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2026 ·

Oklahoma Middle School Cross Country Rankings 2026: The October List

By The Red Dirt Runner · October 2026

Oklahoma Middle School Cross Country Rankings 2026: The October List

One month in, and the middle school picture looks very different than it did on October 1st — which is exactly why we publish these as living documents. Since the early-season list, we’ve worked through full results from 21 meets across August, September, and October, and the new data forced a real rebuild. Three of our top four boys have moved up to race high school varsity. The girls’ list gets rebuilt on the distance that actually matters.

A word on standards, because this is the foundation of the whole list: in Oklahoma, middle school girls race 2400 meters and middle school boys race 2 miles. Plenty of meets list the girls’ race as 1.5 miles — that’s 2414 meters, close enough that we’re treating them as the same race. Every girl below is ranked on a 2400m/1.5-mile mark. Every boy is ranked on a 2-mile mark (or a spring track 3200m, which is the same distance on a faster surface). No conversions deciding anything important, no mixing distances and pretending the math sorts it out.

Boys

Diego Cruz is the new No. 1, and the 2-mile times back him up. His 11:01.42 at Wright City in October is the fastest verified junior high 2-mile in the state this fall, and Stevie Hawkins isn’t far behind at 11:22.21 from the Suburban Conference meet. Behind them, the Curtis Inge and Battiest programs are showing real depth — Rayder Phillips (a 7th grader) and Mason Coulter both broke 11:45.

The big structural change: Jake Mann, Max Denney, and Roman Grau are off this list. Not because they got slower — because they’re racing high school varsity as freshmen. Grau ran 16:52.79 for 5K in Deer Creek’s elite race, Mann 17:10.21 and Denney 17:30.56 at the Mustang Night Race. Those are legit varsity times, and they validate everything the spring track marks suggested. They’re high school runners now, so they graduate off the middle school list. Good luck to all three — we’ll be watching them on the HS lists.

That leaves Reed Brown as the last of the spring track quartet still in the junior high ranks, and we’re keeping him high. His 10:28.20 3200m is real fitness — the same fitness his three peers just proved translates — but he hasn’t raced a fall cross country meet we can find. Carl Albert’s middle school boys did run at Suburban; Brown wasn’t in the results. Until he shows up on grass, he sits behind the two fastest actual 2-mile marks. That’s our judgment call.

  1. Diego Cruz, Heavener JH (8th) — 11:01.42, 2 miles (Wright City, Oct). Fastest verified JH 2-mile of the fall. The new standard-bearer.

  2. Stevie Hawkins, Curtis Inge MS (8th) — 11:22.21, 2 miles (Suburban Conference, Oct). Twenty-one seconds back of Cruz on a different course — close enough to keep him honest all October.

  3. Reed Brown, Carl Albert MS — 10:28.20, 3200m (outdoor track, spring 2026). No verified fall XC mark yet. Ranked on fitness, with the asterisk stated plainly: his three peers at this level are now running 16:52–17:30 5Ks in high school varsity races.

  4. Mason Coulter, Battiest (8th) — 11:29.42, 2 miles (Wright City, Oct). Finished second to Cruz in the same race. Battiest has something going.

  5. Rayder Phillips, Curtis Inge MS (7th) — 11:40.62, 2 miles (Suburban Conference, Oct). A 7th grader running 11:40 for 2 miles — the best young-boys mark in the state right now.

  6. Ricardo Ayala, Laverne (8th) — 11:42.26, 2 miles (Mooreland, Sep 5). Our early-season No. 5, verified by the primary source. The new October marks push him down, but 5:51 pace on grass in early September is still the real deal.

  7. Omar Delmoral, Taft MS (8th) — 11:53.27, 2 miles (All City, Oct). Won the OKCPS city meet.

  8. Marco Favila, Southeast MS (7th) — 12:18.00, 2 miles (All City, Oct). Another 7th grader in the top 10. The young talent in this state is genuinely exciting.

  9. Jonathan Herrera, Waurika JH (8th) — 12:41.71, 2 miles (Waurika, Oct).

  10. Koltin Bunch, Destiny Christian MS (8th) — 12:42.68, 2 miles (Hobart, Oct). One second behind Herrera on a different course — effectively tied.

