Last Friday, May 11, 2012, on his last jump and the next to last jump of the competition, Luis Vega came sprinting down the runway putting together three good jumps to go into first place by 2 inches. The celebration only lasted a minute as the previous leader, Corban McDonald of Post, prepared to take back the lead on his last jump. The pressure was on as he had lost his lead on the previous jump and had only the last jump of the competition to get it back. Corban came down the runway and scratched for the only time in the meet. Luis Vega at that instant became the state champion.The road to the state championship started in the 7th grade. In the 8th grade, he started working out with the high school and won district. As a freshman, on his last jump of 39' 10" at district he moved into 2nd place breaking up the top three, all from Bangs. One of the Bangs boys passed Luis, leaving Luis in 3rd place. At regional Luis did not make the finals.In his sophomore year, his best jump was at district at 42' 8". He came in 2nd to Eric Heinrichs of Hico. The goal was to beat Eric at regional which Luis did and came in 6th. This year Luis only jumped in two meets before district. At district, Luis jumped 43' 10 3/4" to again come in second to Heinrichs. Again we set the goal of beating Heinrichs. On his first jump at regional, Luis set the bar high with a jump of 45' 8 1/2". At the end of five jumps, our district had Luis in first, Heinrichs in second, and a boy from Hamilton in third. On Corban McDonald’s last jump, he went 46' 2" to claim the regional title. We have a very good triple jump district. Luis improved 20 inches between district and regional.With the goal of beating McDonald & Heinrichs, since Heinrichs would be at state by the wild card rule. The wild card rule is the best third place finisher of the four regions. Luis went into state as the third best jumper behind McDonald and Wykeyhe Walker of San Antonio Cole. The first jump, Walker jumped 45’1" while Luis jumped 45' 1 1/2" to hold first after the first jump. On the second jump, McDonald jumped 45' 9 1/2" to take first. Nothing changed until the last jump when Walker jumped 45' 6" to move into second place. The next jumper was Luis followed by McDonald. Under the pressure of one last jump, Luis came through with his 45' 11 3/4" jump. We did not get our 20 inch improvement between regional and state, but we did improve 3 inches and that was enough. San Saba High School Junior LUIS VEGA, STATE CHAMPION in the Triple Jump.Luis is the son of Luis and Martha Vega.