PROJECT
29
Project 29 — Washington Incoming Freshman Cross Country Rankings 2026, Class of 2030
Washington's Incoming Freshman Class · Cross Country Intelligence
This cycle's subject: Class of 2030 · Fall 2026 Season
This is the wash, as promised last cycle. Every pace-hold projection, every middle school mark, every Under Verification entry with no confirmed high school landing spot — retired. It's officially 5,000-meter season, and this file now runs on one rule: a real, confirmed high school varsity 5K, from a confirmed Grade 9 athlete, or the athlete isn't on the board. No projections, no pace-holds, no distance conversions standing in for a race that hasn't happened yet. The six-board middle school architecture — 1.5 mile, 2,575m, 2 mile, 3,000m, 4,000m, and the old Under Verification queue — did its job: it surfaced athletes and leagues no standard ranking had, and roughly two-thirds of the names on it have now run a real high school 5K and moved over here on their own merit. The rest — the ones who haven't raced a real 5K yet — are simply off the board until they do. Two source tiers still apply. Secondhand reports carry "Reported — Pending Verification" until cross-checked against Athletic.net. A direct official results sheet — full team scoring, splits, varsity and JV — carries "Verified — Grade 9 (Confirmed HS Freshman)" instead. Course and conditions still swing a time significantly (see: The Mook Effect), so read every number as directional, not absolute. Spot something wrong or missing? Help Improve Project 29.
PRIMARY
SUBJECTS
One athlete per gender, the outright #1 on the newly-washed 5,000M board. No pace-hold, no projection — these are real varsity 5K results, confirmed against official results sheets.
"This file's #1 name since the first cycle. 15:51.80 at the WSU Cougar Classic, 16:08.10 at Fort Steilacoom, and 15:21.8 at Nike Bob Firman — 30 seconds under his own PR, and still 33.5 seconds clear of the next boy on the board."
"Opened with a real varsity 5K at South Whidbey. Then the Nike circuit happened — 17:52.0 at Bob Firman in Spokane, 82 seconds faster than her own opener, and still the outright #1 on this board, now 18.6 seconds clear of the pack that Hole in the Wall just tightened."
THE
GRID
One board. One distance. The middle school architecture — six boards, six distances, pace-hold projections throughout — is retired as of this cycle. What's left is the only number that was ever going to matter: a real, verified high school 5,000-meter result.
HELP IMPROVE
PROJECT 29
Middle school cross country results are often spread across district websites, timing companies, club events, and archived PDFs. While every effort has been made to build the most complete incoming freshman rankings possible, additional results and corrections are always welcome.
If you have verified performances, missing athletes, corrected schools, race results, or updates, please reach out directly.
Project 29 is intended to be a living document that improves with help from athletes, parents, coaches, and the running community.
russell@russell-moore.com
This file spent its first two cycles building a scaffold: six middle school boards, six distances, a pace-hold model that projected a real 5K out of a verified mark at some other distance. That scaffold did its job — it surfaced entire leagues, entire programs, and athletes no standard incoming-freshman ranking had touched. But a projection was always a placeholder for the thing it was standing in for.
That thing has now happened. A full slate of September invitationals — The Mook, PLU, Wenatchee, South Whidbey, Bellevue, and Fort Steilacoom — put most of this file's tracked names on a real 5K course. The scaffold comes down this cycle. What's left is the board that was always the point.
Elijah Teeples has now run three verified 5Ks — 15:21.8, 15:51.80, and 16:08.10 — and the fastest still sits 33.5 seconds clear of the rest of the board, down from 38 after Micah Henry's Oct 10 mark. Dahlia Zener's story runs the other direction: a 19:14.56 opener at South Whidbey, then 17:52.0 at Nike Bob Firman — an 82-second drop that made her the outright #1. She didn't race this weekend; the field closed on her anyway, and her lead is now 18.6 seconds.
Course and conditions didn't stop mattering just because the boards got simpler. Russell Moore's own course-variance research — the "Mook Effect" — found top runners posting times averaging over a minute faster on a single downhill-oriented course compared to their other races that same season. Several names on this board now carry two, three, even four verified 5K results from different courses, and the gap between them tells the same story: read every rank here as a snapshot of the season so far, not a settled verdict.
The biggest single input of late September is the Nike circuit — the Bob Firman Invitational in Spokane and Nike Portland XC, both Sep 26. Nineteen WA freshman girls posted marks at one or the other, and the field is deep enough that it reshuffled the top of this board outright: Dahlia Zener takes over #1, and more than a dozen other names post their season-best mark of the year at one of the two meets. Read these results in context — a circuit-level field at elevation or on a fast course is not the same test as a Tuesday dual, and several athletes on this board now carry a Nike mark alongside a much slower in-state dual mark from the same month.
Two Saturday meets — the HOKA John Payne Invite and the Nike Twilight — put 28 new season-best marks on this board: 13 boys and 15 girls. The biggest single drops among them came from girls: Maya Jaeschke (Issaquah, 93 seconds), Clara Bajema (Lynden, 91 seconds), and Serena Raaum (Kamiak, 90 seconds). On the boys' side, Alexander Erdmann (Glacier Peak) dropped 76 seconds and Brandon Smith (Kamiak) dropped 52 on his way to 15:59.9 — then a new #2, now #3. Same caveat as always: a big drop between two courses is a result worth noting, not proof of a 90-second fitness jump.
One more from the Sep 26 Nike circuit that belongs next to them: John Henry Ory (Bainbridge) ran 16:27.4 at Bob Firman, 1:44 under a secondhand report that has now been superseded and upgraded to Verified.
The biggest weekend since the Nike circuit. The Nike Hole in the Wall Invitational alone put 30 marks on the boards — 9 boys and 21 girls — with more from the Battle for the 509, the Fall Classic, Oaksridge, Max Jensen/Richland, and Rose City (Oct 9). Net result: 24 returning athletes improved, 15 new names entered, and 15 were pushed below the top-50 cut.
Girls. Six of the seven spots behind Zener now carry a Hole in the Wall mark, and the gap from #1 to #2 closed from 34.0 seconds to 18.6 as Eleanor Jones ran 18:10.6. Ellie Oakes (18:17.1) moves up to #3, and ranks 4 through 7 — Jackson, Hamon, Brewer, Dominick — now sit inside three seconds of each other. The biggest single drop was Adeline Arthur (Vashon Island, 32.6 seconds, #26 to #17); Frances Armerding (Union) took 25.2 seconds off at Rose City and jumped from #22 to #12. Issaquah now has four freshman girls on the board.
Boys. Micah Henry (Pope John Paul II) ran 15:55.3 at the Fall Classic to take #2, and Owen Loft (Mead) moved to #4 with 16:01.8 at Hole in the Wall; Brandon Smith slips to #3 without racing. The largest climb on either board belongs to Finley Langdon (Seton Catholic): 16:29.7 at Rose City, 40.3 seconds under his Nike Portland mark, #38 to #11. Jude Stadler (South Whidbey), listed at age 13, enters at #36.
Pushed below the cut. Boys (now 17:15.0 for #50): Samuel Cheney, Jacob Bayne, Harper Mapes, Reid Martin, Andrew Knowles, Josiah Strandy. Girls (now 20:13.0 for #49, tied): Violet French, Reese Jones, Ava Beck, Alexandra Wall, Rhyan Menti, Sophia Chen, Mia Colunga, Stella Paton, Lola Di Gennaro. Their verified marks stand — they just don't clear the line this week.
