By Michael Newman

TFX National Director

[email protected]

Notes – The next month in these lists will be extremely fluid. We will be going into the “Big” invitational season starting with the Bob Firman Invitational this weekend in Idaho. Teams will drop out of the top 35 for a week, and then will shoot back in the next week. With three to four weeks into the season, some of the some of the higher ranked teams have not run their top seven yet. Again, be patient.

2017 Nike Cross National Champion Loudon Valley VA is one of those squads that we have not seen at full strength yet. They stay at the top of the first list of the season coming off an easy win at the PTXC-10 Meet on September 8. The Vikings placed five runners in the top 12 led by the 1-2 finish from Jacob Hunter and Carlos Schultz. The 32 second split on their top five also looks promising.

Then there is Great Oak CA who steamrolled the competition at the Woodbridge XC Classic. The Wolfpack scored 83 points in the Sweepstakes race doubling the score on the next closest team. Gabriel Abbes ran 14:17.5 on the fast 3-mile Silverlakes Sports Complex course leading his team that only had a 25 second split on their top five. If not Loudon Valley at the top, it could then be this squad that should be up there.  15 runners from their team ran under 16-minutes in this race. We get to see them in action again Saturday at the Bob Firman Invitational.

Fayetteville-Manlius NY looked good in their opener on September 8 at the Chittenango Invitational scoring only 18 points placing their scorers in the first six places. Garrett Brennan and Geoff Howles led the Hornets with a 40 second split on their top 5. Wheaton-Warrenville South IL made a statement at the 75 team Richard Spring Invitational run on the Illinois State Meet course at Detweiller Park. The Tigers ran a 13 second split on their top five off Scott Maison’s fourth-place finish to win the team title. St. Charles East IL finished second and moved into the top 35 at #18.

St. Francis (MTV) CA ran last Saturday at the Earlybird Invitational in Salinas, California. The Lancers won the senior and junior class races led by a 1-2 finish from Colton Colonna and Eric Eng in the senior race. Weddington NC moved into the top 35 list at #11 with strong performances at Friday Night Lights on September 7 and their opener at the Providence Invitational on August 25.  The Warriors are scheduled to race this weekend at the Hare & Hounds Invitational in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We will start with the top 10 regional rankings next week along with the top 35 national lists.