  11. Kash Depron, Bridge Creek MS (8th) — 12:56.24, 2 miles (Waurika, Oct).

  12. Leo Winward, Bartlesville MS — 13:26.00, 2 miles (Mid-Season Meet of Champions, Sep 12); 12:06.65, 3000m (Holland Hall, Sep 19). Still the leader of the Bartlesville pack, but the pack’s 2-mile marks haven’t kept up with the October times.

  13. Oliver Ellis, Bartlesville MS — 13:35.00, 2 miles (Mid-Season, Sep 12).

  14. Jase Hammond, Bartlesville MS — 13:42.00, 2 miles (Mid-Season, Sep 12); 12:33.94, 3000m (Holland Hall, Sep 19).

  15. Benji Castro, Bartlesville MS — 12:55.07, 3000m (Holland Hall, Sep 19). The 3000m mark is his best indicator; it slots him right at the back of the ranked group.

Short-course standouts (directional — fast marks at distances too short to rank directly): cohen davisson (Bixby, 8th) ran 5:10.86 for the mile at Sapulpa, the fastest JH mile we’ve seen this fall, with Dylan Spears (Tulsa NOAH, 8th) at 5:20.06 in the same race. Wesley Enriquez (Moore JH, 8th, 5:23.59) edged Cruz Thomas (Edmond Cimarron MS, 8th, 5:23.73) at Deer Creek in August. Winston Kanali (Heritage Hall, 7th, 8:08.37) and Beckham Steele (Heritage Hall, 7th, 8:14.22) were the fastest MS boys marks at any September meet at the ~1.5-mile distance. Payson Tate (Burns Flat-Dill City, 5th!) ran 12:58.42 for 2 miles at Hobart — a fifth grader. Remember that name.

Girls

This list is rebuilt from scratch on the 2400m standard, and it has a new look. The twelve1running results gave us something the early-season list didn’t have: a full field of girls racing the actual championship distance. And the times are fast. Chloe Coenen’s 9:21.35 at Waurika is the mark of the fall so far — 8th grade, 6:08 pace for a mile and a half, winning by open water.

The most exciting part: the young ones. Remi Tipton is in 6th grade and ran 9:29.57. Lily Adair (7th, 9:24.98), Isabella Allen (7th, 9:40.19), and Remlee McIntosh (7th, 10:13.29) are all 7th graders in the top 10. The future of Oklahoma girls’ distance running is arriving early.

What about the Bartlesville girls who topped the early-season list? Their verified marks are at 3000m and 2 miles — real marks, but not the standard distance. We’re not dropping them; we’re placing them where their marks translate. Madisen Dennis’s 12:58.96 3000m works out to roughly 10:20s pace for 2400m, which puts her 10th — still very much in the picture, and we’d love to see what she runs at the actual distance. Kadie Tank, Jillian Lindblom, and the rest of the Bruins follow in the “also” group below.

  1. Chloe Coenen, Plainview MS (8th) — 9:21.35, 1.5 miles (Waurika, Oct). The fastest MS girls’ mark of the fall at the standard distance. Clear No. 1.

  2. Lily Adair, Bridge Creek MS (7th) — 9:24.98, 1.5 miles (Waurika, Oct). Three and a half seconds behind Coenen in the same race — and a 7th grader.

  3. Remi Tipton, Cleora (6th) — 9:29.57, 1.5 miles (Cleora, Oct). Read that grade again. Sixth. 9:29.

  4. Ava Jimenez, Moore JH (8th) — 9:30.26, 1.5 miles (Elgin, Oct). Won by 23 seconds.

  5. Isabella Allen, Sweetwater MS (7th) — 9:40.19, 1.5 miles (Hobart, Oct).

  6. Hope Barnett, Hinton MS (8th) — 9:41.70, 1.5 miles (Hobart, Oct). One and a half seconds behind Allen in the same race.

  7. Carli Sisco, McLoud JH (8th) — 9:42.87, 1.5 miles (Waurika, Oct). Third in the loaded Waurika race behind Coenen and Adair.

