Class 6A boys cross country has no defending champion this fall, and that's not a technicality.
Mountain Brook won 6A four years running. Mountain Brook isn't in 6A. When the AHSAA scrapped Class 7A in January and rebuilt the top of the public-school pyramid around the 32 biggest schools in the state. What we're calling 6A this fall is effectively last year's 7A with a different number stitched on the front.
So the trophy is sitting on a table nobody in recent years has ever reached across. Vestavia Hills won the old 7A last November. Huntsville won it the year before. Both are here now, and so is everybody else who used to make that race so competitive.
Thirty of the thirty-two 6A programs put full lineups on the course last fall -- everybody but Carver-Montgomery and JAG. Score that group against itself and you get a top three, a middle four, and a whole lot of teams with a real reason to think they can climb. Here's how I see it.
Huntsville is the team to beat, and it isn't close on paper
The Panthers return the best front group in the classification. Jackson Woolsey, Tyler Mitchell and Mason Alexander all broke sixteen minutes last season, and Charlie Lehr wasn't far off. Four runners of that quality is more than most 6A teams have in their entire lineup.
What makes Huntsville dangerous isn't the star power, though. It's that the top five finished within three-quarters of a minute of each other. When your first man and your fifth man are that close, you don't have to win the race to win the race -- you just have to keep everybody upright.
That's also the worry. Cadogan Lucas has been a steady fifth, but there's a real gap back to Harrison Lehr and Cohen Livingston, and a team that thin behind the scoring five has no insurance. One bad afternoon from a No. 4 and this gets tight in a hurry. Huntsville doesn't need a sixth man to be great. It needs one to be close.
Hoover shines with a tight pack
Hoover's whole approach is to make the middle of the race unbearable. Jamie McCarthy is a legitimate front-runner, but the Bucs' seventh man was faster last year than most teams' fourth, and five of them finished inside half a minute of each other. That's a nightmare to score against.
Depth like that travels. It holds up on a hot September afternoon, it holds up when a course cuts up after rain, and it holds up when somebody's No. 2 has a bad day, because Hoover always has three guys ready to step into the hole. Baden Habegger and Henry Bowden are the ones to watch; if either starts running with McCarthy, Hoover stops being a depth team and becomes something better. Sawyer Burgess, Campbell Vick, Hazen Combs and Asa King are all close enough behind that the order could look different by October.
Ask me in October and I might have this team first.
Hewitt-Trussville has the best three and needs a fourth
Laine Walker, Noah Jordan and John Paul Amari finished within a handful of seconds of one another last fall. Three runners packed that tightly at the front is the kind of thing that decides state meets, and the Huskies scored right on top of Hoover head-to-head.
Everything hinges on what happens behind them. James Watson and Maddox Turner were the four and five, with Wyatt Moyer and Lelan Neal right there -- four runners covered by less than twenty seconds. That's a group, not a gap, and any one of them stepping toward Amari changes the math. Close half that distance and Hewitt wins a title.
Some what-ifs that decide the fall
What if Hazel Green closes the gap? Nehemiah Johnson is the fastest returner in 6A and it isn't particularly close. John Moltz and Josiah Johnson give the Trojans a low-stick trio that beats anybody's, Huntsville included. Braysen Jean and Troy Wood have both shown they can run, and the entire season comes down to how much ground they and the runners behind them can make up over the summer. Get that four-five group into the 16:30s and Hazel Green is a title contender with the best front three in the state. That's the biggest single swing available to anybody in this class.
What if Vestavia Hills does what Vestavia Hills always does? The Rebels won the largest classification in 2022, 2023 and 2025. They came out of last season with a wide spread and two front runners in Daniel Johnson and Ezra Booher. I've watched this program pull a spread shut in October enough times to be careful about writing them off in August. David McBrayer and Creed Booher tightening onto that front pair is all it takes. Ignore them early at your own risk.
The individual race
Nehemiah Johnson is the favorite and should be. He has the fastest time in the class by a comfortable margin and he's back, with that said I do not know who has been putting in the work in the offseason. There very well could be another 10-15 guys who all trained well enough to be at the top come November.
How I'd rank them today based on returners
- Huntsville
- Hoover
- Hewitt-Trussville
- Vestavia Hills
- Auburn
- Hazel Green
- Oak Mountain
- Buckhorn
- Grissom
- Spain Park
I've got Vestavia fourth on reputation and Hazel Green sixth despite having the best runner in the field. Vestavia has proven year after year they are prepared for the state meet, but this may be a rebuilding year for them. Ask me again in October.