TSR's 2024 High School XC Top-25 Team Rankings (Boys): Update #3

Donald Speas
Nov 6, 2024
10 min read

Written by Donny Speas, edits and additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin

KEY

(Unranked):

Was not ranked in our last update.

(#/#):

First number indicates how much the team has moved in our rankings.

The second number indicates where the team was ranked in our last update

25. Bloomington North Cougars (IN) (0 / 25)

Here's a fun fact for all of you: Indiana has no divisions or classifications for high school athletics. This means that, no matter how big or small the school is, everyone is racing for the same state title.

This makes Bloomington North's recent win at the IHSAA XC State Championships even more impressive as they put two athletes in the top-15 (Jacob Mitchell and Caelan D'Onofrio) to triumph over one of our "Just Missed" teams, Noblesville.

Does that result truly change their standing in our rankings? No, not really, but it does give them a bit more staying power for the future.

24. Riverton Silverwolves (UT) (Unranked)

Here's another fun fact for you: At last week's UHSAA 6A XC State Championships, it wasn't American Fork or Herriman who had the best 1-2 punch. Instead, it was the Riverton duo of Landon Nunley and Christian Ruf who finished in 3rd place and 4th place, respectively.

Consequently, the Silverwolves were able to secure a 3rd place finish at their state meet, settling behind two top-10 squads in the national (the aforementioned Herriman and American Fork). They also comfortably beat a formerly-ranked Lone Peak squad by over 40 points.

All things considered, this ranking may actually be underselling the Riverton boys just the slightest bit. They still need to replicate this result later on in the season, but they are seemingly peaking at just the right time.

23. Rocky Mountain Grizzlies (ID) (Unranked)

Am I surprised that Rocky Mountain took home a 2nd place finish at the IHSAA XC State Championships last weekend?

No, not at all. They did, after all, have home course advantage and we knew that junior Cody Lucas had a ton of potential. Let's also not forget that this is the same Rocky Mountain team that finished 3rd at the Bob Firman Invitational earlier this fall.

However, I was incredibly surprised that Rocky Mountain came within 11 points of upsetting our TSR #11 squad, Coeur D'Alene, a team who I view as one of the most (if not the most) consistent and reliable teams in the country.

22. Knoxville Catholic Fighting Irish (TN) (-1 / 21)

The Knoxville Catholic Fighting Irish have not raced since our last rankings update. They only dropped in our rankings due to the performances of other schools. Their next race will be at the TSSAA XC State Championships this upcoming weekend.

21. Jesuit Bluejays (LA) (+1 / 22)

After a sharp rankings drop in our last update, the Jesuit Bluejays had themselves a pretty solid rebound effort. Granted we've only seen the Bluejays' varsity lineup compete once since our latest ranking update. That meet in question was their district championship, a meet which they nearly swept, scoring 18 points in total.

It's not just that Jesuit nearly swept the team scores, it's how fast they ran, with six runners going under 15:35 for 5000 meters, led by Brady Mullen's out-of-this-world 14:36 clocking. Of course, as many of our regular readers know, we put more emphasis on placements and wins than we do times when it comes to cross country.

20. Sehome Mariners (WA) (0 / 20)

Sehome has only competed on one occasion since we last checked up on them. That lone effort came at a relatively unexciting district meet (although the Bellingham Bayhawks are certainly a respectable opponent).

The Mariners were led by seniors Nick Gargano and Skyler Gillham, and the team averaged 15:55 for the 5000-meter distance.

19. Hamilton Huskies (AZ) (-1 / 18)

Hamilton has not seriously raced since our last rankings update. However, they did tempo through the AIA sectional meet where their top scorers (Chase Markunas, Zarian Rodriguez, Theo McDaid and Ryan Estrada) all finished within a quarter second of each other. They only drop in our rankings due to the performances of other programs.

18. Taylorsville Warriors (UT) (-2 / 16)

This was one of the tougher teams to rank. On one hand, the Warriors won the UHSAA 5A XC State Championships with junior Edward Stout and senior Cole Jameson both taking home impressive top-six finishes.

Then, on the other hand, they only beat the Viewmont Vikings by 14 points. That's not necessarily a great sign when you consider that the last time these teams faced off (at the Bob Firman Invite), Viewmont won by nearly 150 points!

Now, in fairness to both of these programs, Viewmont is a great squad. They have, after all, spent some time on this list as an "Honorable Mention" team during points of this season.

17. Plainfield North Tigers (IL) (0 / 17)

Plainfield North has raced twice since our latest rankings update. And in each of those outings, I've seen a different product from the Chicagoland powerhouse.

