Melayna ran in the NLC conference championships on Tuesday, May 13th with the Lady Tigers track team. She was slated to compete in the 100 prelims (needing a top eight finish to advance to the finals) and then again in the 300 low hurdles later on in the night.
It had been dreary all day on Tuesday and light rain started about 3:00 in the afternoon. We grabbed some towels to sit on and a couple of blankets and umbrellas to try to stay as dry as we could, but the forecast was calling for thunderstorms to come through right as the meet was getting ready to start so we weren't even sure if the meet would go on as planned. Thankfully, the rain continued through the beginning of the meet, but the thunderstorms all went north of us and so the meet was able to begin on time and run through the normal events as scheduled.
When we got to the track, we walked past the start line to try to catch her but we saw she was already warming up and doing her runouts so we didn't want to bother her. We just quickly waved and then went up to find a very wet seat and to watch as the 4x800 relay kicked off the events.
Melayna would run the in the second heat of the 100 hurdles prelims. She was in lane three. She would need to finish in the top two of her heat or make sure to have one of the next 5 fastest times in order to advance to the finals. She placed 3rd overall in her heat but did have a fast enough time to advance to the finals, which she would come back to run in about 25 minutes.
Annie had won her heat and would also run in the finals so Noel was excited that both of his hurdlers would make it to the finals and would score points for the team. We were also excited that during the 25 minute wait between the prelims and the finals, the rain had tapered off and the track was already starting to dry up a little bit making for safer running conditions.
Here is the video from the finals race. I apologize for the delay in the video as it took them a little longer to get set and ready, and this starter likes to hold them in the blocks a second longer than most.
Melayna would run a decent race and would finish 6th on the night with a time of 17.18. She was hoping for a slightly faster time but considering how slick everything was, we are just thankful that everyone finished and no one fell. Congratulations to our friend Annie for winning the race and finishing as the conference champion in the 100 hurdles. I believe that she also ran a new PR hitting the 15's for the first time ever.
Many thanks to Mrs Minmaugh for getting these great pictures of Melayna running. I am so appreciative to her for the great shots that she captures of our girls.
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Later in the evening, Melayna would run in the 2nd heat of the 300 low hurdles and then the times from both heats would be combined to determine the placing. Once again, Annie ran an amazing new PR and would finish as conference champion, so congratulations to her!
Melayna would also run a good run finishing 3rd in her heat and 4th overall with a new season's best time of 48.63. Congratulations to her for a great night! It was a wonderful way to finish out the conference portion of her season and again, many thanks for the picture of her 300 event.
Laynie is up in lane #5 in this one.
Congratulations to the entire team as the girls would finish as Conference Champs for the 19th season in a row!
