Kansas State University Athletics
SE: K-State’s Cara Melgares Continues Standout Freshman Season at USA Junior Championships
Jun 15, 2018 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
From the track and field stands of Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence last year, Cara Melgares watched K-State's women celebrate their 2017 Big 12 Outdoor Championship.
At the time, Melgares was a senior at Manhattan High School who had signed to run at K-State. The long-distance runner took in the scene with her parents, Pat and Susan, and she remembers them saying something that frustrated her.
"My parents told me, 'Hey, that could be you next year. That could be you on the team,'" Melgares recalled. "I was almost mad at them because I was, like, 'There's no way I'm going to be on the Big 12 team next year. Thanks, guys, but it's not going to happen.'"
Parents, right?
As it turned out, they were both spot on. As a freshman, Melgares scored in both the indoor and outdoor Big 12 meets, the latter going toward the team's second conference title in a row.
Both were previously unexpected feats for Melgares. Even more, her eighth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the outdoor conference meet opened up another opportunity she never envisioned: Running in the same event at the USA Junior Championships on Friday in Bloomington, Indiana.
"I'm so excited," Melgares said of the opportunity, made possible by her qualifying time of 10:40.98 at the Big 12 Championship. "I didn't really expect to be able to do this, and it's just really awesome that I get to keep my season going despite not quite getting the (NCAA) regional standard. I love to compete, so I'm really excited to do that and hopefully move on to Worlds."
While Melgares missed out on qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminary meet, she had anything but the typical freshman season. Ryun Godfrey, K-State's assistant track and field coach in charge of its distance runners, reminded her of this at one point in May.
"I told Cara, 'You're not having a typical freshman year,'" Godfrey said. "Most freshmen come in and struggle a little bit. It's like they take a step backwards before they take two steps forward because they're just stressed about school, new friends and new coaches, and the environment is just something that takes a lot of people about a year to get used to, but somehow she's hit the ground running.
"Most people get to May and they're exhausted because they've had a cross-country season, an indoor season and an outdoor season, and she's still getting better."
Melgares ran in all six cross-country meets for K-State this season. She finished third or better on her team in five of K-State's cross-country races, including second in both the Big 12 Championship (37thoverall) and the NCAA Midwest Regional (52ndoverall).
The last two meets, with hordes of talented runners Melgares knew about through social media or from watching on FloTrack, were certainly the biggest "welcome to Division I running" moments she encountered.
"Actually being there in a race with them, it's kind of crazy at first," she said. "After a few times, it gets more normal and you kind of start feeling like you belong and one day you could be at that level as well."
Melgares said this growing self-belief, paired with a pressure-free mindset and a solid foundation of support from friends, family and teammates, helped her continue to put in the work and not worry about the results, good or bad.
The good came in late February at the Big 12 Indoor Championship in Ames, Iowa. There, Melgares ran a personal-best mile time of 4:51.93, nearly six seconds faster than her previous fastest time. She finished seventh in the finals to score two points in her first conference meet.
"Scoring at conference was something that I wasn't sure I would ever do at all in college," she said. "So being able to do that was a huge confidence booster, for sure, and it makes me excited to see what I can do for the rest of my career."
Likewise, the steeplechase was not something Melgares planned to run in college.
The first time she ever jumped over the barrier was her first race in Tucson, Arizona, where she finished with a time of 11:07.48. The next time, she cut it down to 10:44.16. Her third attempt at the race ended with another personal-best and her standing on the podium at the Big 12 Championships.
Melgares' progress was impressive. She credited a good deal of it to having a pair of solid examples to follow in now-graduated seniors Kayla Doll and Morgan Wedekind.
"They have been totally awesome teammates. They've definitely taught me about relying on pure, competitive spirit. Both of them are really great competitors, really great role models for that," Melgares said. "They just taught me not to set boundaries for myself because the steeple race is totally unpredictable. Anything can happen, and I definitely saw that in the way that they competed. I'm definitely using that as inspiration for this week because I'm hoping I can have a breakthrough race."
Even if the steeplechase is a race she never anticipated running in, Melgares said she looks at Friday as a chance to gain more experience in the event against some of the best American runners her age.
"I'm still learning how to run the steeple, so I feel like every chance I get to do that is a good thing to put in my back pocket," she said. "I definitely would not have guessed that this would be my event, of all things, that I would be competing in at this level, but I'm definitely excited to do it."
From the track and field stands of Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence last year, Cara Melgares watched K-State's women celebrate their 2017 Big 12 Outdoor Championship.
