Several boys with state hardware return for the 2026 high school cross country season, including gold medalist John Boland of Antonian, who was the 2025 Express-News Boys Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
Boland is set to make his season debut this week hoping to build off a dominating season in both cross country and track. Boland, the 2025 Express-News Boys Cross Country Athlete of the Year, is the reigning TAPPS Class 6A state champion in cross country. His effort led the Apaches to their 15th team title. He finished second at the 2024 state meet.
Cantu finished sixth in the event with a time of 16:00.7 to help the Pirates claim the team title for the second consecutive year. As a freshman, Cantu finished sixth overall to lead the Pirates to back-to-back UIL Class 3A state championships in 2025. He's displayed improvement early in the 2026 season, clocking a personal best 15:56.73 for 5,000 meters in taking eighth place at the San Antonio Friday Night Lights meet to open the season.
Cypert finished seventh in the event with a time of 15:38.5. Cypert is one of the area's rising distance runners. He finished seventh at last year's UIL Class 4A state cross country championships and followed it up with a state gold medal performance in the 1,600-meter run during spring's track season. Edwards has displayed the most improvement of any area boys runner since last season. Edwards has the area's second fastest time this season (15:30.03 from San Antonio Friday Night Lights).
He recorded a 16:23.90 while finishing 42nd at last year's UIL Class 5A state cross country meet.
He was third at TAPPS state in 2024.
Love has a new home after transferring from Clemens where he placed 15 th at the UIL Class 6A state championships in 2025. Love's time – 15:30.80 – would have placed him second in 3A, which is Marion's classification. Love has two victories at 5,000 meters in 2026 - Friday Night Lights and at New Braunfels Long Creek.
