Week 2 Boys Top 10: Florida Cross Country Rankings

Florida boys cross country, through two weeks: August 21-29, 2026

Eighteen more meets went into the books in week two, and the front of this list did not move an inch. The five best boys in Florida are still four who raced on opening weekend and one who has not pinned on a number at all.

Underneath them, plenty moved. Axel Sallault won a real race and did something quietly remarkable in the process. Jaxon Kiper spent his Saturday doing something even more interesting than racing. And a junior from Tavares nobody had on a preseason list took 43 seconds off his opener in eight days.

Same method as week one: every time is weighed against where it was run, using the runners who raced both that course and last November's state meet, with Cecil Field as the yardstick. A few of the new courses gave us too little to trust, and we say so where it matters. One honest warning up front: boys all over the state ran faster in week two than week one, by about thirteen seconds on average. Some of that is real late-August fitness. Some of it may be us being a touch generous about courses we have only seen once. We will know more in a month. The full meet-by-meet rundown of the week is here, and the girls' list is here.

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1. Marcelo Mantecon, Belen Jesuit, Sr., 3A

Nine days into the season and still nothing, and the rule has not changed: a defending state champion holds the top spot until somebody beats him in a race.

The resume has not changed either. Mantecon won his second straight 3A title in 15:03.3, the fastest returning time in Florida, was fourth at Nike Cross Nationals, runner-up at the Brooks national championship, and won eight of eleven races as a junior. He is likely the top returner in the country, not just the state.

The waiting may be nearly over. Belen Jesuit is entered at the Florida Horse Park Invitational next Saturday, and he won that meet last September. That is the first real chance anyone gets.

2. Armando Cruz, Belen Jesuit, Sr., 3A

Also idle in week two, and still the owner of the fastest time any Florida boy has actually run this season: 15:06.0, winning the elite race at Cecil Field out of 354 starters, six seconds quicker than he ran at state. Nothing in eighteen new meets came anywhere near it. The next-fastest run by any boy in Florida this fall is ten seconds back, and it belongs to the kid ranked right below him.

3. Quentin Thompson, Lake Minneola, Sr., 4A

Still ranked on one race, which is all he has run, and what a race it was. Thompson went 15:16.0 for second at Cecil Field, a minute and thirteen seconds better than the 16:29.6 that put him 32nd in 4A last November and 47th on our returner list. Nobody in Florida made a bigger one-summer jump.

Lake Minneola is entered at the Horse Park, so the second data point is coming.

4. Jaxon Kiper, Strawberry Crest, Sr., 4A

He raced on Saturday, he crossed the line in 18:06.2, and he stays exactly where he was. Here is why.

Kiper took fifth at the Central Hillsborough Championships stride for stride with teammate Elijah Swanson, who ran 20:43.9 at the Jim Ryun Invitational eight days earlier. Kiper paced him to an 18:06. Another teammate, Parke Schiebel, cut nearly a minute in the same window. That is not a bad day. That is a senior spending a Saturday making his team better, and it worked.

The number that ranks him is still the one from opening weekend: a 23-second win at Jim Ryun in 15:54.3, on a course that runs slow enough to make that worth about 15:16 on honest ground. The asterisk from week one still applies. He has no 2025 state result on record, he has not yet raced anybody ranked near him, and Strawberry Crest is not entered at the Horse Park. But a boy who wins by 23 seconds and then hands out PRs as a pacer is not a fluke waiting to be exposed.

5. Isaiah Howdeshell, Largo, Sr., 3A

Third at Cecil Field in 15:20.0, 41 seconds up on his state run, and he has not raced since. The reclassification is still the story underneath the time: Largo drops from 4A to 3A this year, which puts Howdeshell in a postseason bracket with both Belen Jesuit seniors. He picked a hard year to be the third-best runner in his own class.

6. Axel Sallault, East Ridge, Sr., 4A

The most quietly persuasive week two anybody had. Sallault ran 15:47.0 at Cecil Field on August 21. Eight days later he won the Whispering Pines Invitational out of 174 varsity runners in 15:47.0. The same time, to the tenth, on two different courses, and the second one was the fastest run by any Florida boy in week two.

Whispering Pines is not a fast place to run, so the win is worth better than the clock says. Add the 15:27.5 he ran at state, the second-fastest returning time in Florida behind only Mantecon, and he moves past Douglas Seth. A win in a real field, a repeat performance, and a resume: that is a case.

7. Douglas Seth, Flagler Palm Coast, So., 4A

Unchanged and unraced since opening weekend, when he won Spikes & Spurs out of 202 runners in 15:59.5 as a sophomore, a tick faster than his own state time. The caution from week one still stands: Spikes & Spurs is a course we cannot price with real confidence, so his spot rests partly on trust. Flagler Palm Coast is entered at the Horse Park, where he has run before, and that race will tell us plenty.

