Team Rankings
Texas Boys XC Team Rankings
Week 5
The state's top 10 boys cross country programs as of Oct. 5
Most of the state's top ten took the weekend off, so this edition of our rankings looks ahead to the state meet as much as it looks back. Only three ranked programs raced. Keller got Boston Bowcutt back and won the Reunion Run in Decatur. Flower Mound went to North Carolina for the Great American XC Festival. And Aledo makes its second appearance in the rankings after Tyler Connelly finished second in the top heat at Arkansas' Chile Pepper Festival.
Every other team stands on results from the past two weekends: Woodbridge, Desert Twilight, Nike South, Gans Creek, and the Cowboy Jamboree. With the state meet just over a month out, now is the time to dive into what the field is shaping up to be. Getting there takes a top-three finish at district and then a top-four finish at region. That second step is where this season gets crowded. Based on UIL's 2026-27 alignment, six of these ten teams are in Region I: Eastwood, Aledo, Carroll, Keller, Flower Mound, and Prosper Walnut Grove. Only four of them can qualify, so let's see how our field stacks up in this week's iteration of our Texas Boys XC Rankings.
No. 1
Carroll High School
No. 1 Carroll High School (Southlake, TX) Prev. No. 1 - No change
Analysis: The Woodbridge Sweepstakes drew 37 teams and 272 finishers from across the West, and Carroll won it by 42 points over Riverton (Utah). It's still the strongest team win on this list, and that's why the Dragons stay at No. 1 again without racing this weekend.
No. 2
El Paso Eastwood
No. 2 El Paso Eastwood (El Paso, TX) Prev. No. 2 - No change
Analysis: Four points. Eastwood lost the Desert Twilight Sweepstakes to Niwot (Colo.) 87-91, and the rest of the field was more than 120 points behind. Noah Garcia (Jr.) won the race in 14:30.4, holding off Coronado's Oliver Horton by 1.2 seconds and Niwot's Quinn Sullivan by 5.5 seconds.
No. 3
Austin Vandegrift
No. 3 Austin Vandegrift (Austin, TX) Prev. No. 3 - No change
Analysis: Avinash Dewagan has now finished near the front in back-to-back big races. The sophomore was sixth in the Woodbridge Sweepstakes in 13:43.7, then won the Nike South Elite in 14:44.6, holding off Elton Martin of The Woodlands by 0.6 seconds. Dewagan is a big reason Vandegrift went from 10th at Woodbridge to winning in College Station.
No. 4
Bridgeland
No. 4 Bridgeland (Cypress, TX) Prev. No. 4 - No change
Analysis: Bridgeland won the Gans Creek Classic by one point, 125-126, over Bentonville (Ark.), and their top three runners crossed the line together. Dean Rosales (Sr.) was 15th in 15:23.6, Patricio Navarro (Sr.) was 17th in 15:25.8, and Ilyes Benguedda (Jr.) was 18th in 15:26.0. That's 2.4 seconds across three scoring runners in a race won by Rockhurst's Jack McGovern in 14:25.8.
No. 5
Keller
No. 5 Keller (Keller, TX) Prev. No. 5 - No change
Analysis: Boston Bowcutt is back for the first time this season, and on Saturday in Decatur he won the Reunion Run in 15:34.5. Keller went 1-2-3 and scored 17 points. Austin Boto (Sr.) was second at 15:36.6, and Braden Anderson (Jr.) was third at 15:43.3. Heath Shiflett (Sr.) and William Washington (Jr.) placed sixth and seventh.
Only five teams scored, so the 38-point margin over Canyon says less than the spread does. Keller's first five finished 37.8 seconds apart, about the same as the 33.1-second pack that won the McNeil Gold in Week 3. The difference is that Bowcutt now leads it. With him in front, Boto and Anderson can run as second and third scorers, and that changes what Keller can score in a bigger race.