At the time, Melgares was a senior at Manhattan High School who had signed to run at K-State. The long-distance runner took in the scene with her parents, Pat and Susan, and she remembers them saying something that frustrated her.
"My parents told me, 'Hey, that could be you next year. That could be you on the team,'" Melgares recalled. "I was almost mad at them because I was, like, 'There's no way I'm going to be on the Big 12 team next year. Thanks, guys, but it's not going to happen.'"
Parents, right?
As it turned out, they were both spot on. As a freshman, Melgares scored in both the indoor and outdoor Big 12 meets, the latter going toward the team's second conference title in a row.
Both were previously unexpected feats for Melgares. Even more, her eighth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the outdoor conference meet opened up another opportunity she never envisioned: Running in the same event at the USA Junior Championships on Friday in Bloomington, Indiana.
"I'm so excited," Melgares said of the opportunity, made possible by her qualifying time of 10:40.98 at the Big 12 Championship. "I didn't really expect to be able to do this, and it's just really awesome that I get to keep my season going despite not quite getting the (NCAA) regional standard. I love to compete, so I'm really excited to do that and hopefully move on to Worlds."
While Melgares missed out on qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminary meet, she had anything but the typical freshman season. Ryun Godfrey, K-State's assistant track and field coach in charge of its distance runners, reminded her of this at one point in May.
"I told Cara, 'You're not having a typical freshman year,'" Godfrey said. "Most freshmen come in and struggle a little bit. It's like they take a step backwards before they take two steps forward because they're just stressed about school, new friends and new coaches, and the environment is just something that takes a lot of people about a year to get used to, but somehow she's hit the ground running.
"Most people get to May and they're exhausted because they've had a cross-country season, an indoor season and an outdoor season, and she's still getting better."
Melgares ran in all six cross-country meets for K-State this season. She finished third or better on her team in five of K-State's cross-country races, including second in both the Big 12 Championship (37thoverall) and the NCAA Midwest Regional (52ndoverall).
The last two meets, with hordes of talented runners Melgares knew about through social media or from watching on FloTrack, were certainly the biggest "welcome to Division I running" moments she encountered.
"Actually being there in a race with them, it's kind of crazy at first," she said. "After a few times, it gets more normal and you kind of start feeling like you belong and one day you could be at that level as well."
Melgares said this growing self-belief, paired with a pressure-free mindset and a solid foundation of support from friends, family and teammates, helped her continue to put in the work and not worry about the results, good or bad.
The good came in late February at the Big 12 Indoor Championship in Ames, Iowa. There, Melgares ran a personal-best mile time of 4:51.93, nearly six seconds faster than her previous fastest time. She finished seventh in the finals to score two points in her first conference meet.
"Scoring at conference was something that I wasn't sure I would ever do at all in college," she said. "So being able to do that was a huge confidence booster, for sure, and it makes me excited to see what I can do for the rest of my career."
Likewise, the steeplechase was not something Melgares planned to run in college.
The first time she ever jumped over the barrier was her first race in Tucson, Arizona, where she finished with a time of 11:07.48. The next time, she cut it down to 10:44.16. Her third attempt at the race ended with another personal-best and her standing on the podium at the Big 12 Championships.
Melgares' progress was impressive. She credited a good deal of it to having a pair of solid examples to follow in now-graduated seniors Kayla Doll and Morgan Wedekind.
"They have been totally awesome teammates. They've definitely taught me about relying on pure, competitive spirit. Both of them are really great competitors, really great role models for that," Melgares said. "They just taught me not to set boundaries for myself because the steeple race is totally unpredictable. Anything can happen, and I definitely saw that in the way that they competed. I'm definitely using that as inspiration for this week because I'm hoping I can have a breakthrough race."
Even if the steeplechase is a race she never anticipated running in, Melgares said she looks at Friday as a chance to gain more experience in the event against some of the best American runners her age.
"I'm still learning how to run the steeple, so I feel like every chance I get to do that is a good thing to put in my back pocket," she said. "I definitely would not have guessed that this would be my event, of all things, that I would be competing in at this level, but I'm definitely excited to do it."
Players Mentioned
K-State T&F | Gear Reveal
Saturday, August 30
K-State TF | NCAA Championship Recap
Tuesday, June 17
K-State Track and Field | Coach Geopfert Post Meet Comments - NCAA Championships / Women's Finals
Monday, June 16
K-State Track and Field | Coach Geopfert Post Meet Comments - NCAA Championships / Men's Finals
Saturday, June 14