Girls track and field: Marching to her own beat takes McCamey's Mesa to state

McCAMEY Megan Mesa, in whatever spare time she could find as an Upton County youth, has developed a pretty good knack for applying nicknames to inanimate objects.

For instance, the recent McCamey High School graduate calls her phone, Apple, because of its color, while her iPod is known as Max.

The truck Mesa's mother bombs around in? Bootleg.

Mesa's best friend is, well, Best Friend, and she quickly gave the moniker of "Little Red" to a passing SUV on the McCamey streets.

Nearest and dearest to Mesa's heart of late, though, is Skyler - which she threw to win the girls discus title with a toss of 112 feet, 3 inches, last month at the Region I-1A Track and Field Championships in Levelland.

The performance of Skyler - um, Mesa - earned an unexpected but much appreciated trip to the UIL Class 1A State Track and Field Championships in Austin.

Mesa, who barely stayed alive with fourth-place finishes during the district and area meets, is scheduled to throw at 3 p.m. today at the University of Texas' Mike A. Myers Stadium.

"We knew going into the regional meet that we were seeded 14th or maybe even 15th out of the 16 individuals," first-year McCamey throws coach Eli Boxell said. "I think in her mind maybe she was going in there to make three throws and then go back to the motel to get some sleep. She was real relaxed and did exactly what I would ask for. I think what she did surprised her and me, but since then her consistency has just been that much better."

Call it the allure of qualifying for the state meet.

Mesa is the younger sister of Brittany Molina, who was a silver medalist in the 400 for McCamey in 2006.

Like her older sibling, Mesa primarily has focused on running throughout her McCamey track career and also was a member of the regional cross country team in the fall,  along with roles on the volleyball and basketball team.

In the spring, Mesa also dabbled in golf and was a UIL Academic qualifier in accounting - which she plans to study at Odessa College - while the discus was a little bit of an afterthought to events she ran on the track.

But Boxell saw Mesa crank out a throw of more than 100 feet during the first meet of the season, so she stayed in the event.

"I was always a runner," Mesa said. "So I would run and then go throw for about 15 minutes (in practice) and by the time I'd throw I'd be so tired that it was hard. I'd be like, ‘I don't want to practice any more.' "

At district, Mesa advanced with a throw of 97-3 that earned her fourth. The area meet a couple of weeks later also produced a fourth-place finish, but only a throw of 91-4.

Thus, there were not the greatest expectations for the regional meet.

"Like Coach said, I really did think I was just going to throw three," Mesa said. "I didn't even think I was going to make the finals. Then it felt good, just throwing it felt right."

Boxell said throwing the discus takes a great deal of technique work, so her struggles weren't a surprise. But she was needed to perform in many different events for point purposes, so getting to throw and do nothing else was not an option.

"We basically started with the fundamentals from scratch and have worked our way up," Boxell said. "She's real easy to work with and she's got natural ability because she's a natural athlete, so that helps out. With the discus, so many mechanics are involved and so many things have to go right and you have to put them all together at the same time to have one successful throw out of six opportunities.

"That's what happened at the regional meet. She put it all together and did a great job and made a great throw and let all the other girls chase her."

Today in Austin, Mesa will be playing catchup against a field of throwers with much more training and experience.

But at least now she's had about three solid weeks of concentrated training in the area.

"It was harder before because I had to split my time," Mesa said. "Now that I'm just throwing, I can just stay out there an hour and work all that time instead of having to run, too. I threw 112 at regionals and I want to get over 120 - that's my goal. I've done it in practice and I think I can do it if I just stay calm.

"I'm happy to be (at state), but I want to do good, too. I'm not just happy that I'm going."

There could be one problem.

If Mesa continues to improve, she very well could end up with a medal for a top-three finish in the state.

Then she'll have to come up with another nickname depending on the color.

On second thought, that's never seemed to be a problem for Mesa in the least.