Regional Pictures

I received a few pictures today from one of the track moms.  She took these pictures of Melayna during the regional race the other night.  

I'm saving them here for future reference.

And then Lynn Murphy sent this picture to Noel.  It's blurry but still a fun picture to have.

Girls Track Regionals 2025

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.

It's Meet Day!!

IHSAA Track Regionals // Kokomo Regionals

 Melayna was participating in the IHSAA track regionals at Kokomo last Tuesday night, May 21st.  

Noel was already traveling down with the team and Marissa had her scholarship night that same evening, so Morgan and I picked Nolan up from school and then after dropping him off at the house, we drove down to Kokomo to watch the Lady Tigers compete in the regionals.  Same as the week before, the top three runners in each event would advance to the State Finals on May 31st.

Thankfully the rain had moved through earlier in the day so it would be a dry meet, but it was really windy with gusts over 25 mph so the runners would be running right into a headwind, which definitely would not help with times.

It's always fun to see your name / child's name on the back of a Regional Qualifier t-shirt.

Our 4x800 relay team would kick off the events of the evening but unfortunately, they would finish 5th and would not advance.  Then we had one runner advance in the 100 meter dash and then Annie would run prelims in the 100 hurdles.  She made it to the final race later in the evening but then she would not place high enough to advance out to the state finals in that event. 

Melayna and Bailey would come up into the stands to cheer her on in her 100 hurdles.

Once the prelim events were over, the meet would begin with all final events and Melayna made her way down to the infield to begin warming up.  She and Annie would run the 300 hurdles at 8:30.  Before the race, it was neat to see Melayna and Annie praying together in the infield and then a few minutes later, another competitor from our conference came over and hugged both of our girls and then she prayed with them again.  I love the camaraderie and friendships that are developed through sports and Melayna has made some friends from other schools and although they fight fiercely during the race, they can hug and shake hands and just be friends before and after.

I took a video of the actual race but for some reason, I cannot download it here.  Annie fought hard and made it in by hundredths of a second and she will run at the State finals next weekend.  Unfortunately for Melayna, she just didn't have a good race right from the gun.  Her steps were off or something and she stutter stepped the first three hurdles, which definitely affected her time.  She ended up finishing just at 50 seconds (which she would have been thrilled with just three weeks ago), and her season would come to a tearful end.  'Definitely not the finish that she was hoping for, but she is only a sophomore so it was definitely a learning experience.  

All in all, she had a great season and the Lady Tigers were able to advance several individuals out to the state meet and finished as the Regional Champions for the first time since 2017 or so.

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On Thursday night, Noel would head up to Goshen High School for the IHSAA Boy's Track Regionals where both Blake and Eric would be running in the 110 high hurdles and the 300 lows.  

Blake would advance to the state finals and the boys would finish in 2nd place overall at the Regional Meet.

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Former Coach Rob Peters, Current Coach Noel Howett (from Warsaw), and current coach Luke Howett (coaching for a rival school).  

The head coach typed up a press release after the meet and although he wrote something about each regional runner, I wanted  to keep the parts that the coach wrote about Blake and Coach Howett and then also Eric.  'Such great stories about each guy.