Muskogee High senior Rakiya Lang may be best known on the Rougher campus for her accomplishments on the track oval where she has qualified for the state tournament three years and last year won two medals in the 4X100 and 4X200 relays, breaking school records along the way once held by her mother, Patricia Nunley. But this past winter, it was another of Rakiya’s talents that took center stage as she was part of the first-ever dance team from Muskogee to compete in the National Dance Team Championships in Florida where the team placed eighth in the nation.

“I started dancing in elementary school and did studio dance for one year in fifth grade,” said Rakiya. “I made the dance team in eighth grade and my freshman year was lost to Covid for dance.”

Her dance coach Kya Fields takes up the story from there.

“When Rakiya got here her sophomore year, she lacked confidence which is really important in a dance competition, but I’ve seen her grow so much in her performance skills, flexibility, technique and confidence the past two years.”

While the competitive side of the trip to Florida was grueling, there was some fun to be had as well.

“I got to go to Disney for the first time and I’m not much of a ride person. I did do one kind of virtual ride that was fun but then I got kind of forced onto another ride and that was not fun at all,” though she now laughs about it. “But I got to eat lots of food and shop and that was the best part.”

In track Muskogee drops to Class 5A this year which coach Craig Perry feels will benefit both the team and Rakiya.

“I think Rakiya has a chance to do really well in the 100 meter sprint as well as her two main relays and we’ve added her onto the 4X400 relay team this year which is currently ranked second in the state.”

Among her goals for this spring’s track season are to get to 11.9 seconds in the 100 meters as well as placing in all of her relay events at state. She plans to continue her running career at Missouri State next year.