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The 4A Boys race was supposed to be a barn burner from the start with some fast boys out quick throwing punches right away. Instead, the boys kept everybody in suspense all the way through the two mile mark. But when these guys broke the race open, they REALLY broke it open.

In the beginning, all the way through the mile mark, we had no clear separation between our front runners or any sort of a chase pack. With juggernauts Joe Sapone and Alex Arrambide in the mix, this felt odd. But since Sapone and Arrambide both have such incredible kicks, maybe they were approaching this with a sort of sit-and-kick mentality, with both want-to-be State Champions thinking their kick was the stronger of the two?

Either way, whatever the thinking, we made it all the way through Separation Slope the first time with STILL no separation between our front runners and the rest of the top 7. Even in the chase pack, we had a tight cluster of racers all the way through 30, or 35 places leaving everybody still in the hunt for the title, and the question finally just became "when will somebody take their shot?" When will a team's pack make their big push? Or when will Arrambide/Sapone try to get away?

Apparently the answer was the two mile mark. For everybody. Arrambide threw in a big, gutsy move to create separation from the front 7 seemingly out of nowhere, emerging from behind the softball fields with a big gap over the rest of the field and the chase pack also blowing themselves open. Westminster positioned themselves incredibly well early, with Esfan Daya and Joseph Jacquot able to respond to Arrambide's move well, and the rest of Westminster's scorers near the front of that chase pack that was suddenly tearing forward, keeping all 7 of their runners confidently in the top 15 or so, with other contenders, like Starrs Mill, right on their tails but just not necessarily in the driver's seats.

And as earnest as Joe Sapone's response was to Arrambide's move, and as big of a push as Starr's Mill made in the back woods, those big, sudden moves around the 2 mile mark ended up being insurmountable, with Alex Arrambide talked in the post-race interview about how that sort of a big move, unanswerable move was something that he had actively been practicing this season. So kudos to him and the East Forsyth coaching staff for having that foresight and for executing their plan so well in the end! And kudos to Westminster for reflecting the move in their own attacks.

From a team perspective, Westminster was able to claim the title with a meager 54 points, their 3/4/5/6 combination all piling into the top 22. Starr's Mill came in 2nd after making some big second half moves in the woods, and up separation slope to score 66 points with their incredibly tight :23 second gap, but the Daya/Jacquot 3/4 finish for Westminster was a hard pair to overcome once they got away.

Finishing 3rd we had Clarkston, led by Abenezer Woellore's top-10 finish, and finishing 4th was Pace Academy who successfully put both their boys and girls teams on the podium in an especially successful full-school day!