College-bound Eagles
Melissa Mauro laughs at the memory.
It was February and the defending state Class 2A high jump champion from West Valley decided to accept a track scholarship from the University of Montana.
“When I signed my national letter of intent, my mom took tons and tons of pictures,” she chuckles. “Every possible angle. Me with the pen in my hand. Me signing – the whole thing. She was so happy.”
How happy was she?
Have you seen the price tag on a college education lately?
“I know she was really proud of me,” Mauro laughed. “But I think she was really, really relieved.”
Mauro said she spent a great deal of time looking at schools and examining opportunities.
“I did my recruiting trip, and I really liked the coaches. The people I met were really nice,” she said. “Montana just felt like the best fit.”
Teammate Ashley Kenney knew where she wanted to go from the outset.
When Washington State University offered the state’s leading discus thrower a full-ride, Kenney signed on the dotted line.
“I signed on the first day,” she said. “I know that program, and I went to a track camp there last year. I knew that, if I had the chance to go there, I was going to do it.”
For Kenney, becoming a Cougar is also a chance to turn her primary competitor into a teammate.
“Ashley and (Pullman’s) Anna Albrecht have been great competitors,” West Valley coach Rick Kuhl said. “But if you watch them in a meet, they’re always talking to one another and encouraging each other. I think they’re both looking forward to being teammates.”
The pair stage their rivalry on the state’s biggest stage. Albrecht swept both the shot and discus at last year’s state meet.
A third Eagle track standout, senior Lacey Nordby, also picked up a college scholarship – this one to play basketball at Big Bend Community College.
For the Great Northern League’s leader in the 800, the difficult part was deciding on which sport to choose.
“I knew I didn’t want to do track – this isn’t really my favorite sport,” she said. “The chance to play basketball is great, but I would love to be able to do both basketball and soccer.”
Nordby edged Pullman’s Cory Druffel by two-tenths of a second in the 800 last week at Pullman – with each athlete coming into the meet undefeated.
“Lacey is my best friend in the world,” Mauro said. “But you should have seen her in that race in Pullman. Both of them were undefeated and neither one of them was going to give an inch. I can tell you this: I wouldn’t want to stand between Lacey and a finish line. There were elbows thrown and a runner went off the track. It was a battle.”
Both Kenney and Mauro said they were glad to have the whole decision-making process behind them for their senior season.
Kenney, the school record-holder in the discus after her junior season, has gotten progressively better each week.
“I’ve broken the school record in the discus three times (this year),” she said. “I broke my own record earlier when I threw 144-6 earlier this year. I broke it again at Lake Washington when I threw 144-10¾. Then I went 152 against Clarkston.”
By the time she finishes at West Valley, Kenney says, she wants to throw 160.
Mauro’s march to last year’s state high jump title was vindication.
“I tore my ACL during the Golden Throne basketball game my freshman year,” she said. “I had cleared 5-4 when I was in the eighth grade. When I first came back as a sophomore, I couldn’t even clear that, and it was really hard on me.”
Doctors told her that her knee would never be as strong as it was before the injury, Mauro said. But, she added, she was determined to prove them wrong.
“Looking back, I’m really thankful that I got hurt when I did,” she said. “If I’d done it last year or this year, I wouldn’t have had the chance to recover and still go on and jump in college. It forced me to get better, and I have.”
Mauro already has cleared 5-feet-6, an inch higher than her state-meet winning height, and has the state’s leading mark by a high jumper not attending a Class 4A school.
She’s also one of the state’s top hurdlers in any classification. She owns a personal best time in the 100 hurdles of 15.77 seconds. Her 46.14 in the 300 hurdles is the fastest by a Class 2A hurdler this season.
“I’m not even wearing a brace any more to jump,” Mauro said, reveling in her recovery. “I don’t wear it for the 300 hurdles, either. The only time I wear a brace is for the 100 hurdles.”
Mauro and Kenney are the two top scorers for the Eagles this season.
“Melissa already has earned more than 200 team points this season,” Kuhl said. “Ashley is somewhere behind her. The difference is that Melissa is a consistent four-event person for us in every meet. Ashley just does the shot and the discus.”