Nick Salonites- Jesuit CA. Was varsity XC as a freshman. Gave up the sport sophomore/junior year. Went back senior year. Helped the team get 4th in the merge at CIF. During Matt strangio’s senior year. Team Should have gotten an at-large over Eastwood TX who ended up getting last at NXN Salonites did basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. Never track in the spring
Stan Drutkowski - rosemount 2008 grad - never did track - played spring lacrosse instead Tommy Linder - rosemount 2013 grad - never did track in hs - played baseball instead. All conference for XC in 2012 Clayton Smith - rosemount 2015 grad - never did track - played lacrosse instead. All conference twice for xc. Raced at state with the team twice All 3 raced at state with the team at least once in XC
Stan Drutowski did run track. Don't think Lacrosse was a MN sport before his junior year.
Victor Neiva at UNT (individual qualifier this year for NCAA cross). Only 2 years of high school cross, had 1st real track season cancelled due to Covid.
5th at UIL 6A state meet, only a Soph. Eligibility right now for NCAA
Not exactly the same, but Wausau East's (WI) Erek Ross both captained the soccer team (was all-conference too) and ran XC and was a state qualifier during the fall of both his junior and senior years.
Grant / Aidan Matthai. Did XC in 8th grade. Didn’t start running again until junior year XC. Both scored for varsity. One of them made state. Joined track junior year. Played volleyball in 9th and 10th grade. Also here is an interview about them
This doesn't fit your prompt, but it's similar. Kim Betz, who played soccer and ran track in high school (Cincinnati Turpin, Class of 1986), did not run cross country until she got to college. However, as a sophomore at Indiana University, she actually won the 1987 NCAA Cross Country Championship.
David McWilliams of Naperville North high school in 2008 ran a 14:35 at Detweiler in Illinois and placed 8th at state. He then placed 30th at NXN and helped his team place 3rd overall. He only did baseball in the spring.
The obvious answer is Trevor Reinhart of Marin, who was FOOT LOCKER ALL AMERICAN **Twice**, back when FL was still getting the best individuals in 2013 and 2014, the two years Grant Fisher won FL. He played lacrosse instead of track, but still finished:
2013: 12th as a junior
2014: 7th as a senior, only 16 seconds behind Fisher and 5 seconds behind Hunter.
On athletic.net, he only has 1 race listed for his entire HS career, a 1600m league meet race.
Shawn Doherty - Prior Lake - quit track after sophomore year. Did Ultimate Frisbee junior / senior year Scored for the state qualifying XC team as a senior in 2014. First state berth since 1993 or so
New Jersey runners from 2015-2018 will remember Ramsey Little. 15:22 for 5k XC, 16:08 at Holmdel. Didn't always put it together in postseason, but was always a factor. Never ran a single season of track; he skied and played golf instead.
On a sidenote, he just finished 14 at the Northeast Regional this past weekend.
29:49 on an XC course is legit. He’s the real deal. Let’s see what he does indoors
Opposite, but Peoria (IL) Bergan's Suzie Tuffey (Class of 1984) won several State titles in track, from 800m to 3200, but didn't run CC, as she played fall tennis. She set a few then-high school track records. After signing with NC State, she won NCAA XC as a freshman in her first season ever racing XC.
We had a guy in HS who was varsity and in our top 4 his freshmen through junior years (didn't do xc senior year) and he didn't do any other sports at all.
Interesting…what did he do in the spring? I only see track results for him for January and June.
maybe he played another spring sport and took those opportunities to run track races in the winter and summer?
haha He wasn't allowed to represent his school during track if I remember correctly. So essentially the only meets he could run were like invitationals and national meets. He also was a world junior champion in the triathalon back then.
The obvious answer is Trevor Reinhart of Marin, who was FOOT LOCKER ALL AMERICAN **Twice**, back when FL was still getting the best individuals in 2013 and 2014, the two years Grant Fisher won FL. He played lacrosse instead of track, but still finished:
2013: 12th as a junior
2014: 7th as a senior, only 16 seconds behind Fisher and 5 seconds behind Hunter.
On athletic.net, he only has 1 race listed for his entire HS career, a 1600m league meet race.