Marshall County’s track team traveled to Chattanooga, Tenn. to compete in Saturday’s Fast Break Invitational at Chattanooga Christian School. Both the girl’s and boy’s teams came away with the meet title but it was what happened in their pre-meet meal on Friday at the Hamilton Place Olive Garden that will stay with the student-athletes forever.
When Assistant Manager Bill Funderburk discovered the team was from Marshall County, he wanted to show them there are people who care about them and he showed that to the team in a big way…by picking up their $789.26 bill.
Coach Cory Westerfield said it’s hard to put into words how much the gesture touched them. Westerfield said Funderburk discovered where the team was from in a conversation with the team’s bus driver then called his boss in Atlanta.
“They ended up comping our entire meal which was close to $800, only asking that we take care of his servers”, Westerfield said. “We were just absolutely floored by the gesture. Just the outpouring of that kind of gesture and the love that it takes to do something like that for a group of people you’ve never met just shows that there are a lot of good people out there in the world. We definitely stressed that point with our kids as we talked about it. I tried to remind them that you don’t let one bad act ruin or change the person you are meant to be. It was just unbelievable for them to do that. The kids definitely understood what was going on and thanked the manager and asked him to take a picture with them so they could remember it. What an impactful thing to do for them….they will never forget that.”
Westerfield said it was a great trip and the team loved the Chattanooga hospitality they were shown.
“All of the coaches were in tears and many of the kids”, Westerfield added. “It restores your faith in humanity, and we believe God has really worked through a lot of people to help us in the healing process.”
At Saturday’s meet, boy’s team first place point total of 163 was well ahead of second place Bradley Central with 113 points and remain undefeated in meets this season. Third went to Christian Academy of Knoxville with 69 points in a field of 13 teams. The girl’s tied for first with Signal Mountain, both with 107 points. Third went to Chattanooga Christian with 85.5 points in a field of 15 teams.
The boys recorded six first place finishes that included Bryce Flatt in the 400 meters, Cade Flatt in the 800 meters, the 4 x 100, 4 x 200 and 4 x 800 relay teams and Zach Fiser in the discus. Two first place finishes for the girls came from Tori McCracken in the high jump and Audrey Grizzard in pole vault.
Marshall County Fast Break Invitational results:
| EVENT | PLACE | ATHLETE | RESULT |
| BOYS | |||
| 100 meters | 4 | Tanner Clough | 11.90 |
| 12 | Jacob Miller | 12.27 | |
| 15 | Wade Derrington | 12.30 | |
| 200 meters | 3 | Tanner Clough | 23.24 |
| 11 | Wade Derrington | 24.30 | |
| 20 | Jacob Miller | 25.60 | |
| 400 meters | 1 | Bryce Flatt | 53.51 |
| 8 | Max Brown | 57.89 | |
| 16 | Luke Wyatt | 1:01.34 | |
| 800 meters | 1 | Cade Flatt | 2:04.68 |
| 5 | Christian Cosner | 2:11.44 | |
| 7 | Samuel Lanham | 12.68 | |
| 1600 meters | 5 | Samuel Lanham | 4:54.97 |
| 10 | Ethan Dowell | 5:09.71 | |
| 13 | Knox Sandlin | 5:12.42 | |
| 110 hurdles | 2 | Jackson Brown | 16.32 |
| 4 | Justin Wilson | 17.80 | |
| 300 hurdles | 3 | Jackson Brown | 41.58 |
| 6 | Justin Wilson | 47.35 | |
| 4×100 relay | 1 | Kirby, Clough, Derrington, Miller | 44.90 |
| 4×200 relay | 1 | Kirby, Derrington, Brown, Clough | 1:36.13 |
| 4×800 relay | 1 | C Cosner, M Cosner, B Flatt, C Flatt | 8:40.08 |
| Shot | 2 | Austin Clark | 44-06.00 |
| 3 | Zach Fiser | 41-10.25 | |
| Discus | 1 | Zach Fiser | 140-06 |
| 5 | Austin Clark | 109-09 | |
| 7 | Aaron Sutter | 100-08 | |
| High jump | 3 | Zach Simmons | 5-08 |
| 4 | Cade Flatt | 5-06 | |
| Pole vault | 3 | Caleb Pahl | 11-06 |
| 4 | Bryce Ladd | 10-06 | |
| Long jump | 3 | Jake McNeely | 18-11.75 |
| 6 | Aaron Reed | 18-05.75 | |
| 19 | Drake May | 15-05.50 | |
| Triple jump | 2 | Jake McNeely | 37-00.00 |
| GIRLS | |||
| 100 meters | 16 | Hannah Perry | 14.57 |
| 20 | Mary Grace Thompson | 14.97 | |
| 200 meters | 11 | Michaela Rogers | 29.10 |
| 19 | Hannah Perry | 30.90 | |
| 23 | Mary Grace Thompson | 31.60 | |
| 400 meters | 6 | Tori Ford | 1:05.31 |
| 12 | Sydney Reed | 1:10.92 | |
| 800 meters | 4 | Bailey Sandlin | 2:40.89 |
| 7 | Chloe Newton | 2:50.16 | |
| 1600 meters | 5 | Alexia Minter | 6:09.98 |
| 8 | Tarryn Story | 6:36.06 | |
| 100 hurdles | 3 | Kelyn Mannon | 18.54 |
| 6 | Kaylee Blackford | 19.01 | |
| 4×100 relay | 4 | Grizzard, Rogers, Mannon, Hurst | 53.82 |
| 4×200 relay | 3 | Hurst, Grizzard, Rogers, Mannon | 1:56.14 |
| 4×800 relay | 3 | Sandlin, Ford, Newton, Minter | 11:09.64 |
| Shot | 7 | Abigail Oakley | 26-04.50 |
| 14 | Mary Grace Thompson | 22-08.50 | |
| 15 | Chandler Fulton | 22-05.50 | |
| Discus | 6 | Abigail Oakley | 85-04 |
| 7 | Allison Walker | 81-00 | |
| 11 | Chandler Fulton | 65-08 | |
| High jump | 1 | Tori McCracken | 5-02 |
| 4 | Presleigh Jennings | 4-06 | |
| Pole vault | 1 | Audrey Grizzard | 9-00 |
| 2 | Sydney Temple | 8-06 | |
| 3 | Chloe Newton | 7-06 | |
| Long jump | 14 | Kaylee Blackford | 12-02.50 |
| 17 | Sofia Bayer | 10-04.00 | |
| Triple jump | 3 | Tori McCracken | 30-01.50 |
| 6 | Sydney Temple | 28-10.50 | |
| 9 | Kaylee Blackford | 27-06.00 |