Madison Muller ran the fastest 5K by a Florida girl this fall and is ranked third. Annabella Tomasic still hasn't raced and holds No. 1. And two girls running the same two courses eight days apart settled the Lecanto argument, the biggest correction we have made all season.
Florida girls cross country, through two weeks: August 21-29, 2026
The defending 4A champion opened her season by running faster than any girl in Florida this fall, faster even than the time she won state with. She is ranked third on this page. The girl ranked first has not raced at all. Both of those things are defensible, and this is the week the reasons got interesting.
This is also the week we took something back. Last week we could not decide how much credit times run at Lecanto deserved, and in one place we gave them too much. On Saturday, Lydia Vincent and Mary Summers, first and second at Lecanto on opening weekend, both ran the Whispering Pines Invitational against a field we can actually measure. If Lecanto were as slow as the generous reading said, both girls would have to have fallen apart in eight days. They did not. Their races line up almost perfectly if Lecanto is treated as an essentially honest course, so that is what it is now, and the flattering numbers are gone. It is the largest single change on this page, and it was not caused by anybody running fast or slow. We told you we would miss one or two along the way. This was one.
Same method as week one otherwise: every time is weighed against where it was run, using the girls who raced both that course and last November's state meet, with Cecil Field as the yardstick. The full meet-by-meet rundown of the week is here, and the boys' list is here.
1. Annabella Tomasic, Bishop Moore, So., 3A
Still has not raced, still holds it. The rule is the rule: a defending state champion keeps the top spot until somebody beats her in a race, and Tomasic won the 3A title as a freshman in 17:35.5, the fastest returning time by any girl in Florida. Exactly one run this fall has been quicker, and it came on a course that hands a good deal of that time back.
Bishop Moore is entered at the Florida Horse Park next Saturday. After two weeks of ranking her on a nine-month-old race, that is the sentence that matters. She won that meet last September, as a freshman, in 17:33.3.
2. Arabella Duffell, Lake Nona, Jr., 4A
One of two girls in Florida under 18:00 this fall, and the only one who did it on a course that gives nothing away. 17:53.0 at Cecil Field, out of 343, won from behind after letting Avery Hartley go early, 43 seconds better than the run that put her ninth in 4A last November.
Lake Nona raced the Kowboy Invitational in week two; Duffell did not. One race, and it is still the best one anybody has run.
3. Madison Muller, Riverview (Sarasota), Jr., 4A
The 4A state champion opened at the North Port Preserve Pursuit and won by 1:42.6, running 17:33.1. That is 4.6 seconds faster than the time that won her the title, and the fastest 5K by any Florida girl this season.
Then the course walks it back. North Port runs fast, more than half a minute fast by the runners we can measure, on one of the cleanest readings of the season. On honest ground her opener is worth about 18:07, which would sit sixth on this page, not first.
Third is a judgement, and here is the case. She is the defending champion in the biggest class. She owns the second-fastest returning time in the state. She has raced, which the girl above her has not. And the girls whose numbers sit between her and Duffell are all within a few seconds of her, close enough that no course reading can honestly separate them. Take her opener at face value and she is first by twenty seconds. Take the course at its measured speed and she is sixth. We split the difference, and now you know why.
4. Natalia Gaona-Zelaya, Wiregrass Ranch, Sr., 4A
The only girl in Florida who has beaten a meaningful stack of ranked runners, and she did it again Saturday. Gaona-Zelaya won the Whispering Pines Invitational out of 154 in 18:08.8, ahead of Lyla Hallick by 17 seconds, Lydia Vincent by 25 and Mary Summers by 30. Three of the girls right behind her on this page, all in the same race, all beaten clearly.
She also won the Ragin' Storm XC Challenge on opening weekend, level with the form that made her third in 4A at state. Two wins, two courses, no bad race, and she is entered at the Horse Park. Nobody on this list is racing better.
5. Katherine Eudaly, Plant, Jr., 4A
The best-supported number on the page. Eudaly won the Jim Ryun Invitational out of 232 in 19:00.9 on the slowest well-measured course in Florida, then won the West Hillsborough Invite by 1:35.3 in 18:40.3. Two different slow courses, and they agree on what she is: an 18:05-or-so runner in August.
