Unfortunately for the senior runner, there was still one lap left. Gault held on until the final turn of the final lap when Nix, Gainesville's Marcquel Woodard, and Scheubert all slipped by him in the final stretch. Nix, the slight favorite coming into the event, would nip Woodard by half a second to win the race with a 4:33.86 time on a soggy track.
"I thought that was the last lap but (the early kick) turned out to be worth it," said Gault, who had never advanced past the region race. Nix, Woodard, Scheubert, and Gault all qualified for the sectionals later this month. "My goal is to get to the state meet in Jefferson. Maybe I could have won the race if I hadn't kicked early but I'm happy."
Nix, a junior, said he had doubts about his own strategy when Gault blew by him as the third lap finished.
"I began to second-guess myself but then I realized we still had another lap left," said Nix, who also advanced to the sectionals and a possible state berth for the first time. "I just kept to my pace and then we started to reel him in with 200 (meters) left. It feels great to be able to keep the North Hall tradition of winning this race."
Nix, Scheubert, and Woodard all were bunched together for most of the first three laps while Gault was hanging back in the pack in sixth place. But Gault turned on the speed and passed all five runners in front within a 50-meter stretch and increased his lead by a good 15 strides by the backstretch.
But Gault began to tire around the third turn while the pack of Nix, Woodard, and Scheubert closed the gap. By the fourth turn they had caught Gault and then a four-way sprint to the line made for an exciting finish.
Nix's time was a personal-best effort by over two seconds and marked the fourth straight year a North Hall runner has won a region title in the event. For Gault, it was an improvement of 15 seconds off his previous personal best.
"Actually, I had been running terrible the last couple of weeks. But I wanted to make state in my final year so I just put everything I had into it," Gault said.
Nix said he is looking forward to getting a chance to make it to Jefferson as well.
"I feel good about how I'm running right now," Nix said. "I don't know what my chances are (at Jefferson) but hopefully I can just continue to improve between now and then."
The 1600 was the only final run Wednesday and the Trojans finished with 16 points leading second-place Gainesville by eight points. West Hall is third with seven, Lanier fourth with four, Oconee County fifth with three, and White County earned one point.
North Hall's Witt Nix
http://accesswdun.com/article/2012/4/247690