Keller likely won't get a better chance to move up than the District 4-6A meet, where they face off against Southlake Carroll. They don't need to bring home the title that day (based on current standings, that seems out of reach in the first place), but a close finish with the Dragons would carry a lot of weight in a Region I field where only four of six ranked teams will make state. The goal from here is to keep this group healthy and running together.
No. 6
Round Rock
No. 6 Round Rock (Round Rock, TX) Prev. No. 6 - No change
Analysis: Andrew Esparza won the McNeil Gold in 14:56.6 in Week 3. A week later, Round Rock went to the Nike South without him and still finished third with 147 points, and Leo Brasil (Jr.) moved into the lead spot and placed fifth overall in 15:14.9.
No. 7
The Woodlands
No. 7 The Woodlands (The Woodlands, TX) Prev. No. 7 - No change
Analysis: Few runners in Texas have had a better two weeks than Elton Martin. The senior finished third at Woodbridge, two-tenths behind Carroll's Gutierrez, then was second at the Nike South, six-tenths behind Dewagan. He has been as close as anyone to the state's top front-runners.
No. 8
Flower Mound
No. 8 Flower Mound (Flower Mound, TX) Prev. No. 8 - No change
Analysis: Flower Mound went to Cary, North Carolina, and showed once again that their greatest strength is the ability to run as a pack no matter what the field looks like. In the Championship race at the Great American XC Festival, a 40-team field with 339 finishers, the Jaguars put five scorers within 21.8 seconds. Joshua Shemi (Sr.) led in 79th at 16:00.6, followed by Eric Cano (Sr.) at 16:09.2, Elliot Carrier (Sr.) at 16:12.1, Carter Cole (Sr.) at 16:20.0, and Damien Hicks (Sr.) at 16:22.4.
The tight spread got them 11th place with 336 points. The same thing happened in Week 3, when a 33.5-second pack finished third at McNeil behind Keller and Round Rock.
Flower Mound has the squad makeup to make it out of their district meet easily; otherwise, they wouldn't be near these rankings. The real test for this team will be holding it together at a Region 1 meet where they've struggled to qualify in several of the previous seasons. To make it to Round Rock, Flower Mound needs one runner to break away from the pack and score in the top 20 at Lubbock. Without that, a tight pack finishing in the middle of the pack does nothing for a team looking to toe the line in Round Rock.
No. 9
Prosper Walnut Grove High School
Analysis: At the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Walnut Grove put three runners across the line in 2.5 seconds. Christopher Case (Jr.) was 21st in 16:26.0, Jaxson Hart (Sr.) 23rd in 16:27.4, and Chance Townsend (Sr.) 24th in 16:28.5. Andrew Miles (Sr.) was 31st, 16 seconds later. That pack earned 150 points and second place behind Oklahoma's Deer Creek, ahead of Lucas Lovejoy (196) and Rock Hill (215).
No. 10
Aledo
No. 10 Aledo (Aledo, TX) New
Analysis: Aledo is back in the rankings for the second time after a big individual race in Fayetteville. Tyler Connelly (Sr.) finished second in the El Caliente Heat 1 race at the Chile Pepper Festival in 14:42.2, behind Moore (Okla.) junior Dominic Matthias (14:22.1).
As a team, Aledo finished seventh with 386 points, ahead of 56 other scoring teams, Grapevine among them. Noah Lay (Sr.) and Thatcher Pettit (Jr.) placed 73rd and 77th, less than a second apart, in 15:53.5 and 15:54.3. Reed Murray (Sr.) was 113th in 16:08.7 and Andrew Walsh (Jr.) 154th in 16:23.6.
As with the other teams on this list, Aledo will qualify out of district; otherwise, they wouldn't be near this list. Connelly's run shows he can contend for an individual state qualifying spot even if the team doesn't advance. For the team to get to Round Rock, that pack needs to close enough of the gap Connelly that a deep Region I field can't outscore them.