State Meet Hub

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2A Boys State Meet Recap

Like with the girls' race, Saturday opened with a clear favorite. For the boys, the favorites were clearly Athens Academy, and just like the Savannah Arts girls, the Athens Academy boys did not disappoint their fans.

Jackson Scruggs leads Simon Schabort early on. All Photos by Alex Brust

Coming up to the central hill for the first time, we already had a pack of four runners breaking away from the rest of the pack, to include Simon Schabort from Model, Jackson Scruggs from Athens Academy, Pepper Davis from Banks County, and Hayden Hodges from East Jackson. From a team battle, Athens Academy already clearly had their Top 5 planted in the Top 15, and just like in the girls race, sticking that pack confidently in the front early turned out to be the right move.

Eyan Zupko and Eli Moon at Separation Slope

Schabort and Scruggs turned the competition into a two man race by the time they hit Separation Slope the first time around, and from the pack we saw Vidalia taking a big swing at the team standings, moving up confidently as the masses started to thin out a bit with 5 in front of Model's number 3.

Simon Schabort Cruises home to victory

Around the 2 mile mark, Schabort made his big move, taking the lead away from Scruggs, who had been determining the pace up until that point, and Schabort made a point of creating as much separation as possible from the softball fields, back towards the central hill. From there on, it seemed like 1st place and 2nd place were pretty well settled. But behind them, things started heating up, as a blob of runners formed, trying to sort out 3rd/4th/5th/6th/7th all shoulder to shoulder going up central hill and heading towards the playground for the final time.

Athens Academy took care of business as a team

In the end, Athens Academy had the follow through they needed to cruise through the line with a cool 70 points. Model, led by Schabort's victory and Eli Moon's strong challenge among the chase pack came in second with 119 points. Then the surprises came, with Jeff Davis placing four in the Top 30 and making a name for themselves in third place, and Fannin County getting the edge on Vidalia and Mount Paran who were mentioned in front of them in the meet preview.

Pepper Davis from Banks County