DECATUR -- In sports a "Cinderella Story" often refers to situations in which a team achieves far greater success than was expected. In May 2017, the Decatur High School Lady Bulldog track team experienced one such "Cinderella Story" of its own.
The story began on the morning of May 1, 2017, when six girls and nine boys boarded a bus driven by their coach, Shane Holland. The teams' destination, the track and field facility at Hendrix University in Conway. The event, the 1A State Track Meet.
Throughout the day, the Lady Bulldogs won event after event, bringing home six individual championships including the shot put, discus, high jump, 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, and 200-meter dash. But more than first-place points counted toward the team score. Meek took second place in the 100-meter dash and triple jump and third in the pole vault. Meek's heroic efforts in every event in which she participated earned her 54 points, nearly half the team's total score.
At the end of the day, when the final team scores were tallied, the Decatur Lady Bulldog track team took its first state track title since the girls' cross-country team in 1999.
The boys' track team were the state 1A runners-up in the same meet. Team members Ryan Shaffer, Bracy Owens, Taylor Haisman, Leng Lee, Johnny Brandon, Cayden Bingham, Jimmy Mendoza, Brandon Coker and Tafari James combined efforts earned 76 points to finish second behind Trinity Christian by 16 points.
On August 5, 2017, the 2017 track team was honored during the 64th Annual Decatur Barbecue parade when they rode on a float behind the grand marshal. The individual members were later honored in the opening ceremony of the barbecue at Veterans Park in Decatur.
Late in August 2017, John Unger, Decatur athletic director, went before the Decatur School Board with a request to purchases rings for all the state track champions between 2013-2017. The board approved the request and the ceremony was set for Jan. 5, 2018, while several of the past champions were in Decatur on college break.
During halftime of the Decatur-St. Paul senior boys' game, 13 state champions stood before Decatur sports supporters to receive these much-deserved mementos.
Those receiving state track championship rings included:
Coach Shane Holland;
2013 -- Evan Owens, pole vault (set a new state meet record at the time);
2015 -- Tyler Riddle, Marck Guadarrama, Ryan Shaffer, Taylor Haisman, 4x800 meter relay;
2016 -- Tyler Riddle, Marck Guadarrama, Ryan Shaffer, Taylor Haisman, 4x800 meter relay; Marck Guadarrama, Ryan Shaffer, Taylor Haisman, Jimmy Mendoza, 4x400 meter relay; Bracy Owens-pole vault (later broke his brother Evans' pole vault record by seven inches in 2017); Cameron Shaffer-discus;
2017 -- Ryan Shaffer, 300-meter hurdles; Taylor Haisman, Johnny Brandon, Jimmy Mendoza, Ryan Shaffer, 4x400 meter relay; Leng Lee, Cayden Bingham, Taylor Haisman, Ryan Shaffer, 4x800 meter relay; Taylor Haisman, 800-meter run; Cameron Shaffer, shot put, discus (made a personal best in the discus during this meet); Destiny Mejia, high jump; Desi Meek, 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, 200-meter run.
Sports on 01/10/2018