ATHLETE PROFILE:
Matt Melton (91)
Wall Track
Club
Matt Melton has been a Wall Track Club standout since his Sub Bantam season in 99.
Matt, whos going into his Midget season (an up year as a USATF Midget), looks to build on
last years strong performances.
In the AAU last season, Matt was the Region 1, Pentathlon champion, and also took home gold
in the high jump, and 80 Meter Hurdles, and added a silver medal in the 1500 Meter run. At the USATF Regional Championship
at the University of Buffalo, Matt was the Bronze medallist in both the Pentathlon, and High Jump. In the 80 Meter Hurdles he learned a valuable lesson: Dont
sneak looks at your competitors in the other lanes, or youll end up head over heels. (Which he did! Luckily he wasnt seriously hurt.)
The University of Tennessee in Knoxville was the site for the Amateur Athletic Unions National
Track and Field Championship the week of August 3rd through the 11th
Matt led off for Wall Track on August 4th, during the grueling sub-midget boys
Pentathlon. The Pent requires competitors to test themselves in five events:
the 80 Meter Hurdles, Shot Put, High Jump, Long Jump, and 1500 Meter Run. Thirty-eight
competitors who qualified for the meet from across the nation began at 8:30 A.M. with the Hurdles portion of the event, and
continued through the 1500 Meter Run which ended at 6:00 PM. The 102 degree heat
index gave the event an element of an endurance test as well as a measure of track and field ability. Melton rose to the challenge, entering personal bests in the hurdles (14.85 seconds) and high jump (4-
9.75), and finishing the day taking home the 5th place medal. Twenty-four hours later, Melton was back on the winners
podium collecting his 4th place medal for the individual High Jump competition.
He topped off his visit to Knoxville entering a personal best in the 1500 Meter Run (5:11), leading his heat wire to
wire and finishing 11th . His 80 Meter Hurdles time was good for 18th
out of 35 in the preliminaries (This time he kept his eyes, and his concentration on his own lane!).
Matt is a fixture in Wall Townships soccer and basketball programs, where his track strengths
(speed, endurance and an ability to get off the ground) are a big help. Although
college is still a long way off, Matt already has his eye on either Stanford or the University of Tennessee.
