Middle Schoolers Racing Varsity: Florida's Top 5 in Every Grade, Boys and Girls

Florida high school cross country, weeks 1-2: August 16-29, 2026

On the last Saturday of August, the runner-up in one of the deepest girls races of the weekend was an eighth grader. Charlotte Roy of All Saints' (Winter Haven) 1A crossed second at the Kowboy XC Invitational, 8.3 seconds behind Selah Vignier, the defending 2A state champion, and clear of the other 124 runners in the field.

She has company. A seventh grader won a varsity race outright in Cape Coral. A sixth grader from Lakeland Christian beat two thirds of a 175-runner varsity field at Lake Region. Florida lets a school that includes middle grades run those kids on varsity, and this fall the middle schoolers are not just filling out lineups. Some of them are winning.

So we ranked them. Top five in every grade, sixth through eighth, boys and girls, on what they have done in high school races only. Their middle school starts do not count here; FLYRA racing has its own rankings. Head-to-head comes first: nobody on these lists sits behind a runner they lost to on the course. Times leveled for how each course ran settle everyone who has not met. The raced time is always the official number, and the number in parentheses is what the run is worth on a neutral course. We use data and judgment both, and with kids this young we will miss one or two along the way.

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Eighth Grade Girls

1. Charlotte Roy, All Saints' (Winter Haven) 1A - 19:14.4

Second at the Kowboy in a 126-runner field, 8.3 seconds behind the defending 2A state champion and ahead of everybody else. It is the fastest clock any Florida middle school girl has run this season, on a course that gives almost nothing away. She is already ranked fourth on our 1A girls list.

2. Esther Dobbin, Cocoa Beach 2A - 20:28.2 (worth about 19:24)

Won the Cocoa Beach Tuesday Night Invite by two and a half minutes, alone from the gun. The course ran slow, and leveled her run comes out a whisker ahead of Roy's. But Dobbin ran hers against the clock while Roy raced the best 2A girl in the state stride for stride, and when it is that close, the race wins. Cocoa Beach is a junior-senior high, so she is varsity-eligible, and she already sits fifth on our 2A girls list.

3. Makya Rivenburg, Wildwood 1A - 19:22.8

Won Wildwood's opener by fifty seconds. This level is not new to her: she ran the 1A state meet last November as a seventh grader, finished 44th in 20:50.8, and is now nearly a minute and a half faster than that. Wildwood's home course is one we cannot honestly price yet, the few readings we have point in opposite directions, so she takes the cautious slot. On the raw clock she would top this list.

4. Taylor Geraghty, Holy Trinity (Melbourne) 1A - 20:38.0

Ran 20:38.0 at Cecil Field and 20:38.5 for fifth in the varsity race at the Indian River Fairgrounds eight days later. Two starts, half a second apart. Holy Trinity can pencil her in.

5. Kylie Cook, All Saints' (Winter Haven) 1A - 20:30.3

Roy's teammate, 13th in the same Kowboy field. All Saints' has an eighth-grade pair most 1A varsities would trade for.

Just missed: Brooklyn Haddox, Pensacola Christian 1A, eighth in the varsity race at the Eagle Invitational in 21:12.4.

Eighth Grade Boys

1. Zamari Blumenberg, Holy Trinity (Melbourne) 1A - 17:31.0

The fastest middle schooler in Florida, and it is not close. He opened with 17:31.0 in the Elite race at Cecil Field, then took ninth in the varsity race at the Indian River Fairgrounds in 17:35.7, worth about 17:05 leveled. That has him knocking on the door of our 1A boys top ten, against seniors. Holy Trinity's future keeps arriving early.

2. Alejandro Sancerni, Somerset Academy (Pembroke Pines) 3A - 18:48.7 (worth about 18:02)

Fourth of 67 at the Superfly Invitational on a hot, slow Miami evening. Only three high schoolers beat him, and he is the only runner on any of these six lists from a school classified above 2A.

