55.0 spread, and they are the No. 2 team in Florida across all classes.
Why is Wiregrass Ranch ranked on a projection when they have raced twice? expand_more
Because none of their five returning scorers has run. A school that fields five without at least two of its returning top-five scorers is entered on the projection, since the squad that raced is not the team. Wiregrass's raced squad converts to an 18:42.8 average and their projection is 17:16.9, so that rule is worth 86 seconds a runner here. It is the least trustworthy number in the class top ten.
Which Class 4A boys team improved the most in week two? expand_more
Niceville. At Cecil Field their two-through-five ran 16:56, 17:17, 17:21 and 17:26 behind Bryant Olson. At Pine Forest on August 29 they won with 25 points, a converted 16:45.9 average and a 1:02.7 spread, with six runners inside 17:30. It moved them from sixth to fourth.
Why is Strawberry Crest not in the Class 4A team rankings? expand_more
They are 54th in the class as a team. Jaxon Kiper is the No. 2 individual in Class 4A, but a team ranking scores five runners, and Strawberry Crest's five converted to a 19:26.9 average at Jim Ryun.