Sports 6pm

as one of their students just shattered…..not just a state wide…..but a country wide record but as you’ll see, defying the odds is nothing new for dennis mejia “the 20 meter pacer test will begin in 20 seconds. line up at the start.” the pacer test is a simple program. a running timer starts slowly, but gets faster once you hear this single nat pop all the students have to do, is reach the other endline before they hear this sound nat pop “the pacer test is the true test of endurance, for the kids. its a measurement of students ability to run.” this nation wide test has been used at central middle school for the past 8 years. 4 years ago anthony fisher set a school and state record with 146… a record that stood, until last week “it blew my mind to think that someone took my record, ya know, 5 years holding onto that, was real big to be remembered here, and someone just knocking it off, was pretty crazy.” enter christian cortez benaport… he would raise the bar to over 150 “for me i thought i did like a 100 something, and then when they told me, i felt proud of myself.” but even that record, was nothing compared to what denis mejia was going to do the test began, and slowly, other students stopped.. 100 passed, then 150, and he kept going “everybody was kind of just sitting down, and like just chanting and like cheering for him to keep going.” he reached 200 without slowing. at 247, he was still going, but the machine shutoff, with denis becoming the first student in the programs history, to complete the test. “my mind was blown, my mind was blown. we were all like amazed, i mean, that was amazing to me, i was very proud of him.” “his friend told him that the record was 250, so he put it in his mind that he was going to break 250.” and that’s what’s defined denis. not running, so much as chasing. chasing records, and chasing his dreams born in hondurous, in a poor family… his mother decided when he was 4, that she would move to america to chase a better life. denis stayed behind with his grandparents “every time there was like a holiday, she would always send him money, then one day, immigration called her, sang that there was a boy there, saying that she was his mom. he had taken n money from his grandparents, and took bus, and with other people, came to the united states.” he came, chasing a dream of his own. “he prays to god, he wants to be famous and help people that don’t have much.” and the chase of his american dream, isn’t done just yet. “when he sees soccer on tv, he says he is going to be there one day.” now the school was so inspired by his record, that they are now going to put on a state wide compeition, with a few different age brackets dennis will have a chance to see how he matches up against high schoolers now too that compeition will be held at central middle on friday, october 21st that’s it for sports – more news and weather straight ahead. stay with us. catch more of the action on our sports page at