Alice Ilea won again, this time at Indian River, and she was the only ranked runner in Florida middle school who raced at all. The boys top 10 did not move a spot. FLYRA week 2 rankings, boys and girls.
FLYRA middle school cross country, week two: August 23-29, 2026
Only two of the twenty middle schoolers on our two lists raced last weekend. One of them was Alice Ilea. She drove down to Vero Beach and won the Indian River Fairgrounds Invitational in 10:56.8, the fastest clock she has run this season, and she is now the only ranked runner on either side with two starts and two wins.
Three more middle school meets have gone off since our opening week lists. Indian River put 204 kids on the line, Bay County opened its invite series in Panama City, and the Greater Florida Athletic Conference ran two miles. Between them they produced exactly one new name in either top ten, and zero changes to the boys list. That is not a knock on the weekend. It is what happens when everybody who is already ranked takes the weekend off.
How to read the numbers: every runner is listed with the time they actually ran this season, and the number in parentheses is our projection of what it is worth at the state meet in November. August in Florida runs hot and slow, and kids get faster all fall. The projections set the order, but the raced time is always the official number. Runners who have not opened yet are seeded on last November's state time and marked that way. We use data and judgment both, and we will miss one or two along the way.
Girls Top 10
1. Colette Heffernan, No Excuses RC, 7th grade - 10:44.2 (projects 10:02.1)
Still the run of the season. Her 8:51 at Cecil Field was the fastest time by any middle schooler at that meet, boys included, worth 10:44 over a full 3k, and it projects twenty-one seconds clear of every other girl in the state. She ran 10:46 at the FLYRA state meet last fall as a sixth grader for Landrum. Two more years of this.
2. Alice Ilea, Red Sea Running Club, 8th grade - 11:05.9 (projects 10:23.3)
The ranking still comes off Jim Ryun, where she held off Brianna Motycka by 1.3 seconds. Then she went to Indian River and won that one too, in 10:56.8. Vero is a fast course and hands time back, so the quicker clock does not move her on this list, but two starts and two wins is the best month anybody here has had. She won the public school race at state last October in 10:42 running for Tavares.
3. Brianna Motycka, Liberty Pines Academy, 8th grade - 11:07.2 (projects 10:24.6)
The defending state champion, and she has not raced since Jim Ryun. Her 10:24.8 to win the club race last October was the fastest girls time of the entire state meet, and her opener projects to exactly that level, a second and a half behind Ilea. One wrinkle worth repeating: she raced Jim Ryun in Liberty Pines colors, but she has run her whole career with No Excuses and won that title in their jersey. Which one she wears in November decides a lot about the team race.
4. Amelia Flood, No Excuses RC, 8th grade - 11:23.0 (projects 10:40.9)
First eighth grader across for No Excuses at Cecil Field, and the second half of the 1-2 punch that settled the team race before Labor Day.
5. Emily Del Mazo, WIND Runners, 7th grade - 11:27.3 (projects 10:44.7)
Third girl at Jim Ryun and the second seventh grader in the top five. She ran 11:06.6 at state last year for Gulf Coast Runners. On Saturday she raced, just not against middle schoolers: running for Community School of Naples as Emily Del Mazo-Collado, she won the Cape Coral Seahawk Invite varsity 5k outright in 20:08.7. A seventh grader beating a high school field does not change her spot here. It says the same thing her Jim Ryun run did.
6. Sophia Underwood, Saint Mary Catholic School, 7th grade - 11:01.2 at 2025 state, hasn't raced yet
Won the private school race at state as a sixth grader. Two weekends have gone by and she still has not opened. The seed gives her nothing for the summer, and sixth to seventh is usually the biggest jump a middle school girl makes.
7. Acadia Hassell, Montford Middle School, 8th grade - 11:04.9 at 2025 state, hasn't raced yet
Montford's front runner has now missed the Wolves Run and the weekend after it, and her team is still fifth on our team list. When she steps in, their ceiling moves.
8. Bailey Eggleston, Hillsborough Harriers, 8th grade - 11:53.8 (projects 11:11.2)
Fourth girl at Jim Ryun and the Harriers' clear No. 1. Eighty-five seconds separated her from her own No. 2 that day.
9. Arielle Gorlovetzky, Boca Warriors Track Club - 12:06.4 (projects 11:23.8)
A week ago she was the only Boca Warrior who had raced. She is not anymore, and her teammate is right behind her.
10. Camila Boucher, Boca Warriors Track Club, 8th grade - 11:37.6 (projects 11:25.1)
The only new name in either top ten this week. She was second at Indian River, and last November she ran 12:08.6 at the state meet for Palm Beach Elite, so she is thirty-one seconds faster on the clock in August than she was in the fall. Boca now has two ranked girls. Fair warning on where she sits: Vero is a fast course and we hand a mark from there very little August credit, which is the cautious reading. On a normal course reading she would be sixth. She and Madelen Finch are seven tenths apart at 10 and 11, so treat those two as interchangeable until somebody races again.
