Jaxon Kiper

The new name of the weekend. Kiper won the Jim Ryun Invitational in 15:54.3, 23 seconds clear of Antonino Pipia of Plant, out of a 252-runner field. Jim Ryun graded 38.2 seconds slow off 40 returners, which prices that at 15:16.1 Cecil-equivalent — one tenth behind Thompson.

He has no 2025 state finals mark. Strawberry Crest's one state qualifier last fall was a senior and is gone, so the school has nobody on the returner list and there is no November number to check him against and no returning-class ranking he ought to have had. That is the only reason he is second: Thompson's mark was made against Cruz, Isaiah Howdeshell and the rest of the Elite field, while Kiper's rests on a conversion and a 23-second win over a field he was never really in a race with. Nothing about the mark itself is suspect. The first time these two line up, this list gets rewritten.

The name that isn't in any preseason ranking, because he has no 2025 state finish on record and Strawberry Crest's one runner in Tallahassee last fall has graduated. Kiper won the Jim Ryun Invitational in 15:54.3, by 23.2 seconds, out of a 252-runner varsity field. Apply the Holloway offset and that is a 15:16 Cecil-equivalent, dead even with Thompson and four seconds up on Howdeshell. Take the raw time at face value and he looks like the eighth-best boy in Florida. Take the course into account and he is top four. We are taking the course into account.