  8. Remlee McIntosh, Battiest (7th) — 10:13.29, 1.5 miles (Wright City, Oct).

  9. Noah Evans, John Marshall Enterprise MS (6th) — 10:14.90, 1.5 miles (All City, Oct). Another 6th grader in the top 10, winning the OKCPS city meet.

  10. Madisen Dennis, Bartlesville MS — 12:58.96, 3000m (Holland Hall, Sep 19). No verified 2400m mark; the 3000m converts to roughly the low-10:20s for 2400m by pace. Our early-season No. 1, placed here on the conversion with the math stated openly.

More names at the standard distance: Kenlie Zilliox (Wright City JH, 8th, 10:28.41), Demi Philipose (Classen SAS MS, 6th, 10:46.17), Tatum Stopp (Kenwood, 8th, 10:03.50). Bartlesville’s 3000m/2-mile group: Kadie Tank (13:24.50, 3000m), Jillian Lindblom (13:29.63, 3000m), Penny McNall (13:57.09, 3000m), Madelyn Potter (14:04.05, 3000m), Brylee Kipps (14:38.00, 2 miles), Eden Thomas (14:44.00, 2 miles), Candace Broch (14:40.79, 3000m). Short-course standouts: Paisley Kevil (Enduro Legacy MS, 8th, 6:07.33) and Lily Parker (Weatherford, 6th, 6:09.98) — another 6th grader — lead the fast milers, with Adley Bradford (Deer Creek, 7th, 6:16.15), Braylee Hay (Sweetwater, 8th, 6:31.59), and Blake’Lee Wyatt (Wright City JH, 8th, 6:36.30) behind them. Kyla Widener (Tonkawa, 6th, 10:50.36) won at Enid at an unlabeled distance.

A note on the data

One more thing, because transparency is the whole point of this site: in working through these results, we caught and removed a bad datapoint — a timing company’s PDF listed a “Dominic Matthias, 8th, Moore Junior High” running 10:41.52 for 2 miles at Elgin. That’s actually Dominic Matthias the Moore High School junior, the defending 6A state champion. Bad data in, bad list out. We’d rather have a shorter list we’re sure about than a longer one we’re not. If you spot something we’ve gotten wrong, tell us — we’ll fix it in the open.

Sources & Methodology

This is an independent ranking — our own read on who’s fastest based on verified 2026 results, not a tally of anyone else’s poll. Every athlete listed has a real, verifiable 2026 mark. No projections, no guesses, no names without times.

Standards: Girls ranked on 2400m/1.5-mile marks (the Oklahoma MS girls’ standard); boys ranked on 2-mile marks (the boys’ standard), plus one spring track 3200m. Marks at other distances are noted separately and not ranked.

Results sources:

  • twelve1running.com meet PDFs, August–October 2026 (21 meets: Enid, Wright City, Blanchard, Deer Creek MS/HS, Kingfisher, Marlow, Merritt, Cameron, Mustang MS, Mustang Night Race, Sapulpa, Mooreland, Cleora, All City, Suburban Conference, Waurika, Hobart, Elgin). Full extraction notes on file.
  • Mid-Season Meet of Champions, Lincoln Christian School, Tulsa — Sep 12, 2026 (junior high 2 miles).
  • Holland Hall Invitational, Tulsa — Sep 19, 2026 (middle school 3000m).
  • Mooreland XC Meet — Sep 5, 2026 (2 miles).
  • Outdoor track 3200m marks, spring 2026.

Caveats, stated plainly:

  • Month-level dating. Most timing-company PDFs don’t print a race date; months are inferred from the results index. Exact dates are given only where confirmed.
  • Course variance. A 2-mile on a hilly course and a 2-mile on a flat one aren’t the same race. Head-to-head results (same race, same day) carry the most weight.
  • Inferred distances. A few PDFs don’t label race distances; those are marked ~ and kept out of the ranked lists.
  • Thin data, still. MileSplit’s full middle school leaderboards require a Pro subscription, and most local outlets don’t publish junior high times. This list reflects what we could verify.
  • Living document. The BTW Invitational MS 3200m results (Sep 24) and the Owasso and Sapulpa meets are still pending. The list grows as results come in.

The Red Dirt Runner is professional, with our own ideas about who’s actually better. If you have verified middle school results we should see, we want them.