She was 13th in 4A at state and 22nd on our returner list. She is nothing like that runner now, and unlike almost everyone else here, we are not taking a single race on trust.
6. Avery Hartley, Bartram Trail, So., 4A
Runner-up at state in 18:00.3, runner-up at Cecil Field in 18:13.0, and idle since. Thirteen seconds off her state time in that heat, in the deepest field in Florida, is a perfectly good August. She has the best resume of anyone here who is not a state champion. She is also going to have to race again to hold this spot, because the four girls behind her keep racing.
7. Lyla Hallick, Vanguard, So., 3A
The head-to-head runner of week two. Hallick was fourth at Cecil in 18:37.0, then second at Whispering Pines in 18:25.4, where she beat Vincent by nine seconds and Summers by fourteen. That is the second straight race in which she finished in front of the girls she is ranked in front of, which is the whole point of racing.
She was 20th in 4A last November, in her first year at a new school, and 35th on our returner list. This is a very large move on two races, and both races earned it. Vanguard is entered at the Horse Park, a course she has run before.
8. Katelin Wilcox, East Lake, Sr., 3A
Third at Cecil in 18:35.0, 39 seconds faster than her state run, and she has not raced since. She stays ahead of Hallick on one fact: she beat her, head to head, by two seconds at Cecil. But Hallick has raced twice since and Wilcox has not, and one more idle week ends this argument.
9. Lydia Vincent, Zephyrhills, Sr., 3A
The girl the Lecanto correction cost the most, and the girl who settled it. Her 18:40.7 at Lecanto and her 18:34.1 for third at Whispering Pines describe exactly the same runner, and that agreement is the evidence that closed the argument. A week ago the generous reading had her opener among the best runs in the state. The honest one has her here, which is where the 18:38.4 she ran at state always said she belonged.
10. Mary Summers, Seven Rivers Christian, So., 1A
Still the best small-school runner in Florida, no longer ranked like the fourth-best runner in it. Summers won at Lecanto in 18:32.9, then got a real field for the first time and ran 18:39.3 for fourth at Whispering Pines, behind Gaona-Zelaya, Hallick and Vincent.
Read that plainly: 18:32 and 18:39 eight days apart is a perfectly normal August for a sophomore. Nothing about her got worse. What changed is that the course rating her lofty week-one number leaned on turned out to be wrong, and she is the clearest case on this page of a ranking moving without the runner doing anything.
Just missed
Lainee Mercer (Springstead, Jr., 3A) is the closest call again, and the answer has not changed. Her 18:15.3 at state is the fifth-fastest returning mark in Florida, but she lost to Gaona-Zelaya by 31 seconds on the same course in the same air on opening weekend, and she did not race in week two. Every girl she is chasing did. She is entered at the Horse Park, where she finished second last September, and a big Saturday changes this conversation immediately.
Selah Vignier (West Shore, Jr., 2A) is the hardest drop on the page. The 2A state champion has now raced twice, 18:55.0 at Cecil and a Kowboy win in 19:06.1, and both are forty-plus seconds off her November self. A champion who has had two chances to defend her number gets ranked on what she ran, not what she owns. She will be back the first time she looks like herself.
Emma-Claire Tanenbaum (Chiles, So., 3A) ran 18:48.0 at Cecil. Elise Brown (St. Thomas Aquinas, So., 4A) ran 18:50.0 there, still the largest improvement by any girl in the state. Eva Delaney (Creekside, So., 4A) went 18:57.0 and is entered at the Horse Park. Kaia Ables (Chiles, Sr., 3A) ran 18:59.0. Emma Poekert (Cypress Creek, Jr., 3A) is quietly one of the most consistent girls in Florida: her Jim Ryun and Whispering Pines runs, on two different slow courses, price out within one second of each other.