Next five: Madelen Finch (No Excuses RC, 7th) 12:07.9 (11:25.8); Mia Kopcikova (Imagine Town Center, 8th) 11:40.6 (11:28.1), third at Indian River and thirty-three seconds quicker than her opener; Kayla Santos (Red Sea RC, 8th) 12:11.4 (11:28.8); Zoie Hart (Emerald Coast MS, 8th) 11:29.5 at 2025 state, hasn't raced; Layne Schiebel (Httr Tornadoes, 7th) 12:15.7 (11:33.1).
Elsewhere in week two: Remi Arnold (Breakfast Point Academy) won Bay County in 13:18.4. Andie Allison (Pinecrest Lakes Academy) won the GFAC opener over two miles.
Boys Top 10
Nobody in this ten raced last weekend. Every one of them ran on August 21 or 22 and has not been seen since, or has not opened at all. The list stands until they do.
The one boy who mattered on Saturday is 12th. Warren Wilson won the Indian River race in 10:36.4, twenty seconds faster on the clock than he ran at Jim Ryun. Vero is quick enough that we give a mark from there almost no August credit, so his Jim Ryun run still rates as his best. If that course grades out closer to normal as the season goes on, he moves up in a hurry.
1. RJ Destremps, Hillsborough Harriers, 8th grade - 10:08.4 (projects 9:25.8)
Still the fastest middle school boy in Florida, and still by nine seconds over anybody else who has run. He won Jim Ryun ten months after running 10:01.6 at the FLYRA state meet, and nobody's returning time is within half a minute of where he is now.
2. Luke Lomoriello, Unattached, 8th grade - 10:17.3 (projects 9:34.7)
First of the three unattached boys who went 2-3-6 at Jim Ryun. He ran 10:16.9 at state last fall for Hobbs and opened at the same clock in August heat, which is what a forty second fitness jump looks like.
3. Drake Matyka, Unattached, 8th grade - 10:19.3 (projects 9:36.7)
Two seconds behind Lomoriello and dead even with Schulte. Those three ran each other to marks nobody else in the state has touched.
4. Tommy Schulte, Naples Elite, 8th grade - 10:19.3 (projects 9:36.7)
Same time as Matyka, so the tiebreak is arbitrary. Call them 3 and 4 in either order. He ran 10:31 at state a year ago for Gulfview, and Naples Elite sending him to Lakeland and getting this back says plenty about the southwest coast's next class.
5. Maxwell Claypool, WIND Runners - 10:36.5 (projects 9:53.9)
Seventeen seconds back of fourth. The front four are their own race, and Claypool is the whole second tier by himself.
6. Andrew LaHayne, Unattached, 8th grade - 10:42.8 (projects 10:00.2)
The last of the Jim Ryun unattached trio, projecting two tenths the wrong side of ten minutes.
7. Liam Jopling, Ruckel Middle School, 8th grade - 10:01.3 at 2025 state, hasn't raced yet
The fastest returning state time in Florida, three tenths quicker than Destremps ran the same day. Two weekends have now gone by without Ruckel opening. His seed gives him nothing for ten months of growth, so read it as a floor and expect it to look conservative when he finally runs.
8. Elliot Macki, Calvary Christian Academy (Fort Lauderdale), 8th grade - 10:49.2 (projects 10:06.6)
Four tenths ahead of his own teammate at Jim Ryun. Calvary Christian is still the only school program with two boys in this ten.
9. Elliot Lasota, No Excuses RC, 7th grade - 10:49.1 (projects 10:07.0)
Won the Cecil Field boys race in 8:55 as a seventh grader, and leads the No. 1 team in the state. The only middle schooler at that meet faster than him was Colette Heffernan.
10. Daniel Hage, Calvary Christian Academy (Fort Lauderdale), 7th grade - 10:49.6 (projects 10:07.0)
Projects dead even with Lasota to the tenth, and he is also a seventh grader. He and Macki ran stride for stride to the line at Jim Ryun.
Next five: Parker Whittamore (WIND Runners) 10:54.4 (10:11.8); Warren Wilson (Sifted Sports, 8th) 10:56.5 (10:13.9), winner at Indian River in 10:36.4; Joao Cardoso (Soldier City Striders, 8th) 10:14.1 at 2025 state, hasn't raced; Aiden M. Cruz (Belen Jesuit, 7th) 10:19.3 at 2025 state, hasn't raced; Marco Garcia (Miami Elite) 11:03.6 (10:21.5).
Elsewhere in week two: Aidan Moylan (Imagine Town Center) was second at Indian River in 10:38.7 and Christopher Perrin (St. Edwards, Vero Beach) third in 10:47.8. Aiden Lambright (Bay Haven Charter Academy) won Bay County in 11:25.6. Grayson Blake (Cornerstone Charter Academy) won the GFAC opener over two miles.
