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In the NICK of time
Columbiana’s top sprinter ran away with three titles last weekend at the Division III district meet at Springfield High School.
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Columbiana's Nick Melone ran away with three district titles at the Division III district track meet May 21 at Springfield High School. He placed first in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and helped the Clippers claim the 4x200-meter relay title.
By Joe Scalzo
When you look at Columbiana senior Nick Melone — who stands about 5-foot-8 with wavy, neck-length brown hair and white tube socks with green stripes — you can’t help but think, “So, does he run the mile or the two-mile?”
But while he may have the look of a distance runner — and, considering he wants to go to college in Montana, possibly the soul, too — he definitely has the speed of a sprinter.
After winning the 100-and 200-meter dashes at Friday’s Division III district meet and helping the Clippers claim the 4x200 title, Melone’s father Marty walked up to him and said, “You do realize you just won three district titles, right?”
“Oh, I didn’t think about that,” Melone said.
“Yeah, you bonehead!” Marty said.
Melone has always been fast, something he gets from both sides of his family. His grandfather on his mom’s side, Richard Perkins, played on the Clippers’ 1947 state championship basketball team and ran the equivalent of an 11.3 in the 100-yard dash back in the days when athletes ran on cinder tracks with crummy shoes and limited training knowledge.
Melone started hurdling in seventh grade, but as his speed improved, his height didn’t. After his sophomore year, he started running track in the summer and realized his sprint times were among the best in the state.
So while he didn’t give up the hurdles, he turned more of his attention to the 100 and 200.
It paid off immediately, as Melone placed second in the 60-meter dash behind Liberty’s Fitzgerald Toussaint at the state indoor meet. (Toussaint, a standout running back, is now playing football at Michigan.)
Melone then qualified in the 100 and 200 for the state outdoor meet, finishing fourth in the in 100 and ninth in the 200.
This winter, he seemed poised to again make a run at the indoor 60 title. Then he checked his calendar and realized the state meet was on the same weekend as a class trip to New York.
It was a tough decision, but he chose the Big Apple over Akron.
“That was really upsetting,” he said. “It angered me for an entire week.
“But I had fun.”
Melone has run a number of events this spring — all three dashes, along with both hurdling events — but opted to focus on three: the 100, 200 and 4x200 relay.
“I probably could have made it to the regionals in the 110s but it was too close to the 100 and I didn’t want to risk it,” he said. “It was the same thing with the 300s. It’s too close to the 200, which is a shame because I really wanted to run those.
“I just didn’t want to overload. I made it to state in the 100 and 200 state last year and wanted to have a chance get the title in both. I wanted to make sure I’m 100 percent.”
Melone holds the school record in the 100 (he ran a 10.75 at the Optimist meet on May 1) and has the Clippers within four-tenths of breaking the 1937 school record of 1:31.2 in the 4x200.
As for the 200, well, that’s held by Jim Ward (21.1) and Melone probably would need to use a scooter to break it.
“That’s not going down very easily,” said Melone, whose best effort is 22.1 in the 200 this season. “It would take a lot of effort to do that.”
Melone would like to run track in college and has his eye on Montana State. But, so far, the Bobcats coaches haven’t offered him a scholarship so he may opt to walk on.
He plans to major in fish and wildlife management, which is why he’d like to go out west.
“The town looks awesome,” he said of Billings. “It’s a Boardman-sized town and everything looks really nice with the mountains.
“I figured with that major, it makes more sense to go out there than stay here.”
And with his talent, it makes more sense to worry about things like college in two weeks, something Melone already knows.
After all, he’s no bonehead.