Rankings Update: Top Ten Texas Boys Teams

The 2026 season is in full swing, with most top teams having multiple races under their belts. Not only does this give us a good idea of the state of the competitive landscape moving forward, but it also allows us to check in on the status of our preseason predictions. While not all of our top teams from last week's update competed this weekend, we can still garner valuable insights from those who did. So, let's see who gained ground and who dropped down in this week's team rankings update. 

Carroll did not compete this week, but nothing that happened on the course changed their position at the top. The benchmark from Week 1 still stands: Kai Gutierrez (Jr.) won the Southlake Classic in 14:47.20 against a field that included several of the top teams present in this ranking. Carroll holds a 1-5 split of 36.80 seconds - a figure that, by comparison, is 30 seconds tighter than what Keller produced at McKinney Boyd this week.

That 36.80-second split came at a competitive DFW field from a group that still hasn't shown its full depth. Claudio Auns, Jaxon Glenn, Grant Norgart, and Evan O'Donnell all contributed to a pack performance that had no business being that tight in a week-one field. Carroll remains the team everyone else is measuring against, and nothing from this week's racing adjusted that standard.

Eastwood's Week 1 result at the Jim Omohundro Invitational - 32 points, with Noah Garcia (Jr.) and Noah Loweree (Sr.) running 14:31 and 14:39 to go 1-2 in the field - remains the second-strongest team performance of the opening weekend. The 1-5 split Eastwood achieved was a substantial improvement from where they were at this point last year, and the front pair carrying that improvement has the individual credentials to compete at the top of any field they enter.

The week 2 comparison that matters most in a fairly inactive week: College Park won the Klein ISD Invitational with 34 points - two points more than Eastwood needed to win the Omohundro. The Klein ISD Invitational field has historically been much less competitive than the Jim Omohundro Invite. This context is significant, and provides a relevant updated point of comparison that holds Eastwood comfortably at No. 2. 

Like the two teams ranked above them, Vandegrift did not compete this week. That being said, the evidence they produced at the Coach T Marcus Invitational in Week 1 continues to pay dividends in the rankings. They won the meet with 126 points over Round Rock (163) and Aledo (169) - two programs that hold positions No. 7 and No. 8 in these rankings. Beating both in the same field, on the same day, by a fairly comfortable margin, is the clearest head-to-head evidence of the early season.

Their rise from No. 4 to No. 3 reflects Keller's slip with Bowcutt absent, and it reflects the confidence in what Avinash Dewagan (So.) showed as a freshman last spring - a 9:04.84 3200m and a 14:52.40 track 5K that project toward the kind of sophomore cross country breakthrough that changes team ceilings. If Dewagan's fitness carries to grass and Collin Goodwin (Sr.) finds the form his 9:13.30 3200m suggests is still there, Vandegrift's top pair is as dangerous as any in this field outside of Eastwood's front two.

Flower Mound posted a 20.90-second 1-5 split at the Southlake Invite, finishing third in a field that included Carroll. They did not race this week. The jump from No. 8 to No. 4 is significant and requires explanation: Grapevine's exit from the rankings eliminates one slot, Keller's fall to No. 5 opens another, and Flower Mound's Week 1 performance earns the rest since we have now gained additional competitive context. 

A 20.90-second spread against a DFW field that included the defending state champion is not a credential that expires between weeks. Hayes Iacomini (Sr.), Eric Cano (Sr.), and Joshua Shemi (Sr.) anchored a pack that functioned exactly the way this program has built its identity - five runners compressed into a window that makes team scores work in any field. Walker Morrison (Jr.) and Damien Hicks (Sr.) round out a senior-heavy group that will face its first real test of the season in the coming weeks. The No. 4 ranking says we believe what the spread showed. Now they have to show it again.

Boston Bowcutt (Sr.) did not compete at the McKinney Boyd Bronco Stampede. Without their preseason frontrunner, Keller still won the elite field - but the shape of the result tells a more complicated story than the team title suggests.

Austin Boto (Sr.) and Cade Swan (Sr.) stepped into the top positions that Bowcutt typically occupies, running 15:33 (2nd) and 15:42 (3rd) respectively. Braden Anderson (Jr.) stepped up at 15:55 (7th) to give Keller a tight 1-2-3 front. Heath Shiflett (Sr.) held the fourth position in 16:16 (15th overall). The fifth position is where the spread opened: William Washington (Jr.) ran 16:39 (26th), giving Keller a team total of 53 points and a 1-5 spread of 1:06.

For a program whose identity is defined by a 30-second split - the margin they ran at the 2025 UIL State Championship, where five runners finished within half a minute of each other - a 1:06 spread without their anchor runner is a reasonable outcome. The question is not whether Bowcutt's absence explains the gap; it clearly does. The question is whether Washington's 16:39 fifth position holds when the field tightens in November, or whether the back of this lineup has the development to close toward the pack. When Bowcutt returns, the spread compresses from the front. The 4-5 positions determine whether Keller is a state title contender or a team competing for the podium.

Bridgeland won the team competition at the Texas A&M HS Invitational with 61 points, edging a field that included Humble Atascocita and Houston St. Thomas. The result confirms the program's early-season health - and surfaces a back-end question that will define their ceiling as the season progresses.

