Lady Tigers VS Mishewaka and Concord

 Melayna was originally suppose to run in her last regular conference meet on Tuesday the 5th but when the athletic directors were looking at the upcoming weather forecast, they decided that in light of the potential for storms on Tuesday night, they would move the meet to Monday night instead.  So on Monday night, while Marissa was still resting and recovering from  her marathon, Morgan and I drove up to Mishewaka to watch Melayna run in that meet.  Unfortunately for all of us, we were literally four miles from the school when Laynie called to let us know that the meet had been cancelled because there was lightning spotted on the radar and a storm was coming in later in the evening so they would just send everyone home and reschedule the meet back to Tuesday.  

On Tuesday, everyone headed back up to Mishewaka and we watched the Lady Tigers take on Mishewaka high school and Concord.  Our team would win against both teams and would stay 7-1 in the conference.  Melayna was scheduled to run in the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles, and then the JV 4x400 relay.

We were watching Melayna warming up for the 100's and she clipped her very first hurdle coming out of her last practice run.  She was already exhausted from the long weekend and then she woke up sick on Monday so I think she was just at her wit's end by this point.  Even though she didn't fall, you could see that she was wiping the tears from her eyes as she approached the start line and we just weren't sure what kind of a race we would get out of her at this point.  

Melayna is running in lane #5.  You can't really see her when she's down in the starting blocks but then you can see her running in the long black sleeves.  It was just all around a sloppy run race for all of them, but somehow Melayna somehow made it across the finish line in third place and with a final time of 17.24.  'Not her fastest race by any means, but it was still a pretty good finish.  'Proud of her for coming back and making the best of it.

I tried to give her an encouraging thumbs up after that race, but she just walked right past and avoided eye contact.  She would go down to the start line to grab her stuff and then immediately head to the other side of the field so that she could mentally prepare for her 300 race which she would run in a little while.

Melayna would be running in the 4th lane for this race.  She had a great start to this race and she said that she felt really good about those first two hurdles but then she said she stuttered the next two and that's where she lost ground.  She got herself back on track though and was just racing hard for the finish.  She was running so quick and almost caught up with the winner but she just ran out of track at the very end.  Melayna finished with a 2nd place and a time of 49.48.   Again, not her fastest time of the season, but it was a great way to see where she lines up against the conference runners heading into the conference championship.

And then Melayna would close out the night in the 4x400 relay.  She had been running most of the season running  in the varsity race but for reasons unknown completely to us, the distance coach not only didn't put her in the varsity race, but he didn't even put her in the JV race either.  Noel didn't understand why she was left off the roster, especially since she was told that she would need to run a 1:01 to make it back to the varsity relay but then she wasn't being given the opportunity to try.  Since Noel is also a coach and can enter runners into events, he put together a JV relay out of some available runners and then put Melayna in the lead off position so that she would have one last opportunity to race hard and to get the best time that she could.  She would lead off the relay in lane #4 for her team.  (Once again, she's the girl wearing the long sleeves and black tights)

All I can say is that Melayna is certainly a fighter and she took off with something to prove, quickly making up the stagger and leaving everyone else in the dust.  Unfortunately,  the coach that told her to lower her split time, didn't even time her run, so although we are guessing that her leg was indeed around a 1:01, we will never know that for sure.  Melayna was happy with her run but very disappointed in how things are turning out in that relay.  She has only continued to lower her 400 time all throughout the season but at least she is doing what she can do.  The rest is simply outside of her control.  No matter what, we are all so proud of her and her hard work in that relay.  Running it week after week will only help to prepare her for running the 400 hurdles next year in college, so we can be thankful for that.

  

And now it's time for her to go home and get some much needed rest.