By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

There are three boys and three girls cross-country teams among the top-25 teams in the state regardless of classification through Oct. 16, per Alabamarunners.com. The way the teams have been ranked is taking each runner from each school’s personal best for the season and comparing them, with the top five performers from each team being averaged.

For the boys, Oak Mountain is currently the fourth-best team in the state, and third best in class 7A behind Mountain Brook and Auburn. The Eagles have three of the top 25 runners in the state in Cole Stidfole, Caleb Van Geffen and Sean Drummond, and two of the top 20 in Stidfole and Van Geffen.

Spain Park is the 15^th-ranked team in the state and is led by Cole Dillard, the only Jaguar with a top-100 time in the state at 16:53.74. Morgan Becker, Jacob Warner, Kai Ozug and Isaac Shore rounding out the top-5 Spain Park runners. Thompson comes in as the 21^st-ranked team in the state and 11^th-ranked team in 7A. Conner Murphy has led the way for Thompson so far with a time of 16:51.33, followed by Christian Anderton at 16:58.34 and Brandon DeMarcus Lee at 17:11.37.

On the girls’ side of the spectrum, Spain Park is the second-rankedd team in the country, regardless of classification, behind only 7A rival Mountain Brook. Four of the top five runners for the Lady Jaguars currently own top-35 times in the state and all five are in the top-60. Sarah Sims McGrath, Isabel Caddo and Zoe Shore all have run under 19 minutes to date this year.

Westminster School at Oak Mountain is the 21^st-ranked school in the state, and second ranked team in the 1A-2A class. Maddie Hoaglund and Sarah Kate Lipperd both have times in the top-100, Hoaglund at 19:36.48 and Lipperd at 20:10.55. Oak Mountain comes in as the 23^rd-ranked team in the state. The Lady Eagles are led by Nicole Payne, a freshman who has run an 18:57.70 this year, good for 17^th-best in the state. Evie Bell, Mallory Staubach, Meisi Jacobs and Clair Kicklighter round out the top 5 for Oak Mountain.