East Moline’s Rubi Tapia-Macias wins WB6 Cross Country championship and MVP honors
Believe it or not,
2003 was the last time when a girl from United Township High School won the Western Big 6 individual title in Cross Country. This year Rubi Tapia-Macias, a UT freshman, broke that spell and was also named MVP at the conference meet.
Born and raised in the Quad Cities, Tapia-Macias started playing soccer and running when she was in elementary school.
“I started running when I was 9 with the Girls on the run GOTR,” she said.
Although soccer is something she greatly enjoys, running was what won her this prestigious title in the WB6. This year’s Western Big 6 Conference cross-country meet was the first ever for Tapia-Macias and she definitely showed she is a force to be reckoned with. Not only did she set her personal record of 18:06.2 finishing as WB6 girl’s champion, but also she was named girls MVP.
“I won the Western Big 6 title,” Tapia-Macias said. “it’s 8 schools competing in this cross country meet and I got first as a freshman when I’m competing against all grades including seniors.”
For the final two laps of her run, she was side by side with another student, but Tapia-Macias made a final push and won the conference by 3.2 seconds.
“Winning this title made me feel scared, and nervous because I was interviewed and got a lot of attention when I’m so shy and not used to being the center of attention,” the UT freshman shared her feelings.. “But in the end, it also made me realiza that I’m more capable of something I never thought I could.”