8. Will Moss, Montverde Academy, Sr., 2A

Two weeks, no race, and the 2A champion at 15:35.3 is now the longest-standing question on this list. The answer is finally scheduled: Montverde Academy is entered at the Horse Park, a course Moss ran 15:49.7 on last September. He is ranked on last November because last November is all there is, and that ends Saturday.

9. Rishi Chopra, Nease, Sr., 4A

Fourth at Cecil Field in 15:39.0, 37 seconds better than his state run, with teammate Matthew Ishee at 15:54.0 the same night. Chopra did not race in week two and did not need to. His is the only number in the bottom half of this ten that needs no course math at all. Everybody within a few seconds of him got there on our arithmetic. He got there on a clock.

10. Luke Ross, Ponte Vedra, Sr., 3A

Second at Spikes & Spurs in 16:04.9, within half a second of his own state time, and idle since. Same caveat as his race-mate Seth: the course math there is the shakiest we carry, and Ross's spot depends on it more than anyone else's. Ponte Vedra is entered at the Horse Park, which is exactly the kind of honest course that settles this sort of argument.

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Just missed

Antonino Pipia (Plant, Jr., 4A) is the first name out and the biggest mover nobody is talking about. He was 77th in 4A at state in 17:09.8. He was second at Jim Ryun in 16:17.5, worth about 15:39 on honest ground. That is our 134th-ranked returner knocking on the door of the state's top ten.

Liam Ilea (Tavares, Jr., 3A) has the sharpest improvement curve in Florida. No 2025 state mark, a 16:43.9 at Jim Ryun, then 16:00.6 at Whispering Pines eight days later for second behind Sallault. Forty-three seconds in a week. Skylar Manatt (Cypress Creek, Sr., 3A) rode the same two courses from 17:11.8 to 16:06.7.

Jonas Williams (Newsome, Sr., 4A) won the Lake Region course out of 175 runners in 16:16.5, a big step up from 43rd in 4A last fall. Gabriel Harris (Lake Wales, Sr., 3A) was third at Jim Ryun in 16:21.1. Luis Rivera (St. Cloud, Sr., 4A) won the Kowboy Invitational in 16:04.6, outkicking Rockledge's Brody Johnson by three tenths. Bryant Olson (Niceville, So., 4A) followed his 15:44.0 at Cecil with a win at Pine Forest, a normal week, not a step forward.

Jonathan Kiros (Chiles, Sr., 3A) and Jack Michalak (Belen Jesuit, Jr., 3A) both ran 15:47.0 at Cecil and neither has raced since; they have been passed by boys who ran twice. Andrew Sides (Buchholz, Jr., 4A) ran 15:49.0 the same night. Levi Mollica (Oviedo, Sr., 4A), our seventh-ranked returner, looked lost at Cecil in 17:02.0 and then won the Trinity Prep Invite in 16:42.5, which on that course is right back to his November self. Dylan Macias-Buenrostro (Mariner, Sr., 3A) finally opened with a win at the Cape Coral Seahawk Invite in 16:34.7, a bit off his state form, and stays out until the number moves. Sean Cunningham (Providence, Sr., 1A) has not raced since opening weekend.

James Nolan (Strawberry Crest, Sr., 4A) has to be named and cannot be ranked. While Kiper paced, Nolan won Central Hillsborough by a minute and sixteen seconds in 16:33.7, in his first race of the year, on a course we have no honest way to measure. If that course is a true 5K, he is a top-fifteen boy in Florida. We simply cannot check yet.

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Who finally races Saturday

The Florida Horse Park Invitational on September 5 reads like a repair kit for this list. Belen Jesuit is entered, which means Mantecon, Cruz and Michalak. So are Montverde Academy, Lake Minneola, Flagler Palm Coast, Ponte Vedra, Chiles, Newsome, Tavares and Cypress Creek.

That is Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 10 on the same start line, plus half the just-missed list, on a fair course. If Mantecon runs, the top of this list gets settled in about fifteen minutes.

What it will not settle: Kiper, Howdeshell, Sallault and Chopra, ranked fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth, are not entered. The two halves of this ranking are still not scheduled to meet.

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Method notes

• Times are compared across venues using athletes who ran both the 2025 state meet and the course in question. Cecil Field is the reference; it graded essentially even for the boys.
• Seven of the season's 29 courses cannot be honestly priced for the boys, including Central Hillsborough, where almost nobody in the field had a state result to compare against. Times run there are reported as run and rank nobody.
• Spikes & Spurs remains the least reliable course we carry, and it matters for Seth and Ross more than anyone else. The Horse Park should replace it as their evidence this weekend.
• Boys who raced on measured courses in both weeks came back about thirteen seconds faster on average. If that is course generosity rather than fitness, the week-two marks on this page are worth a bit less than shown.
• Out-of-state entries are excluded. Grades and classifications are 2026-27.

The girls' week 2 top ten is up now, and it comes with the biggest correction we have made all season. The full week-two recap, all nineteen meets with results, is here, and our Horse Park preview breaks down Saturday's field team by team. Where this all started: the week 1 boys list.

The week 2 class lists are up: 1A · 2A · 3A · 4A.