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Nick Melone makes history for Columbiana in 100
By Joe Scalzo
COLUMBUS
The list of state track champions at Columbiana High School features an Olympic alternate in Jim Ward, but for the past 46 years, it’s had nothing but blank spaces.
So, as Clippers senior Nick Melone sat in his hotel room Friday night, he focused not just on making the most of his senior year but on making history, too.
“That’s been on my mind the last month or so,” he said. “The last champion before Jim Ward was 1940 and then Jim Ward won it in 1964 and it’s been pretty quiet since.
“I wanted to change that.”
Saturday morning started with thunderstorms — “I looked outside and realized it might as well have been night,” he said, smiling — and a starting position in Lane 7 due to a lackluster 100-meter preliminary race on Friday.
But Melone blocked out the distractions and finished in 11.02 seconds to capture the 100 crown.
“Toward the middle of the race, I just thought, ‘It’s my senior year, it’s my last [100] race, I just have to try as hard as I could,’” he said. “When I crossed the line, I thought I got first but I wanted to check.
“When I looked up in the stands and saw them all cheering, I figured I must have got it. I don’t know if it hit me right away but now it feels good.”
More than an hour later, Melone added a third-place finish in the 200 to complete a solid spring for the Clippers, who also advanced to the Division IV state baseball semifinals before losing 1-0 on Thursday.
“That was upsetting, so I just wanted to make sure I could at least bring something home,” he said. “That’s all I could think about.”
Maplewood senior Eric Rupe had the same goal but came up just short in the 1600 despite running a school-record time of 4:16.17. North Robinson Colonel Crawford senior Carson Britton ran a 4:15.76 to repeat as state champion.
“I definitely ran to my full effort,” said Rupe, who also finished runner-up in the event last spring. “I was just trying to give him a good race. And I think I gave him a little better race than I did last year, so I was happy with it.
“Last year I was a little upset but it’s a good way to go out this year.”
It was a bittersweet final weekend for Rupe, who also finished second in the 4x800 relay on Friday, narrowly falling to St. Thomas Aquinas despite running another school-record time.
Rupe, the son of Maplewood track and cross country coach Ted Rupe, was also a key member on the Rockets’ state-qualifying cross country teams but never tasted gold in either sport.
“It’s my only regret,” he said, “that we never got that state title in anything.”