Where the team lists stand
The week one team lists mostly held. The boys top ten is unchanged, in the same order: No Excuses RC, Hillsborough Harriers, Red Sea Running Club, WIND Runners, Deerlake, Ransom Everglades, Montford, Ruckel, Belen Jesuit and Calvary Christian.
The girls top eight is unchanged too. Behind them, Cornerstone Classical Academy moves up to ninth and Ransom Everglades comes in tenth. Tavares drops out, and the reason is not a bad race. Their whole squad is still on last November's times, and 204 more middle schoolers ran actual races on Saturday, which pushes a team of seeds down the field. That is the honest cost of ranking a squad nobody has seen since October. Full team lists come back when the teams come back.
How these lists were built
- Seven meets count so far: the Cecil Field Summer Classic (Jacksonville), the Jim Ryun Invitational (Lakeland), the Spikes & Spurs Classic, the Wolves Run (Tallahassee), and now Indian River Fairgrounds (Vero Beach), Bay County (Panama City) and the GFAC opener.
- The raced time is always the official number. The projection in parentheses converts it to what it is worth at the FLYRA state meet in November, using the kids who have run both an August race and the 2025 state meet. The typical opener came through about forty seconds slow. The projections are only used to order the lists. Cecil Field's races were 2.5k and the GFAC ran two miles, so those times are shown as their 3k equivalent.
- Indian River is the one course this season that runs fast. The kids who raced there and also ran the state meet came back close to their November times, and the boys came back quicker. So a Vero mark earns very little August credit here. That is the cautious call, and it is the reason Camila Boucher is tenth instead of sixth and no Indian River boy is in the ten. On a normal course reading, three of those boys would be.
- Jim Ryun is run at Holloway Park, the same course as the state meet, so for those kids the correction is not course math, it is a bet on August-to-November improvement. We checked that bet against last year. Among kids who ran both the 2025 Jim Ryun and the 2025 state meet, the front of the boys field came back about forty-three seconds faster in November on the very same course, almost exactly the correction used here. Front-pack girls improved even more, so if anything the girls' August times are underrated. Further back in the field the November gains get much bigger, which is one more reason to treat every projection on this page as a floor.
- State-meet returners who have not raced yet are entered at last November's time with no credit for the summer. Those seeds are floors, not ceilings.
- Every 2025 eighth grader is gone. The Class of 2030 races high school now, and you will find them on our week 2 boys top 10 and week 2 girls top 10.
- Kids who appear under both a club and a school jersey are merged, with the most recent affiliation listed.
- One correction from week one: Elliot Macki and Daniel Hage run for Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, not the Clearwater school of the same name. Our opening week post had it wrong and has been fixed.
Half the state still has not opened. Ruckel, Sophia Underwood, Acadia Hassell, Belen and Ransom Everglades are all sitting on last November, and every seed above is built to be beaten. Catch up on the rest of the season in our week 2 statewide recap, and see every result in the Florida XC results database.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the No. 1 middle school cross country runner in Florida? expand_more
Colette Heffernan of No Excuses RC on the girls side. She ran 8:51 for 2.5k at the Cecil Field Summer Classic, faster than any of the 155 boys at the meet, worth 10:44.2 over a full 3k and projecting 10:02.1 at the FLYRA state meet in November. She is a seventh grader. On the boys side it is RJ Destremps of the Hillsborough Harriers, who won the Jim Ryun Invitational in 10:08.4.
What changed between the week 1 and week 2 FLYRA middle school rankings? expand_more
Very little, because almost nobody ranked raced. The boys top 10 is unchanged. On the girls side, Camila Boucher of the Boca Warriors entered at No. 10 after running 11:37.6 for second at the Indian River Fairgrounds Invitational, which pushed Madelen Finch to 11th. Alice Ilea was the only ranked runner on either list to race, and she won.
How are these Florida middle school rankings calculated? expand_more
Every 2026 middle school 3k is converted to a November projection using the athletes who have run both an August race and the 2025 FLYRA state meet. The typical August opener came through about forty seconds slower than the same runner's November state time. The projection sets the order, but the time listed first is always what the athlete actually ran. Returners who have not opened are seeded on their 2025 state time with no credit for the summer, and every 2025 eighth grader is removed because the Class of 2030 races high school now.
Why is Camila Boucher ranked 10th when her time was faster than that? expand_more
She ran at the Indian River Fairgrounds in Vero Beach, which is the one middle school course this season that runs fast. The athletes who raced there and also ran the 2025 state meet came back close to their November times, and the boys came back quicker, so a mark from Vero earns very little August credit on this list. That is the cautious reading. On a normal course reading she would rank sixth.
When is the FLYRA middle school state championship? expand_more
The FLYRA Middle School State Cross Country Championship is run at Holloway Park in Lakeland, the same course as the Jim Ryun Invitational, at the end of October. It is contested in Club, Public, Charter, Private and Open divisions over 3k.