But now let's shift our focus to the individual races, where below we will take a look at the main contenders on the boys and girls side in a classification that is gonna be a tough one to win.
How Tight Is This Race?
Each athlete's season best shown on one scale. Tap or hover a dot.
Just 56 secs separates the field
15:18
16:14
14:50
15:00
15:10
15:20
15:30
15:40
15:50
16:00
16:10
16:20
16:30
16:40
the leader
15:17.82 · Levi Howard
+5 secs from leader
15:22.33 · Will Chambers
+7 secs from leader
15:25.00 · Jackson Hunter
+20 secs from leader
15:38.05 · Rowen Maloney
+27 secs from leader
15:45.06 · Isaac Moore
+28 secs from leader
15:45.86 · Khoi Nguyen
+56 secs from leader
16:13.61 · Jay Throckmorton
Boys Race
This might be the toughest individual race to predict. Or at least the one with the most contenders overall. The chart above really doesn't do this race justice. It is WIDE open and you could see maybe....15 different guys getting the win? It's that hard to predict. The one name I'll give a slight potential nod to is Jackson Hunter (missing above, sorry I'm still learning the new graphics and don't know why that glitch is happening). Anyway, Hunter didn't have his best XC season last fall, but he rebounded well in the spring and put up some fast times. He also ran 15:25 in 2024 so he's got the XC pedigree too. But his season last fall was cut short, likely due to injury. If he's back and at full strength, he's probably the guy to put money on. But if something happens again it opens up the race to...ALL of the rest of them. I think Rowen Maloney is the most likely to take advantage if that happens? He's got the most top level times. But Moore and Nguyen from Lakeside are historically better at XC than track, so you could definitely make a case for either of them too. Howard and Chambers ran well on fast courses last year and have some elite times, but aren't quite as consistent as others on the list. Throckmorton is kind of the opposite where he doesn't have the elite XC times but has some top performances on the track. There's probably 10 more names beyond this that could be in the mix here. But a couple that stand out as intriguing are Cole Rueff, Ryan Pattillo, Weber Behm, and Alex Clement.
How Tight Is This Race?
Each athlete's season best shown on one scale. Tap or hover a dot.
Just 122 secs separates the field
17:34
19:36
16:50
17:00
17:10
17:20
17:30
17:40
17:50
18:00
18:10
18:20
18:30
18:40
18:50
19:00
19:10
19:20
19:30
19:40
19:50
20:00
20:10
20:20
the leader
17:33.88 · Aislynn Dunn
+18 secs from leader
17:51.54 · Ella Williams
+27 secs from leader
18:01.20 · Louise Delgado
+39 secs from leader
18:13.13 · Emily McDonald
+62 secs from leader
18:35.50 · Livie Rafter
+64 secs from leader
18:38.31 · Amaya Nebel
+72 secs from leader
18:45.42 · Sarah Jane Shipley
+77 secs from leader
18:50.42 · Callie McJunkin
+122 secs from leader
19:35.87 · Phoebe Throckmorton
Girls Race
Well I don't want to jynx here her, but I feel confident giving the early favorite title to Aislynn Dunn. She's the defending champion, she has the fastest PR's, and she won two more titles in track season. Anything can happen, but I think it's fair to see her as the leader for now at least. After that? Who knows. Delgado helped Pope claim 4 of the top 5 spots last year so that's not a bad place to start looking for your runner up. But both Nebel and Rafter had elite track seasons that show they could be in the mix here too. McJunkin and Throckmorton were also right there this spring with strong performances and it's worth pointing out that they could easily leapfrog some of the girls on the list. Ella Williams is more of a cross country runner, like Delgado, so I expect her to be up near the front as well this fall. It's just very wide open, and that makes it hard to make any real predictions beyond the winner right now, especially on the girls side.