3. Jacob Ryle, South Florida HEAT (Sunrise) 1A - 18:51.8 (worth about 18:21)

Thirty-first in the varsity race at the Indian River Fairgrounds. Blumenberg was up the road in the same race, which is the one head-to-head this list has, and it agrees with the clocks.

4. Brayden Erwin, Merritt Island Christian 1A - 18:52.0 (worth about 18:21)

Won the JV race at the Indian River Fairgrounds by nineteen seconds. Same course, same day as Ryle's varsity run, and their leveled marks landed two tenths apart. Send him out with the varsity next time.

5. Liam Piper, Southwest Florida Christian (Fort Myers) 1A - 17:50.0 (worth about 18:33)

Twentieth of 259 at North Port, a course that hands time back, after going 14th at Lemon Bay on opening weekend. Two varsity starts, top twenty both times.

Just missed: Sawyer Dempsey, Geneva Classical Academy, 19:18.5 in the varsity race at Lake Region, and Danny Deptula, Bolles (Jacksonville) 2A, 18:58.0 at Cecil Field.

Seventh Grade Girls

1. Emily Del Mazo-Collado, Community School (Naples) 1A - 20:08.7 (worth about 19:30)

Won the Cape Coral Seahawk Invite outright, sixteen seconds clear of a varsity field of 130. She was third at the FLYRA state meet last fall, she is already fifth on our 1A girls list, and so far she has beaten every high schooler she has lined up against.

2. Kaitlyn Conboy, Circle Christian (Winter Park) 1A - 20:07.0

Ran 20:07.0 in the Girls Elite race at Cecil Field, the fastest raw clock by any seventh-grade girl this season. Del Mazo-Collado's win came on a slower course, and that is the only reason Conboy sits second.

3. Natalie Kay, Oak Hall (Gainesville) 1A - 20:16.3

Thirteenth in the varsity race at Whispering Pines, the field where Gaona-Zelaya, Hallick and Vincent were racing up front. Oak Hall runs more middle schoolers than almost anybody, and Kay is the quickest of them.

4. London Ross, Ransom Everglades (Miami) 2A - 23:21.2 (worth about 20:31)

Second at the Palmer Trinity Invitational, where Ransom went 1-2-3 and won with 25 points. That course ran brutally slow in the Miami heat, and her clock is worth nearly three minutes better on level ground. Ransom's varsity is ranked fourth on our 2A girls team list, and a seventh grader is part of why.

5. Lia Chaustre, True North (Miami) 1A - 24:10.6 (worth about 21:20)

Sixth in the same Palmer Trinity race. Ross beat her head to head, so the order settles itself.

Just missed: Madeline Kay, Oak Hall (Gainesville) 1A, 21:31.4 at Whispering Pines. Two seventh-grade Kays in one varsity lineup.

Seventh Grade Boys

1. Sutton Bolitho, Aletheia Christian Academy - 18:43.0 (worth about 18:32)

Forty-first in the varsity race at the Eagle Invitational in Pensacola, a field Niceville brought its state contenders to. Aletheia is a small Pensacola school that is not in the FHSAA cross country classifications, so you will not find him on a class list. You will find him here.

2. Caleb Main, Seffner Christian 1A - 19:42.3 (worth about 19:04)

Eighty-first in the varsity race at Jim Ryun on opening weekend. That course ran slow, our reading of it is the careful one, and his run may be worth a touch more than the number in parentheses.

3. Luke Haddox, Pensacola Christian 1A - 19:15.0 (worth about 19:04)

Forty-eighth at the Eagle Invitational, in the same race as Bolitho. He and Main are level to the tenth once the courses are paid for, and Main's opener holds the edge only because Jim Ryun's conversion is the cautious one. Pensacola Christian has a Haddox on this page and another in the eighth grade girls' just-missed line.

4. Joseph Flynn, Ridgeview Global Studies - 19:57.0 (worth about 19:24)

Fifty-sixth in the varsity race at Lake Region. Ridgeview Global Studies is off the FHSAA cross country map, so this list is where he shows up.

