The Malibu grad turned teammate bonds into CIF success across cross country, track, and swimming
Before Ranger Murphree ever lined up for Malibu High’s cross country or track and field squads, he wasn’t too enamored with running competitively.
“I enjoyed swimming more,” he recalled, reflecting on a youth spent juggling multiple sports — cross country, soccer, swimming, and track.
Everything shifted in the fall of his freshman year. Murphree found camaraderie among the cross country team — a connection that fueled his athletic drive.
“The cross country group was such a fun group of people,” he said. “I felt the most connected to them because we were such a small group.”
Murphree finished first in a freshman division of two-mile Palos Verdes Invitational and second in a freshman division of the 2.93-mile Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational that season.
He continued to run to top finishes in cross country and in track throughout his years in high school.
Murphree notched 11 top-ten finishes in cross country between his sophomore and senior years. On the track, he consistently placed among the top finishers in the 400m, 800m, 1600m, 3200m, and the 4×100 and 4×400 relay.
Murphree had a sixth-place time of 17 minutes and 12.0 seconds in CIF Southern Section Division 5 Cross Country Preliminaries last November. He finished 45th in a field of 120 competitions in the finals with a time of 17:19.1.
A month before he graduated high school, Murphree surged past more than 30 runners to place eighth in the 800 meters at the CIF-SS Division 4 Prelims on May 10, finishing in 2:01.25. He completed the event in 2:00.87 to finish seventh in the finals seven days later.
Murphree is proud of his CIF qualifications.
“I’m definitely happy with going to CIF finals in track and cross country,” he said. “It is all I can ask for.”
Those weren’t Murphree’s only CIF appearances.
He finished seventh in the prelims and fourth in the 800 Division 4 finals in 2024. Murphree was also part of a quartet that included Satchel Reid and twins Lloyd and Harold Bema who placed 13th in the 4×400 relay prelims in 2023.
Murphree, a sophomore then, admired his relay squad teammates.
“I thought they were so cool and so much better than me,” he said. “They were really fast at sprinting.”
Across his junior and senior years, Murphree consistently landed among the top two finishers in nearly 40 races spanning the 800 to 3200 and relay events.
Improving his times in the 1600 and 3200 spurred him on throughout his senior campaign, but a slight injury hampered that effort.
A galvanizing force for Murphree in high school was his sister Tallulah, who also graduated this year with accolades in running, swimming, and water polo under her belt. The two competed together throughout their youth.
“Tallula was definitely motivation for me to go faster,” Ranger noted. “In some things we were similar speeds, so it was easy to compete. I was always proud of her. She motivated me.”
The siblings’ brother, Wylie, also a 2025 Malibu graduate, is the Sharks’ record holder in the discus throw.
Ranger said the three cheered each other on at meets.
“We were there for each other,” he said. “Preparing for races, preparing for practices.”
Murphree played on the Sharks’ soccer team as an underclassman and swam on the swim team from his freshman to junior years. He said his training with the Malibu Seawolves swim club led to him qualifying for the 2024 CIF-SS Division Preliminaries’ boys 100-yard backstroke, in which he placed 24th.
“I was swimming by best times,” he said.
Murphree, a lifeguard at state beaches in Malibu, is interested in completing triathlons in the future. While in college at the University of California, Berkeley, he expects to join a club swim team, which will help any running he wants to do.
“I really enjoyed competing,” Murphree said. “That is my favorite part of track and cross country. Swimming has always been helpful for my running. That will continue to keep me in shape for running.”