The girls' track regional was held this past Tuesday night, May 27th at our high school.
At the end of the week last week, the forecast was showing chilly and rainy weather for all this week with the possibility of thunderstorms beginning right before the meet was to start. Noel and I said that we would start praying that the rain would move out of the area long enough that the girls could have dry weather and have the best track conditions as possible; Praise the Lord! God really did give the runners a beautiful night to compete. (Even if the fans were still wearing coats and sitting under blankets)
When Nolan and I arrived at the meet, it was around 71 degrees and dry and Melayna and Annie were doing their stretches and warming up. Melayna wasn't running until a bit later in the evening, but she wanted to try to help distract Annie and keep her relaxed before her 100 hurdle prelims.
Coach Eric, and Coach Nate both showed up to not only cheer on some of the runners, but to help get all of the hurdles out on the track and set into place. I think they also knew how nervous Noel was for both Annie and Melayna and they were trying to distract him for a few minutes. Noel is always nervous for the girls but at this point, what can he do? They've worked hard all season... now it's just time to watch how it all plays out.
Morgan and Marissa both worked at the lake yesterday but they were able to make it to the track as the preliminary races were going. Thankfully they got there just in time to watch Annie win her preliminary heat and advance to the 100 hurdle finals.
And then after a thirty minute break, it was time for the 100 hurdle finals to kick off the start of the official regionals meet.
There was nothing left to do except to cheer for Annie and pray that it all worked out...
Annie ran a great race but unfortunately she four stepped the very last hurdle and that was just enough to get her outleaned at the finish line, finishing fourth on the night. Only the top three would advance to the state meet next weekend. She was definitely disappointed, but Melayna was able to go over to her right away and they prayed together and took a few minutes to regroup. They both still had the 300 low hurdles to run and they both needed to focus on that now. We were all disappointed for her, but it was such a sweet moment to see them praying together. No matter what, with God at the forefront of all that they do, these girls are always going to be okay.
And then before we knew it, Melayna was setting up her starting blocks and the 300 lows were getting ready to begin. Due to her seed time from sectionals, Melayna would be seeded 10th (out of 16) and would run in the first and slower heat.
Here is the video of her regional run. She went out hard and ran a good race finishing 2nd in her heat and 9th overall. She also ran a season's best time of 47.85 and just a tenth of a second off of her fastest time ever!!
My apologies for the screaming and cheering in the background. You can hear other parents cheering and even Nolan jumped in and joined the girls and I.
She was really excited about the results and Noel was able to get to her pretty quickly and congratulate her. Also, congratulations to Annie on advancing to state in the event as she finished 3rd overall!
The night would end with the 4x400 relay team making an amazing comeback on the final homestretch and barely edging out another team for a third place finish and advancing to state. Annie was part of that team and will run at state and as an alternate, Melayna will also make the trip with the team.
And for the second year in a row, the Lady Tigers are Regional champions!!
Now it's time to just soak it in and enjoy the time with your teammates.
The ladies' 2025 track sectional was hosted at WCHS this past Tuesday night, and as you can see from the pictures, it was another cold and dreary night for running. (And spectating!) Since the forecast was calling for the heaviest rain right at the start of the meet, Nolan decided to stay at home in the warm and dry house. The two older girls and I still headed over to the track, but we made sure to bring towels to sit on and extra blankets to stay warm under. Amazingly, God answered our prayers to hold off the heaviest of the rain and wind and so things did calm down right before the running prelims were to start. We are all definitely thankful for that! Also, because it was a home meet and there is a locker room right behind the bleachers, our runners were able to stay warm and dry inside until they needed to come out and warm up for their events.
The weather apparently kept a lot of the spectators at home. We had plenty of seating to choose from.
Noel was prepared - he wore his full suit of rain gear! LOL
Melayna would not be running in the 100 hurdles for this meet because Noel wanted her to focus all of her energies on the 300 lows where she had a better chance to advance to regionals and that would also give one of our senior runners another opportunity to compete.
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The night would kick off with the preliminary events: the 100 dash, the 100 hurdles, and the 200 dash, and then they would take a 30 minute break to give the sprinters time to rest and regroup. Both of our 100 hurdlers would advance out to the finals which would run about 30 minutes later and then our very own Annie would go on to not only win the 100 Sectional Finals, but she will head into the Regionals as a #2 seed next Tuesday night. Great job Annie!!
