Owen Munn (Greensboro Home School) has solidified himself at the top of North Carolina's cross country rankings after back to back dominant performances. Munn has raced and won the last three weekends first with Bob Schilly Invitational in 14:46 on August 16th followed up by a win at River Run on the 22nd in 15:25. Both are not commonly run courses and while the times stood out as fast, it was hard to put it into reference of a commonly run courses like Ivey Redmon, WakeMed or McAlpine.
We'll, he silenced any doubted last week winning the Northwest XC Invitational in 15:13 at Ivey Redmon over strong competitors in George Lawson and John Templeton of Forsyth Country Day School.
Owen Munn's 2025 CC - 5000 Meter Run
Top 5 Boys in 2024 at Ivey Redmon
| Rank | Time | Athlete/Team | Grade | Meet Date Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15:19.30 | Cary Academy | 2026 | |
| 2 | 15:20.88 | Unattached NC | 2025 | |
| 3 | 15:21.71 | Asheville | 2025 | |
| 4 | 15:23.19 | Riverside (7A) | 2025 | |
| 5 | 15:24.97 | Western Harnett | 2026 |
Munn is homeschooled and is certainly having a breakout junior season to ascend to the top of the North Carolina distance ranking, but he's been strong in prior years especially when considering his grade. Munn ran 15:28 at NXR Southeast to finishing 38th and 15:44 at Foot Locker South to finish 38th again against some of the South's best competition as a sophomore. On the track in the spring Munn ran 4:15 for the 1600m at the Carolina Distance Carnival to place 24th overall and ran a solo 9:22 in March in his only 3200m run of the season. If he was in a strong 3200m field over the season I'd expect he'd be around 9:10 last spring, maybe even faster as the longer distance seems to be his strength as this fall has indicated.
According to his school schedule it looks like we'll see him at Hare & Hounds in a few weeks and at Beach Blast this weekend. But if the early season has proved that Munn is a star to be on your radar for top runner in the state and could make some noise on the national stage over the next two seasons.