The first meet was the Tiger's regional meet, where they ran ok, and won the meet with all five scorers in the top-11 places. However they were only six points in front of a solid New Lenox Knights team, but frankly, this shouldn't have been such a close race.

Following Plainfield's regional meet, they advanced to their sectional championship, where they looked much better (especially after reintroducing a couple of absent runners), winning by a 33-point margin spearheaded by Thomas Czerwinski's runner-up finish.

16. Jesuit Crusaders (OR) (+3 / 19)

In our last set of rankings, I said that Jesuit had stabilized in our eyes after a couple of early-season struggles. Well if they stabilized before then now they are definitely moving back in the right direction.

At their latest race, the Metro League 6A-2 XC Championships, the Crusaders swept the top-three places, led by junior Kellen Williams's individual finish. Then, after a one-runner "break," the Jesuit runners claimed spots four through eight.

Oh, and they averaged 15:22 for 5000 meters. This team is on the up leading into their state meet.

15. Coronado Cougars (CO) (-4 / 11)

One of many teams on this list who had a surprising state meet performance was the Coronado boys. And unfortunately for the Cougars, they were on the wrong side of an upset, losing to a strong Thompson Valley team by five points.

Oliver Horton ran about as expected, taking home a 3rd place finish, while the team's second scorer, Boston Potts, actually ran a bit better than I expected him to, crossing the line in 8th place. However, that's where the strong running ran dry for the Cougars as the rest of their squad just didn't have enough to take home the title.

I'm going to write this race off as nothing more than a bad day for Coronado. After all, they did beat Thompson Valley by roughly 80 points at Desert Twilight back in September.

14. Bridgeland Bears (TX) (0 / 14)

Well, the good news is that we finally got to see Bridgeland compete against another squad in our top-25, two of them in fact (more on them later), at the UIL 6A XC State Championships. And of course, Benjamin Montgomery is just as good as we remember, taking home an individual runner-up finish.

The bad news (which isn't really even "bad") is that Bridgeland's 3rd place finish didn't really tell us anything. We expected Austin Vandegrift and Southlake Carroll to beat Bridgeland and sure enough, both of those teams beat Bridgeland by about 35 points. That is roughly what I expected to see.

I would have liked to see Bridgeland put a bit more cushion between themselves and El Paso Eastwood, but all in all, this was a solid way for us to validate how we felt about Bridgeland.

13. Rio Rancho Rams (NM) (0 / 13)

The unfortunate thing about the New Mexico cross country scene is that there is a lack of high-quality deep races.

Rio Rancho's varsity seven has only raced once since our last rankings update, toeing the line at the NMAA 5A XC District One Championships. In that race, the Rams' top trio of Charlie Vause, Cody Sullivan and Mateo Herrera swept the top-three spots.

The Rams will face a solid field at the New Mexico XC State Championships, but our next opportunity to see the Rams in an elite field will probably be at NXR Southwest meet in a couple of weeks.

12. Jesuit Marauders (CA) (+3 / 15)

We've had a couple of opportunities to see the Jesuit Marauders (sorry in advance for putting two Jesuit teams back-to-back) race since the last edition of our rankings.

One of those races were the SFL XC Championships. They, they were led by sophomore Matthew Ogilvie as the Marauders made quick work of the field, scoring just 19 points.

The other race, the Flat SAC Invitational, was a much more competitive meet and consequently, we got a lot more info from it. Even so, Jesuit made quick work of the field, scoring 26 points and defeating a pretty solid Buchanan team in the process.

11. Coeur D'Alene Vikings (ID) (-2 / 9)

I wasn't surprised to see the men from Northern Idaho defend their state title and I wasn't surprised to see the Cervi-Skinner twins take home a pair of top-five finishes (though, admittedly, I thought that Maximus Cervi-Skinner would take home the individual win).

However, I was surprised that the Vikings only beat Rocky Mountain (TSR #23) by a mere 11 points. That's not what I expected to see from a team that finished in 5th place at the Woodbridge XC Classic back in September.

Even so, I'm not overly concerned about Coeur D'Alene's odds at postseason success. They "only" beat Rocky Mountain by a similar margin in 2023, and they went on to win NXR Northwest and finish 11th at the national meet.

10. Crater Comets (OR) (+2 / 12)

Crater hasn't fielded their complete lineup in a few weeks. But even without racing a full lineup, they managed to dominate their league championship meet. Expect to see the Comets' full lineup this upcoming weekend at OSAA 5A XC State Championships.

9. Arnold O. Beckman Patriots (CA) (-1 / 8)

In the last edition of our rankings, the Arnold O. Beckman boys were easily the team with the most momentum in the country. And while our feeling towards that sentiment may not be quite as strong now as they were a couple of weeks ago, we still feel like this is a top-10 group.

