Judah Alexander-Macias competes at the 2022 Texas Homeschool XC Championships
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When you have to count the score once, twice, and maybe a third time before the official results come out, then you know its a close score.
That's exactly how cross country was intended to be.
The Texas Homeschool Cross Country State Championships provided one of those types of races. The San Antonio FEAST boys wanted to win another state title and the Austin Champions squad wanted to take the trophy home for themselves.
As both teams were unleashing their strides through Spring Creek Park, coaches and supporters were screaming and shouting encouragement, but also letting them know the win wasn't in the bag and that they would have to finish the race strong to determine the winner.
After the No. 1 runners finished, it was FEAST with the lead 1<3. They grew the lead by one point through the second runners as FEAST scored 6 points to Champions' 7 points, making the score 7<10 in favor of FEAST.
TEAM SCORES PLACE TEAM POINTS SCORERS TIMES 1 San Antonio FEAST 60 1+6+14+16+23 (24+41) 2:03 1-5 Split | 17:26 Avg 2 Austin Champions 65 3+7+13+17+25 (42+45) 1:31 1-5 Split | 17:36 Avg 3 Houston Homeschool 72 2+11+12+19+28 (46+50) 1:59 1-5 Split | 17:38 Avg
The third position is where Champions dug into the ever-so-slight lead as their No. 3 runner added 13 points and FEAST's No. 3 added 14 points to make the score 21<23, still in the favor of FEAST.
It would continue to stay tight, but Champions could not pull any closer adding 42 points compared to FEAST' 39 at the four and five spots. That would tally 60 total points for FEAST and 65 for Champions making it a slim 5 point margin of victory for the defending champions.
Houston Homeschool was also in the mix as they scored 72 points to finish third place over all.
The boys individual race wasn't as close as the team competition was. Thanks in part to the run of Leander Texas Home School junior Judah Alexander-Macias. The returning runner-up finish from last year's race didn't need too much extra motivation to win this race other than subsiding the feeling of second best from last season.
One thing we knew going into the race was that Macias would likely start with an early hard and fast pace whether he had company or not. That has been his M.O.(modus operandi) all season long, no matter who his competition is.
Keeping strong with the phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," that's exactly what he displayed taking control from the gun and after a few strides, the lead was all his.
Macias took the win in 15:48, capturing his first Homeschool cross country state title.
VARSITY BOYS 5000 METER RUN FINALS PLACE ATHLETE TEAM RESULT POINTS 1 Judah Alexander-Macias 11 Leander Texas Home School 15:48.84 0 2 Farrin Mangelson 12 San Antonio FEAST 16:12.68 1 4 Luke Brooker 12 Houston Homeschool 16:40.30 2 5 Mikhail Fortner 12 Austin Champions 16:51.81 3 6 Ben Flanigan 11 San Antonio Home School Spartans 17:00.79 4 7 Beck Fournet 9 Home School Athletic Association 17:11.78 5 8 Peter Kumaus 11 San Antonio FEAST 17:12.67 6 9 Fulton Gretencord 11 Austin Champions 17:18.68 7 10 Titus Gill 9 San Antonio Home School Spartans 17:22.40 8
