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The 2022 cross country season was full of sensational performances, individual feats and surprises.
In honor of those moments on the course, MileSplit has selected superlative winners across several categories, from the top teams to the most viral moments and social media stars.
Below, enjoy our selections for the 2022 cross country end-of-season superlatives.
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TOP TEAM
Boys: Newbury Park (CA)
The Newbury Park dynasty continued this year as the star-studded program added more titles to its storied history. In the squad's first season with Tanya Brosnan -- former head coach Sean Brosnan's wife -- at the helm, it was business as usual for Newbury Park. They won another state time, this season at the California Division 2 level, and saw Lex Young win his first individual championship. Then came the shining moment in Portland where the team scored a low 66 points to win Team Nationals. The nationals win, too, saw a new individual champion emerge from the program in Aaron Sahlman, followed by Leo Young in 11th and a big performance from Brayden Seymour as their third runner on the day. That kind of depth -- and ability to continue dominating on the sports biggest stages -- makes Newbury Park an easy lock for the season's top boys program.
Girls: Saratoga Springs (NY)
As the season progressed, it was Saratoga Springs that truly stood above the rest of the field as the top girls program in the nation. Their final five performances of the season produced team speed rating averages of 133 or higher, and the squad captured their first Team Nationals since 2019 with a score of 81 points. The fall of 2022 goes down as yet another great season in the Saratoga Springs book of success in cross country as the New York powerhouse did what it's been known to do for the best decade -- win.
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BEST COME-UP
Boys: Ty Steorts, Hurricane (WV)
As a freshman in 2021, Steorts didn't even break 15:30 for 5k. This season, Steorts not only opened up with the second-best 5k time in West Virginia state history of 14:56.4, but also won seven races, including the first West Virginia Class 3A state title of his career. Steorts finished the season as our top-ranked sophomore and as one of the quickest underclassmen in the nation, truly making for a 2022 come-up worth significant recognition.
Girls: Alyssa Sauro, Williamstown (WV)
Sauro instantly drew national attention early in the season when she dropped a 16:52.11 5k personal best to win the Autumn Classic in early August. That was quite the statement for the Williamstown (WV) sophomore, who blew her freshman 5k best of 17:39 out of the water in her first race of 2022. She continued her breakout season throughout the fall and even bounced back from injury during the mid-to-late season to win a second-straight state title and qualify for the Champs Sports National XC Championships. Sauro finished 10th at the South Regional, but would go on to place ninth overall at nationals in a great close to her sophomore season. All in all, Sauro made a name for herself as an underclassman in 2022, despite some setbacks along the way, and finished the season near the top of her game.
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SOCIAL MEDIA STAR
Boys: Lex Young and Leo Young, Newbury Park (CA)
The Young brothers have become larger-than-life figures in high school running, and their social media accounts can certainly speak to that. Not only do they each have thousands of followers on Instagram -- 39.6k for Leo and 43.2k for Lex, to be exact -- but they have a widely-successful YouTube account where they vlog their workouts and races. The duo has even begun capitalizing on the value associated with their name, creating the Run Fast Apparel clothing line with brother and NCAA XC runner-up Nico Young.
Girls: Sadie Engelhardt, Ventura (CA)
Engelhardt gained quite the nation following as a freshman phenom last year, and she's continued to grow in her stardom in high school distance running. The Ventura (CA) sophomore is a regular on Instagram, and has even created a running-specific Instagram account to share race photos. And don't forget to follow her on TikTok, too. In an early-season interview with Engelhardt on On The Line, she detailed her social media presence and acknowledged that she is, indeed, active on the popular social media platform.
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MOST VIRAL MOMENT
Brendan Hebert Bandits Texas XC State Meet
Perhaps the most strange, mind-boggling moment of the cross country season -- and of the year, for that matter -- involved an old high school jersey, a former collegiate runner and an odd search for competition on Texas' biggest stage for high school cross country.
Former University of Texas distance runner and NCAA All-American Brendan Hebert performed a bandit maneuver at the UIL Texas Class 6A State Championships in November, jumping into the race after the start and racing through the finish line.
He took second to Austin Vandegrift star Kevin Sanchez but was quickly disqualified by the UIL after the finish.
The shocking moment quickly made national headlines in the running community and made the rounds on social media platforms. Hebert even deactivated his Instagram account and made his Strava account private amid all of the public attention and backlash.
After the race, MileSplit's Ashley Tysiac asked Hebert his intentions behind the bandit move.
"I just ran it for fun," he said. "I ran it, me and Kevin. I knew me and Kevin from high school."
"You do know that's not allowed, right?" we responded. "You are a college kid. You can't race in a race, correct?
"I do not race in college anymore," he said.
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BEST KICK
Coming down the homestretch at Norris Penrose in Colorado, Dominykas Remeikis and Will Brunner found themselves running stride for stride.
With the crowd roaring at the spectacle, the two Colorado talents broke out into a dead sprint for the line. In what shaped up to be one of the most exciting kicks of the season, it was Remeikis who just barely edged ahead of Brunner for the boys seeded race win at the event, clocking 15:39.3 for 5k.
Brunner finished just a tenth of a second behind the Summit High School senior in 15:39.4, a slim margin of victory that's rarely seen on the cross country course.
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MOST SURPRISING PERFORMANCE
Boys: Aaron Sahlman Wins Team Nationals
Sahlman hadn't won a single cross country race in his high school career.
His moment finally came in his final race on the cross country course.
The NAU signee had never before beaten teammates Lex and Leo Young in a cross country race, but he flipped the script at Team Nationals on Dec. 3. Sahlman kicked past Leo up the final hill to surge into the lead with the finish line in sight, earning the individual title in a Glendoveer course record of 14:44.5.
Girls: Irene Riggs Clocks 16:02 US No. 2 All-Time 5k At Team Southeast Regionals
Not only did Riggs surpass the previous WakeMed course record set by none other than Katelyn Tuohy in 2019-- she absolutely destroyed it.
16:02.1 for Riggs at the Team Southeast Regional on Nov. 26 beat out Tuohy's record of 16:22.8 by 20 seconds and went down as the second-fastest 5k cross country performance in American high school history.
It stands only four seconds behind Jenna Hutchins' 15:58.42 American record set in 2020.
And perhaps the performance appears more shocking in hindsight, too, when learning after the all-time race that a car ran over Riggs' foot earlier in the season. However, that injury appeared to be the last thing on Riggs' mind in Cary, North Carolina as she raced her way into high school cross country history.
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BEST TIK TOK
Scoring Pond Jumps At Garmin RunningLane XC Championships
After nearly every divisional race at the Garmin RunningLane XC Championships, at least a few teams made a beeline to the small pond just meters beyond the finish line at John Hunt park.
Within seconds, athletes, braving the cold and gloomy weather, showed off their canon ball skills in celebratory dips into the pond.
MileSplit Tennessee's Ben Thompson caught much of the action on TikTok and did what any great observer would do -- rated each of the pond jumps with great accuracy.
See which pond jumps earned the highest -- and lowest -- scores in the popular video, originally published on the @milesplit_tn TikTok account.