5. Reed Corbett, Lakeland Christian 1A - 19:31.2

Thirty-seventh in the varsity race at Ragin' Storm, a course that plays it straight. Lakeland Christian has Corbett in seventh grade and Taylor Bentley in sixth. Keep reading.

Just missed: Niam Merchea, Bolles (Jacksonville) 2A, 19:44.0 at Cecil Field.

Sixth Grade Girls

1. Caylin Denis, Imagine School (North Port) 1A - 21:07.2 (worth about 21:41)

Fifteenth at Lemon Bay on opening weekend, then fifteenth again at North Port a week later, cutting her clock from 22:51.2 to 21:07.2. The Preserve course helps, so call it about a minute of real improvement in seven days. She has raced the Southwest Florida Christian girls twice and beaten them every time.

2. Lois Johnson, Calvary Christian Academy (Fort Lauderdale) 2A - 22:46.8 (worth about 22:00)

Twenty-seventh in the varsity race at Jim Ryun, one of the biggest girls races of opening weekend. A sixth grader in a 204-runner varsity field, and she held her own.

3. Maddie Ladd, True North (Miami) 1A - 25:54.3 (worth about 23:04)

Seventeenth at Palmer Trinity. The heat tax on that course is enormous, and paying it puts her third here.

4. Shiloah Love, Southwest Florida Christian (Fort Myers) 1A - 23:30.2 (worth about 24:04)

Southwest Florida Christian raced three sixth-grade girls this fall, and Love leads them. She ran both Lemon Bay and North Port; Denis beat her both times, which pins the top of this list in place.

5. Lua Roldan, True North (Miami) 1A - 27:05.7 (worth about 24:16)

True North again, in the same Palmer Trinity race as Ladd, who was up the road. Four True North middle schoolers appear across these lists, the most of any school.

Sixth Grade Boys

1. Taylor Bentley, Lakeland Christian 1A - 19:34.2 (worth about 19:01)

Forty-fifth of 175 in the varsity race at Lake Region. He is in sixth grade, and 130 finishers came in behind him, most of them high schoolers. Lakeland Christian's distance future is in good hands for a long time.

2. James McDonald, Oak Hall (Gainesville) 1A - 19:16.0 (worth about 19:02)

Seventy-first in the varsity race at Whispering Pines. He and Bentley raced at different meets on the same Saturday morning and came out of August one second apart on level ground. They have never met. Somebody should fix that.

3. Monroe Martin, First Academy (Leesburg) 1A - 20:51.5

Seventh at Wildwood after opening at the Villages Buffalo Invitational in 22:54.9. Two minutes of improvement in a week. Wildwood is the course we cannot price, so his ranking leans on the clock alone.

4. Tiago Silsby, True North (Miami) 1A - 24:21.4 (worth about 21:45)

Thirty-eighth at Palmer Trinity, in the race his older teammate Lukas Arrojo won. The heat tax paid, his run lands fourth here.

5. Niam Hren, All Saints' (Winter Haven) 1A - 22:00.8 (worth about 21:51)

Finished the Kowboy varsity race, a 147-runner field, as a sixth grader. He is the third All Saints' middle schooler on these lists, after Roy and Cook. Something is going right in Winter Haven.

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How we ranked them

• High school races only, August 16-29, Florida schools. The same athletes' middle school starts are ranked separately in our FLYRA middle school rankings.
• Head-to-head first: nobody is ranked behind a runner they lost to this season. As it happens, every one of the six lists came out clean, with no head-to-head result overruled anywhere. Times leveled for how each course ran order everyone who has not met.
• The raced time is the official number. The parenthetical is what the run is worth on a neutral course. Courses we cannot honestly price, Wildwood this season, get no conversion and the cautious reading.
• Grades come from meet results and FHSAA returner records, checked against school rosters where the timing data left them blank.
• Sixth through eighth graders are varsity-eligible at FHSAA schools whose enrollment includes those grades, which is why every name here comes from a school that spans middle and high school.

Every kid on this page will be on a start line again within a couple of weeks, most of them against high schoolers, a few of them against each other. Our weekly boys and girls statewide lists and the full rankings pages will keep score.