The middle school mile from Parkview Distance Kickoff
All eyes were on Ella Gibbs. The 8th grader from Bleckley County had come up to the metro area to race. Because it's still middle school, they were able to combine the race so that the boys would race girls of their own ability. You have to hand it to her. This is yet another example of her getting thrown into a race "because she's fast enough" for it. The first time was when she was put in a 3200 heat was at Hillgrove Twilight 3200 at the end of XC season and showed up to beat 3 individual state XC champions. And now here she was again getting thrown into the fastest heat with the fastest middle school boys at the meet. That almost certainly comes with quite a bit of pressure. And she seems to handle herself with a tremendous amount of poise and grace. But most importantly, she shows up to race.
But she's only part of the story here. There were some boys who were hungry for the win as well. Maverick Smith was the only sub 5:00 seed and while he hadn't run the time yet, he was coming off of a very strong cross country season. Finn Wakeman didn't run cross country, but he had a strong track season last year and was ready to go. And then there was William Malueg who has consistently been getting better and recently ran a PR of 5:22 in what appears to be his first ever 1600.
The race opened up quick early with all four athletes up front in the lead pack as expected. Smith led early but it was anybody's race at this point. Near the end of the first lao there was some jostling and Gibbs wound up in the lead at the state of the 2nd lap. Not much happened this lap as everybody was still in it at the halfway point. But at the start of the 3rd lap, Gibbs made her bid and opened up a gap and most were struggling to hang on. Here we go again. After picking up the pace, only Wakeman and Malueg were still with her and looked to be hanging on.
But on the last lap, Malueg used a huge kick to take the lead and eventually pull away from everybody as the gap did nothing but grow on the last lap when he brought home the win in an impressive time of 5:04. Wakeman held on for 2rd in 5:09 and Gibbs finished an impressive 3rd in 5:11 while Smith took 4th in 5:14. Expect all four of these young runners to be on the scene for years to come in the sport in this state.
The middle school mile from Parkview Distance Kickoff
All eyes were on Ella Gibbs. The 8th grader from Bleckley County had come up to the metro area to race. Because it's still middle school, they were able to combine the race so that the boys would race girls of their own ability. You have to hand it to her. This is yet another example of her getting thrown into a race "because she's fast enough" for it. The first time was when she was put in a 3200 heat was at Hillgrove Twilight 3200 at the end of XC season and showed up to beat 3 individual state XC champions. And now here she was again getting thrown into the fastest heat with the fastest middle school boys at the meet. That almost certainly comes with quite a bit of pressure. And she seems to handle herself with a tremendous amount of poise and grace. But most importantly, she shows up to race.