There was a tight pack early on with Isaac McGill, a Senior from Amarillo, taking the lead through the first lap at a comfortable cruise. McGill came through the first split with a 1:13, while Kevin Hernandez, a Senior from Donna and Jace Poole, a Senior from Leander were close on his heels.
Still tightly bunched through two laps McGill, Hernandez and Poole were still your leaders. Hernandez pushed ahead to lead with 5 laps to go and the pace picked up a bit, he had a 1:08 split. McGill dropped to second with Garrick Spieler, a Junior from Frisco Reedy gained ground to claim 3rd place.
Hernandez and McGill came through with 3 laps to go and Ayden Granados, a Junior from McAllen Memorial made his move. There was a tight pack through this lap with no one giving up. At 2k it was Hernandez, McGill and Granados rounding out the tightly packed group.
All of the sudden out of nowhere, Walker St. John, a Senior from Grapevine cranked it up and went from 6th place to 2nd place in the blink of an eye.
Grandos took the lead with two laps to go, McGill and St. John following closely behind him.
At the bell lap Granados led, but St. John was gaining ground quickly waiting for the right time to kick. Granados and St. John pulled away from the rest of the pack and it was on to see who would finish first. With 100 left, St. John turned on the jets and won the gold medal with a time of 9:07.78. Granados came in 2nd with a time of 9:08.91 and McGill captured the bronze medal with a time of 9:15.53.
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Walker St. John (3) came from the back of the pack to win the UIL 5A boys 3,200m
Photo Credit: Jamison Michaels
