Courtesy photo
Athlete of the Week
Name: Maria Melchor
School: Spring Creek
Sport: Girls’ Indoor Track
Year: Junior
Parents: Steven and Carol Melchor
Hometown: La Grange
The talented student-athlete placed second overall in both the 55- and 300-meter dashes during a recently-contested, Neuse Six 2A Conference meet held at Princeton. She helped anchor the 4×2, 4×4 and 4×8 relay teams to first-place finishes. During her prep career in “The Swamp,” she has been an integral “recruiter” to help build the winter indoor track program from five girls in 2021-22 to 12 in 2022-23 and now more than 20 this season. She’s also had the same impact on the outdoor track program.
Gators head coach Ian Combest said, “[Maria] has consistently given complete effort and enthusiasm, and provides nothing shy of encouragement and camaraderie to her teammates. Without intending to, she has taken on a leadership role through her exceptionally positive and focused attitude, along with consistently high-quality performance in competition. She never fails to be excited to race, be focused and gritty while competing, smiling and laughing with her teammates afterwards. She has her sights set on qualifying for the state meet this winter in the 300 and is working to qualify for the outdoor state meet in the 400.”
