The 5A Boys 3200m lived up to its billing as one of the
races to watch. Grapevine's Adam Burlison took the early lead and was at the
front of the lead pack until two laps remained. By that point, Burlison and
Ayden Granados of McAllen Memorial, the silver medalist from 2022, had broken
away from the rest of the group.
Granados made his move to take the lead with 800m remaining and Burlison stuck to him over the next 700m. Finally, with 100m to go it was Burlison who had more left in the tank and he was able to outkick Granados to the finish line. Both runners broke the previous meet record of 8:58.86. Burlison finished in 8:54.47 while Granados crossed in 8:57.29. Georgetown's Joseph Wienen posted a furious late kick to take the bronze medal.
The end of the race was not without incident.
Montgomery Lake Creek senior and Texas A&M University commit Carter Gordy used a 1:08.76 seventh lap to move into fourth place. His last lap was on pace for a 1:03 or faster last lap. That had put him safely in third place and with about 10 meters on the fourth and fifth position runners. Over the final 100m of the race, fatigue began to set in and Gordy was needing the finish line to come sooner than later.
That didn't happen and 10 meters from the line Gordy's legs gave out and he fell to the track with 9:12 on the clock. In the Texas UIL league, only the top three finishers make the awards podium. With that in mind, Gordy urgently rolled over and made it back to his feet to try to fend off the other runners who were quickly approaching. Pushing up and off of all fours, he made back on his feet, only making it three strides further before falling again.
After falling a second time and clearly disoriented, Gordy was passed by Joseph Wienen (Georgetown) for third place. Wienen was battling Henok Hagos (San Antonio Jefferson) for fourth before passing Gordy on the right. Hagos, who hasn't been running for a calendar year yet seemed (unconfirmed) as if he thought one of the earlier lines on the track were the finish line and he wanted to avert running over Gordy. He walked off of the track onto the grass when he eventually crossed the finish line.
Gordy, after the nearly 10 second debacle crawled to the finish line to finish fourth in 9:22.35.