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Later on in the night, Melayna and Annie would both come out for the 300 low hurdle finals. Laynie would be all the way down in the lane #2 and Annie would be in lane #4. The top three runners in the event would advance to regionals next week. We all nervously watched and waited to see how this would all go down....
As I said, Melayna is all the way down on the inside lane #2. You can hardly see her when the gun goes off but then she will come into view down the backstretch. (I apologize for how loud we get by the end of the video.) As she was running down the final stretch, she seemed to slow down just a bit and we thought she was going to get passed right at the end. She said that she just had a quick mental lapse because she realized that she was second place and started getting excited... then she quickly remembered that she better keep going all the way through to the finish. (And she also said she heard the sound of breathing quickly approaching behind her which spurred her to speed up again). LOL
Congratulations to Annie for winning another Sectional final and also a huge CONGRATULATIONS to MELAYNA for placing 2nd in the 300's and advancing to Regionals next Tuesday (48.58 final time). Annie will head into regionals as the #2 seed and Melayna will be seeded #10.
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I LOVE that Laynie's friend Victoria was able to come over to watch Laynie run. She came in with her brother and they were both jumping up and down and cheering hard all the way through to the finish. (She would later send Melayna a copy of the video she took and we were all laughing at her commentary as the race went on. Too bad I couldn't post it here for future laughs).
We really couldn't ask for a better friend than our sweet Victoria.
The girls and I would stay through the cold and drizzle until the entire meet was over -- and the Lady Tigers easily secured another Sectional Title, but within minutes of the last race finishing, you could see the clouds moving in and as we were driving home, the skies opened up and it just started pouring. Noel said that they started pictures outdoors but then everyone had to come inside to the locker room area to finish pictures and to change out of their wet gear.
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Here is Noel's hurdle crew for the 2025 Sectionals.
Annie will go on to run at Regionals next week (and hopefully State) and then she will hurdle for Taylor University in the fall and Rihanna is finished with her high school career but will run for Indiana Tech next year. Good luck to both of them. They are both beautiful girls and I know that Noel has really enjoyed coaching them these past four years.
The Lady Tigers track team was up at Mishewaka on Tuesday night where they would be taking on Mishewaka and Concord in another conference meet. Once again, Melayna would be running in the 100 hurdles, the 300 low hurdles, and the 4x400 JV relay.
I love this track! Not only is it a beautiful brick facility, but this is a track that Melayna has performed well at over the years, including the record breaking run just this past Friday night. I got there with the three other kids just before the start of the 4x800 relay and we were able to sit with my parents who had saved us seats near the finish line.
Nolan located one of his friends right away so as soon as they sang the national anthem, he took off to play with his friend during the entire meet. I think he came back right at the end to watch Melayna run in her final event.
After the 4x800 relay, the 100 hurdles would run next. The girls took their final practice runs and then they gathered together with anyone who wanted to pray. And then they wished everyone luck and went to their starting blocks.
Here is the video of Melayna running her race. She is running in the 2nd lane on the inside of the track with the bright yellow shoes.
All four of our varsity runners were in the fastest heat and they ALL ran an amazing race with all of them running PR's - or being within hundredths of a second from a new PR. Needless to say, there was a lot of celebrating between the girls and Coach after that race was over.
Melayna would finish in 3rd place overall with a new PR time of 16.84. She has been wanting to hit the 16 second mark for quite some time so she was really excited!
Having a few quick words with the head coach before going over to find Noel. They would share a few high-fives but then it was time to get ready for the 300's which would come a few events later.
The girls gathered to pray once more before the 300's and then Melayna would run in the 3rd and fastest heat for this event as well.
Once again, the Lady Tigers would run a great race with Annie getting a new PR and winning the event and Melayna would run under 50 seconds for the first time this season (and a third place overall finish).
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At the end of the night, Melayna would once again lead off in the JV 4x400. She would start in lane 5 and has the pink bow in her hair. She went out really quick and even though she would finish 2nd in her heat, she got another new PR in this event (for the third week in a row) with a very low 1:04 (could have possibly been a high 1:03)
Laynie is looking over her shoulder in this picture... all the way up in lane 5, I think.
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Once again, the Lady Tigers would easily beat both teams to remain undefeated in the NLC conference. The girls will all take a week to practice and rest and then they will come back to compete on our home track next Tuesday night in the Conference Championship.