The Patriots' most recent race was the prestigious Mt. SAC invitational where they were led by junior Mason Nguyen's 2nd place finish. And in the end, the Patriots unsurprisingly took the victory over a handful of talented California squads. However, I would have liked to see them put up a greater margin of victory than the 28 points that they displayed.

And yes, I know, I'm probably being way too picky. Even so, I have very high expectations for a team as good as Arnold O. Beckman.

8. Downers Grove North Trojans (IL) (+2 / 10)

Since our last rankings update, Downers Grove North has competed twice. And for the most part, they have looked more or less the same in their two races as they did earlier this season.

One of those races came at their sectional meet where they took a narrow runner-up finish to the LaGrange Lions (while sitting four of their top-seven runners). Props also need to be given to senior Brady Travers for holding his own with a 4th place finish.

The following week, we got to see Downers Grove North field their complete lineup at their sectional meet. There, they dominated the competition, beating the runner-up team (the same LaGrange Lions) by close to 70 points.

7. Belen Jesuit Wolverines (FL) (-1 / 6)

Belen Jesuit's varsity squad has only raced once since our last set of rankings at their largely unexciting district meet. The Wolverines unsurprisingly swept the top-six places in what appeared to be a largely controlled effort.

They drop in our rankings by no fault of their own, but rather due to the promising results of other teams.

6. Austin Vandegrift Vipers (TX) (-2 / 4)

5. Southlake Carroll Dragons (TX) (0 / 5)

This year's UIL 6A XC State Championships was nothing short of spectacular.

When the dust settled and the last runner had crossed the line, the final team scores showed that the Southlake Carroll Dragons were able to defend their state title producing a narrow four-point victory over challenger, Austin Vandegrift.

Southlake Carroll started the team scores off with a massive advantage as junior Caden Leonard broke the tape to take home the individual title. He was 21 seconds and six places ahead of Austin Vandegrift's top runner, Kai McCullough.

What really sealed the deal for the Dragons was their second and third scorers (Blake Bullard and Griffin Cords) who both finished before Austin Vandegrift's second runner, Collin Goodwin.

This victory does come with something of a caveat. Austin Vandegrift's typical top-runner, 14:48 (5k) man Hudson Haley, had an unfortunate "off" day, fading to 26th place. If he had finished inside the top-10 (something that he is definitely capable of), then the final scores flip.

Something tells me that this won't be the last intense showdown that we see between these two Texas powerhouses before the season is done.

4. American Fork Cavemen (UT) (+3 / 7)

Wow! That was a great state meet performance by the Cavemen.

Yes, I expected them to finish in 2nd place behind the Herriman Mustangs and yes, I expected superstar Kaden Evans to take home the individual win.

But in no universe did I expect American Fork to finish a mere six points shy of Herriman in the final team scores. Most of the credit here should be given to Ryker Bement, Austin Plewe and Alex Williams. Those boys were the team's third, fourth and fifth runners, all of whom found their way into top-20 positions.

3. Christian Brothers Academy Colts (NJ) (0 / 3)

The Colts' varsity lineup has not raced since the last edition of our rankings. It's worth mentioning that Christian Brothers Academy's JV squad, led by senior Thomas Field, was able to take home the win at the NJCTC XC State Championships.

2. Herriman Mustangs (UT) (-1 / 1)

Pause here real quick! Go read our section on our TSR #4 team, American Fork. The inverse of what we said about Cavemen can largely be applied here.

Herriman managed to pull off the win last week and had some great individual performances by Jackson Spencer (2nd) and Jonah Tang (5th). But frankly, the final results shouldn't have been this close.

Admittedly, Herriman does have a history of having one occasional "off" day each season (see the team's state meet results from 2022 and 2023) before bouncing back at the national meet. That's why I'm not THAT concerned about the Mustangs' current chances of winning the national title.

1. Niwot Cougars (CO) (+1 / 2)

I can't tell whether or not Niwot had an "off" day at the Colorado 5A XC State Championships...or if they purposely had a couple of top runners put forth a conservative effort. Regardless, the Cougars still won by a comfortable 43-point margin over a loaded field.

One Niwot athlete who really impressed me was junior Ryder Keeton, the team's typical third scorer. He was the Cougars's top finisher last Saturday, crossing the line in 4th place.

No matter what influenced Niwot's results at the state meet, I'm taking it as a positive sign for the Cougars that they can afford to not be at their best and still function as a nationally competitive team. This is perfect timing as Niwot gears up for a showdown with a ton of ranked opponents at NXR in a couple of weeks.