Dean Rosales (Sr.) and Ilyes Benguedda (Jr.) ran 4th and 5th overall in 15:47.50 and 15:50.10 - a 2.6-second gap between the first and second scorer that is the pack running Bridgeland has built as a program identity. Braxton Ramirez (Jr.) held the third scoring position in 16:18 (16th overall), giving the team a credible front trio. The concern comes in the 4-5 slots: Cale Huff (Jr.) ran 16:48 (37th overall), and Madden Mueller (Sr.) stretched the fifth scoring position to 17:07 (57th overall). The full 1-5 spread finished at 1:20.

Rosales and Benguedda give Bridgeland a 1-2 combination that can compete at the regional level. The gap between Ramirez (the third scorer) and Mueller (the fifth) is where the team score inflates - 30 seconds separated those two at Texas A&M. The state-level version of Bridgeland needs that back end tighter, and the program has historically built toward November rather than peaking in September. There is room for this to improve. Whether it does will determine whether Bridgeland's preseason ambition of finishing on the podium for a third straight year becomes a reality.

Round Rock did not compete this week. Their Week 1 loss to Vandegrift at the Coach T Marcus Invitational - 163 points to Vandegrift's 126 - is the primary evidence shaping this ranking, and it tells a consistent story: Andrew Esparza (Sr.) and Leo Brasil (Sr.) remain as dangerous a front pair as this field has outside of Eastwood, but the depth behind them at Coach T Marcus wasn't enough to close the team gap on Vandegrift.

The head-to-head matters here. Vandegrift holds No. 3 above Round Rock in part because they beat them in competition. Esparza's 14:30.00 at Coach T Marcus - good for No. 2 in the national rankings at the time - keeps Round Rock in the top ten on the strength of what their front pair can do individually. The team question for Round Rock has been consistent all season: can the third through fifth scorers develop fast enough to make their dominant 1-2 combination relevant as a team result? Nothing from this week's action changed that equation.

Aledo did not compete this week. Their Week 1 third-place finish at the Coach T Marcus Invitational - 169 points, behind Vandegrift (126) and Round Rock (163) - holds their position at No. 8 in a week where no new evidence arrived to move them. The argument for keeping Aledo in this top ten is the same argument it has been: Connelly's 14:35 (4th overall at Coach T Marcus) gives this group an individual capable of competing at the front of any field in the classification, and the team's ability to support that performance with a functional scoring four behind him is what keeps them in contention for a state appearance.

The comparison from this week's racing: Bridgeland's 61 points and Keller's 53 - both in different regional fields - give some reference for where Aledo's 169 sits on the competitive spectrum. Coach T Marcus draws Central Texas competition; the A&M Invitational and McKinney Boyd draw Houston-area and DFW fields. Direct comparisons are difficult. What is not difficult: Aledo finished closely behind two programs sitting above them in these rankings when they were all in the same field. The No. 8 position reflects both their individual ceiling and the gap that still exists at the team level. That being said, they are the only 5A team in this week's ranking, making their inner division prospects as good as they can be. 

Elton Martin (Sr.) won the Seven Lakes Showcase in 14:49.20 - a new cross country personal best, surpassing his previous 5K mark of 14:53.70 and reinforcing his standing in the individual state title conversation. Martin is doing what individual title contenders are supposed to do in early September: win, and run fast doing it.

The more relevant development for the program's team trajectory came from the four runners behind him. William Bishop (Sr.) ran 16:04 (12th overall), Santiago Gonzalez (Jr.) ran 16:14 (15th), Diego Martinez (Sr.) ran 16:17 (18th), and Connor Heinsohn (Jr.) ran 16:20 (20th). That 15-second spread across the 2-3-4-5 positions is meaningfully tighter than what The Woodlands has shown behind Martin in recent cross country competition, and it suggests the depth may be developing in a direction the spring track season implied but hadn't yet confirmed. The team finished with 66 points.

The structural gap remains: Martin at 14:49, with the next four runners from 16:04 to 16:20 - a 1:31 split from first to fifth scorer. The Woodlands' state ceiling is determined by how much of that gap closes. What happened at Seven Lakes is encouraging evidence that it is closing. Whether it closes enough to make The Woodlands a team story rather than an individual one is the question November will answer.

College Park won the Klein ISD Invitational with 34 points - a team score that, placed alongside Eastwood's 32-point Jim Omohundro win from Week 1, underscores just how differently those two results read when the competition context is applied. Eastwood won in a historically competitive early-season field; College Park won in a Houston-area invitational. The scores are nearly identical; the degree of difficulty is not. But a 34-point team win is still a 34-point team win, and what College Park did to produce it earns them a spot in this top ten.

Ryan Beken (Sr.) won the meet in 15:10.16, giving College Park a frontrunner capable of winning competitive invitationals. Andrew Fry (Sr.) ran 15:44 (3rd overall) to provide a credible second man. Then the depth argument materialized at positions three through five: Vasco Arredondo (Jr.) ran 16:14 (8th), Lucas Collins (Sr.) ran 16:16 (10th), and Joseph Kovach (So.) ran 16:17 (12th) - a three-second spread across the 3-4-5 positions that is the kind of pack compression that makes team scores work. Asher Galindo (Jr.) and Alexander Jones (So.) served as the 6th and 7th scorers in 16:17 and 16:28, giving College Park meaningful depth beyond the five-man scoring lineup.

Grapevine's exit from these rankings created an opening at No. 10. College Park's Klein ISD result filled it.The question this program now faces is whether their tight 3-5 pack can hold and develop when the competition sharpens. The opening is earned. The ceiling depends on what comes next.