Brea’s Melvin Makes Claim to Rank With County’s Elite

One of the big questions going into the 1999 track and field season was who would claim the title of Orange County’s fastest athlete.

With the graduation of Mater Dei’s Mike McNair, last season’s Orange County champion in the 100 and 200 meters, as well as several other top sprinters, that honor was up for grabs.

At the Trabuco Hills Invitational Saturday, Brea Olinda junior Claude Melvin made his case by tying for first in the 100, winning the 200 and anchoring the Wildcats to a first-place finish in the 800 relay.

“Since last year that was one of my goals,” Melvin said. “I used to compete against Mike McNair and ever since then I wanted to get my times a lot better. So I feel like I’m improving a lot from what I did last year.”

Melvin ran 11.02 against the wind in the 100, equaling the top time set by San Clemente’s Kai Lewis a heat earlier. Melvin and Lewis ran wind-aided 10.6s in separate dual meets earlier this week, which are the top times in the county so far.

“You look in the paper and see who measures up with you,” Melvin said. “Kai Lewis and [Adolph] Keyes [of Los Alamitos] have been keeping up, so that’s pretty good.”

Melvin followed his victory in the 100 by leading Brea Olinda to a first-place finish in the 800 relay (1:31.81) and winning the 200 (22.12). He also anchored the Wildcats’ 400 relay team to a fourth-place finish in 43.20, which is the top time in the county this season.

Mission Viejo sophomore Dana Bethel also had a strong meet. She won the the 100 hurdles (14.54) and long jump (18- 1/2), and was third in the 300 hurdles (47.19). The performance capped off a sensational week for Bethel, who won four events in a dual meet against Capistrano Valley and four more in a dual meet against Trabuco Hills.

Costa Mesa’s Bruce Hancock finished first in the 1,600 (4:22.26) and nearly joined Melvin and Bethel as the county’s only double winners, but was passed by Rancho Bernardo’s Sean Ricketts steps from the finish line in the 800.

“That was a big surprise too,” said Hancock, who ran 1:57.39, which is the second fastest time in the county this season. “That guy’s got quite a kick. I didn’t even think about that.”

Other boys’ first-place finishers included Villa Park’s Justin Haney, who went 44-2 in the triple jump, and Sam Lightbody of Huntington Beach, who threw 59-7 in the shotput.

The girls’ distance events were dominated by county athletes. Allyson Marquand of University finished first in the 1,600 (5:08.07), Mission Viejo’s Sarah Rettman won the 3,200 (11:26.09) and El Modena won the 3,200 (9:56.00) and 6,400 (22:01.70) relays.

Other winners included Sunny Hills teammates Stevie Nicholas in the high jump (5-2) and Jessica Perez in the discus (132-6).