Alex Maier Looks For First Texas UIL State Cross Country Title
What: UIL State Cross Country Championship
Where: Old Settlers Park Round Rock, TX
Who Individuals: Alex Maier Flo50 No. 4
Who Teams: The Woodlands Flo50 No. 22
Why:
Flower Mound, Texas, junior Alex Maier will look to tackle the Texas UIL state cross country championship this weekend. Maier and his team will look to take home Class 6A state titles. Maier is the favorite for the individual title. He's won every meet he's raced in this year including the Marcus I Invitational, the Nike South Invitational, and his UIL 6A - Region 1 meet. Last year he finished second at the state meet behind 2017 New Braunfels Canyon graduate Sam Worley -- not to mention Maier went on to finish fifth at both Foot Locker Nationals and Nike Cross Nationals.
Some of Maier's biggest competition will come from Amarillo Tascosa's Wes Mcphail, who finished only a few seconds behind Maier at their Region meet and eighth at last year's 6A state meet. Three other strong contenders who could challenge Maier are Matthew Kearney from Austin Westlake, Ethan Hageman from San Antonio Holmes, and Gavin Hoffpauir from The Woodlands. Kearney and Hageman went 1-2 at the 6A Region 4 meet while Gavin Hoffpauir was first at the Region 2 meet. Hoffpauir was also seventh at last year's at the state meet.
Like Maier, Hoffpauir will also be running for his team as they look to take home their third state title in a row. Even though they are ranked Flo50 No. 22, there have been some strong Texas programs creeping up on The Woodlands this year who might stop them from getting the three-peat. One of those programs is El Paso Eastwood. The guys from El Paso won their Region 1 meet scoring 55 points (which is arguably the toughest region meet for Class 6A in the state). Close behind them in second was Maier's team Flower Mound with 76 points. In their region, Region 2 The Woodlands won scoring 67 points, while second place was The Woodlands College Park with 86. All four of these teams could have a horse in the mix if their guys can run well in Round Rock this weekend.
Another team you can't count out, even though they only finished third at the Region 1 meet, is Southlake Carroll. Like The Woodlands, Southlake has a long-standing tradition and history of running well at the state meet and beyond to meets like NXN and Foot Locker.
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