Melayna ran in her final conference meet of her high school career on Tuesday night. Since the top two seeded runners from each school are allowed to run in each event, Melayna would run in the 100 hurdles and the 300 hurdles and she would also be the first alternate for the 4x400 relay.
It was fun to open social media on Tuesday morning and to see my girl's face.
Around 5:00, Morgan, Marissa, and I headed over to the high school. Since rain was forecasted to come through the area around 9:00 p.m., I grabbed an umbrella and a blanket to sit on and we went to find a place in the stands. My parents were also coming to watch so we saved them two places as well. Then when I went down to watch Melayna warming up and to take a couple of pictures, I saw that several friends who are home from college also stopped by to give her hugs and to pray with her. I know that really meant a lot to her and helped to calm her mind a little. And then it was time to get back to work.
Since this was a conference championship, the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles would all run preliminary heats before the meet officially started. Melayna would run in the first heat of the 100 hurdles and she would finish in 3rd place in her heat with a 16.90 and a fast enough time that she would advance to the finals. I didn't take any pictures or video of that race - or the finals - because I just wanted to watch it and take it in without worrying about whether I had a good view or kept her in frame.
She would finish the 100 finals in 5th place with a final time of 16.87. 'Just as they were finishing the hurdle finals, the rain started. It was light at first so we were hoping that it would pass us by, but after the mile was complete, it started coming down hard and everyone pulled out the umbrellas. I tucked my phone safely away so that it didn't get wet so unfortunately, that was the end of any possible pictures or video for the rest of the night. We just hunkered down - all three of us under one umbrella - and tried to stay as dry as we could. But how could we complain as spectators when the runners (and coaches) were still out running and getting soaked completely through to the skin.
A little after 8:00 pm., Melayna would run in the 2nd heat of the 300 low hurdles. By the time that she was running, it was coming down in a torrential downpour. The wind was picking up and Melayna said that at times when she was warming up, it was hard to see the hurdles ahead of her, but thankfully when she got on the track and the gun actually went off, she was able to focus better and then she said she could see them without any problems. I'm just praising the Lord that everyone stayed up and no one slipped or hurt themselves as they tried to jump over the hurdles. The times weren't the fastest, but everyone was running in the same conditions so the final placings ended up just where we expected them too with Melayna finishing in 3rd place. Her time was in the 50 second mark, which she wasn't happy about, but sometimes you just count your blessings and walk away feeling fortunate that it went as well as it did.
After the hurdles were over, we thought that Melayna was finished running so my parents left and the girls and I went down underneath the bleachers to stand where it was a little dryer and the wind wasn't blowing. Then when the races would start, we could step back up on the bleachers to watch. At that point, we still didn't think that Melayna would be running in anything else, but we wanted to stay until the end to watch the boys 4x400 relay as they were suppose to be really quick.
'Just a couple minutes after I took this picture, I saw that Noel was walking around on the infield and it looked like he was looking for someone. Then the sprint coach came across to the locker rooms and she also looked like she was looking for someone. Apparently, while the girls were running their 2 mile, one of the relay girls decided that she wouldn't be able to run in the relay due to illness, so Melayna would be asked to step in and run in the 2nd leg. She was in the locker room putting on sleeves and leggings and just trying to get a little warmer so when the coaches let her know, she immediately came back out to the rain and started getting warmed up. She would run a great 2nd leg, passing another team and putting them into the 2nd position and she finished with a 1:03 split, but the coaches were extremely happy with the team's finish, since the conditions were pretty terrible. Our Lady Tigers would finish in 2nd place in that relay and their high finish would secure another NLC conference championship by just one point!! It certainly doesn't get any closer than that. Melayna said that in the group huddle after the meet was over, the head coach recognized her and gave her kudos for jumping in at the last minute and having a great run -- and then she recognized their entire relay team for stepping up and bringing home the win. It was cold and rainy...but it was a wonderful way to close out the conference season.
Next Tuesday night is Sectionals. Top three in each event will advance.
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Added side note: Just after the rain started falling, I noticed that the Grace College head track coach was at the meet and he was walking down the stairs to leave. Apparently he had come over to the school to watch Melayna and another recruit run and then after the meet, he sent Melayna a sweet text congratulating her on a great performance and telling her how much he was looking forward to her joining their team next year. Needless to say, she was extra excited about that.
Another added side note: Noel found out on Wednesday afternoon that Melayna was one of the high point scorers of the meet as she scored 12 points for the team. She was excited about that.
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Since I wasn't able to get any pictures of Melayna in action at the very rainy meet, here are a couple from earlier in the season that a sports photographer shared with us:
And then a couple of weeks ago, Noel opened up social media and he saw that another local photographer had captured some really great action shots of our hurdlers and he wrote a fun little commentary on the girls and how he feels about hurdlers in general.
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