Track // Penn Invitational

 Saturday morning was the Penn Invitational.  

Melayna was scheduled to run in the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the 4x400 relay so she left the house with Noel around 7:00 so that they could get on the bus with the team.  Nolan and I were able to sleep in a little and then we left around 8:30 and made the drive up to Penn High School.  When we arrived at 9:30, it was 49 degrees so we definitely grabbed a couple of layers from the car to stay warm, but thankfully the sun was out and by the time that the meet ended at 2:30, it was nearing 70 degrees.  

'Ended up being a perfect day for a great track meet.

My partner in crime for the day... 

Nolan loves loathes track invitationals because he thinks that they are way too long with their many preliminary heats, but he didn't want to be home by himself all day either so he agreed to come along.

I mean, you can just see his excitement oozing from him, can't you?!

The preliminary heats for the 100, the 100 hurdles, and then the 200 would kick off the meet.  Melayna and Bailee were competing in different heats of the 100 hurdles.  

We were able to watch them warming up a little and getting ready for the start.

Bailee ran in lane six in the 2nd heat.  From where I was sitting, it looked like she placed 4th in her heat.  We couldn't see what her time was but it looked like she ran a good race.  Melayna would run in lane six in the 3rd and final heat.  Melayna would also place 4th in her heat.  The top 8 from all three heats and would advance to the finals...but would it be enough?

Bailee squeaked in with an 8th place qualifying time of 17.01 and Melayna was just outside of the final qualifying with a new season's best time of 17.16.  Unfortunately, despite having the best preliminary time in this event that she has ever had, there are just a lot more quick runners in the field this year and it just wasn't enough to advance through to the finals.

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After the preliminary heats of the hurdles and the 100 and 200 races, there was a thirty minute break before the finals began so Melayna came up to talk with us for a little while.  Then when the meet began again, she headed back down to the track to get something to eat and to get ready for her last two events.

She would be running in the 2nd heat of the 300 hurdles and would be running in lane 2.  She came out of the blocks really quickly and ran a great race for her (finishing with a season's best 48.89) but again, there are just a lot of fast girls this year.  It's definitely preparation for our sectionals in a couple of weeks - just giving her an opportunity to see where she lines up with some of the other runners in our region.  I think she placed 7th overall in the 300's for the day.

When it was time for the varsity 4x400, they had them sign in at the far end of the track and then the official walked them down the track as their team names were announced.  Warsaw would be running in lane #3 and Melayna would be the third leg.

I meant to start the video as our 2nd runner made her way down the homestretch but apparently I hit the "photo" button instead of video and so I barely started it in time for the exchange.  Melayna gets passed almost right away by a very quick runner from Penn High School but then manages to pass her again on the homestretch.  We would still finish 4th overall on the day, but Melayna would run another low 1:02 split, so she was happy about that.

All four of our girls ran and gave it their all and they definitely needed a minute (or two) to catch their breath when the race was finished.  LOL

And then talking it over with the sprint coach before doing their cool down.

I know that she would have loved to have placed better on the day, but overall Melayna's times are dropping a little more each meet and so we are happy for her and the progress she is making.  Senior night is this coming Tuesday.