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(COLTON MCWILLIAMS | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) The Graham Leader is recognizing Allison Melton of the Newcastle Ladycats as this week’s Athlete of the Week. Melton finished in first place at the district cross country championship and fifth place at the regional meet to help the team qualify for the state meet. -
(ALEX HAVARDANKSY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Graham Leader is recognizing Macrae Menard of the Graham Steers as this week’s Athlete of the Week. Menard grabbed two key interceptions for the Steers in their blowout homecoming victory over the Bridgeport Bulls 56-0.
Fall sports in Graham and Newcastle are in the hearts of their seasons at the moment with both district play and postseason play ongoing.
This week, The Graham Leader is recognizing Allison Melton of the Ladycats and Macrae Menard of the Steers as this week’s Athletes of the Week.
Allison Melton, Newcastle Ladycats Cross Country
The postseason for cross country has been quite the success story for the Newcastle Ladycats cross country team. The team has qualified Friday, Oct. 31 in Round Rock for the state meet.
This started from the team’s district meet Performance where every Ladycats runner finished in the top 15 and became district champions.
At the top of that leaderboard was Melton. She came in first place in the district meet with a finishing time just over 14 minutes in the varsity girls two mile run.
Melton once again impressed at the regional championship meet being the top runner for the Ladycats.
She finished in fifth place out of 138 runners. Melton picked up a time of 13:30.33 as the rest of the Ladycats’ six runners went on to advance to the state tournament.
The team will continue to need Melton’s leadership as the team prepares to shine on the statewide stage.
Macrae Menard, Graham Steers Football
The Steers just came off of one of the biggest weeks of their season with their homecoming matchup against the Bridgeport Bulls.
The Steers defeated Bridgeport in a 56-0 shutout and possibly the biggest defensive standout on the night was Menard.
The defensive back grabbed two key interceptions in order to keep the shutout alive, setting up the offense for key scoring drives in the blowout victory.
Coach Clay McChristian is overall impressed with the effort that Menard has put in this year at his position.
“It’s not something he’s played an awful lot of, but he’s just picking up on it every week,” McChristian said. “Two big interceptions for him so I’m really proud of that kid because he deserves it. He’s a hard worker and he’s a great kid. I’m really proud of him.”
As the team marches further into district play and the postseason, they will need more standout performances like Menard’s to continue succeeding at a high level.