Emma Wilkinson (Lakeland Christian, Jr., 1A) won the Lake Region course out of 130 in 18:57.7, her second win in two weeks, and is the closest 1A runner to Summers. Alba Antunez-Perez (Spanish River, Sr., 4A), Taylor Lawhon (Bishop Kenny, Sr., 3A), Ashton Dahlem (Gulf Breeze, Sr., 3A) and Kate Brice (Episcopal, Jr., 2A) still have not opened. Brice's team is entered at the Horse Park, so hers may be the shortest wait.
Who finally races Saturday
The Florida Horse Park Invitational on September 5 settles the top of this list or it settles nothing. Bishop Moore is entered, so Tomasic can end the argument in one race, on a course where she has already run 17:33. Wiregrass Ranch brings Gaona-Zelaya, Vanguard brings Hallick, Springstead brings Mercer, Chiles brings Tanenbaum and Ables, Creekside brings Delaney, Cypress Creek brings Poekert, Episcopal brings Brice and Ponte Vedra brings Piper Ross.
Not entered: Duffell, Muller, Eudaly, Hartley, Wilcox, Vincent and Summers. Seven of the ten. Tomasic will get a measurement on Saturday. She will not get a race against the people she is ranked ahead of.
Method notes
- Times are compared across venues using girls who ran both the 2025 state meet and the course in question, with Cecil Field as the reference. The whole state ran slower in the August heat than in November; that tax is removed before any course is judged.
- Lecanto is now treated as an essentially honest course. The evidence is Vincent and Summers running both Lecanto and Whispering Pines and matching themselves almost exactly. The week-one team rankings page still carries the old, generous reading in one aside, and we are correcting it rather than pretending it was never there.
- North Port runs fast, and the reading is one of the cleanest of the season, corroborated on the boys' side. It is the single number Muller's placement turns on.
- Six of the season's 29 courses cannot be honestly priced for the girls, including Central Hillsborough and Wildwood. Times run there are reported as run and rank nobody.
- Girls who raced measured courses in both weeks came back about seven seconds faster on average, half the boys' move and small enough that no placement above turns on it.
- Out-of-state entries are excluded. Grades and classifications are 2026-27.
The boys' week 2 top ten is up now, where the top five did not move and the story is who spent Saturday pacing. The full week-two recap, all nineteen meets with results, is here, and our Horse Park preview breaks down Saturday's field. Where this all started: the week 1 girls list.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are these Florida girls cross country rankings calculated? expand_more
Every 2026 time is weighed against where it was run, using girls who raced both that course and the 2025 FHSAA state meet, with Cecil Field in Jacksonville as the reference. The statewide slowdown from August heat is removed before any course is judged, so a course only gets credit for being genuinely slow, not for being run in summer.
Who is the No. 1 girls cross country runner in Florida right now? expand_more
Annabella Tomasic of Bishop Moore, the defending 3A state champion, whose 17:35.5 title as a freshman is the fastest returning time by any girl in Florida. She has not raced yet in 2026 and holds the spot until somebody beats her. Bishop Moore is entered at the Florida Horse Park Invitational on September 5, a course where Tomasic won last September in 17:33.3.
Why is Madison Muller ranked third after running the fastest time in the state? expand_more
Her 17:33.1 season opener at North Port is the fastest 5K by any Florida girl this fall, but the course runs more than half a minute fast by the runners we can measure. On honest ground the run is worth about 18:07. She is ranked third as the defending 4A champion with the second-fastest returning time in the state, splitting the difference between the raw clock and the course reading.
What is the Lecanto correction? expand_more
Lydia Vincent and Mary Summers, first and second at Lecanto on opening weekend, both ran the Whispering Pines Invitational eight days later. Their races only line up if Lecanto is an essentially honest course rather than a slow one, so the generous credit their Lecanto times had been given in places was withdrawn. It is the largest single change on the week 2 list and it was not caused by anybody running fast or slow.
Which top-ranked girls race at the Florida Horse Park Invitational? expand_more
Annabella Tomasic and Natalia Gaona-Zelaya are the only two of the top ten entered for September 5. Arabella Duffell, Madison Muller, Katherine Eudaly, Avery Hartley, Katelin Wilcox, Lydia Vincent and Mary Summers are not.