Published: May 16, 2008 02:46 pm         

RISD athletes bring home medals from state meet

By David Claybourn

Herald-Banner Sports



Rockwall High School qualified two pole vaulters and Rockwall-Heath one sprinter to the UIL State Track and Field Championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin last Friday and Saturday.

All three brought home medals, with Rockwall vaulters Shelby Kennard and Grant Gunderson capturing silver and bronze in their respective divisions and Heath's Travis Cunningham winning bronze in the 400-meter dash.

Cunningham took the stage first in the Class 4A 400 at approximately 7:55 p.m. on Friday. He closed out his stellar high school career with a third-place finish in a time of 48.35 to become the first state track and field medalist for Rockwall-Heath.

Rockwall junior Kennard, competing in her third straight state meet, then took the spotlight on Saturday and claimed the 5A silver medal with a new personal record 12-9, surpassing her previous school-record 12-7.

"I was a little disappointed at first because I wanted more," said last year's bronze medalist Kennard. "But, after watching the video on how close I was to clearing 13-0, I'm happy."

According to Rockwall vaulting coach Toby Howell, both the boys and girls 5A pole vaults were highly competitive.

"But, nobody was more competitive than our kids. Shelby's miss at 13-0 on her second attempt was as close as I've ever seen her miss. And, Grant could easily have won the boys competition. I was really proud of both of them."

Gunderson, who is also a junior, actually ended in a 3-way tie for first at 15-06, but won the bronze medal on number of attempts. Seven vaulters were still in the competition after clearing 15-0. Gunderson's 15-06 matched his personal record set at the Region II meet in Waco two weeks ago.

State record holder Shade Weygandt of Mansfield won the girls division with a 13-0 and David McKenzie of Katy Taylor finished first (15-06) and Greg Gabrish of Humble Kingwood second (15-06) in the boys with positions based on number of misses.

Rowlett junior Marquise Goodwin was the MVP of the meet with five medals, including golds in the long jump and triple jump, gold in the 4X100 relay, silver in the 100 and a bronze in the 4X200 relay.

His outstanding outing also boosted Rowlett to the 5A boys team championship;

Skyline claimed the 5A girls title with a final victory in the 4X400 relay; Lancaster's boys captured the 4A team title and the Lancaster girls won their eighth consecutive state championship after a strong challenge from Fort Worth Dunbar.

Dunbar's Victoria Jordan set a new state record in the 4A 100 with her time of 11.16. The clocking was just shy of the national mark of 11.14 by Marion Jones, set in 1992.

Jordan was also a member of Dunbar's 4X200 relay that set a new state record of 1:36.17.

Desoto junior Skylar White and Southlake Carroll senior Colby Lowe repeated as state champions in two events, with White winning the girls shot put (46-5 1/4) and discus (154-6) and Lowe coming in first in the 1600 (4:06.87) and 3200 (8:53.32). Lowe's 3200 state victory was his third straight.