Morning Sentinel
Quite a climb
BY SCOTT MARTIN Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 11/30/2008

BY SCOTT MARTIN

Sports Editor

Melody Lam swears she is telling the truth but coach Kelley Cullenberg thinks it is a joke.

A junior at Mt. Blue High School, Lam insists that she hates running hills. Cullenberg laughs at the notion because Lam excels in running them.

"I don't give up on hills, I try just as hard," Lam said. "I'm just not a fan."

Added Cullenberg: "If you ever see her do a hill workout, you'd never know she doesn't like hills."

Lam excelled pretty much everywhere she ran this year. She won both the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A and Eastern A titles, while finishing eighth at the Class A championship meet.

For her outstanding season, Lam has been named the Morning Sentinel Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. Jocelyn Lawyerson of Valley High School was also considered.

As a junior, Lam ran with more confidence then she had in the past. That was in part because she knew she was prepared to have her best season after a strong summer of workouts.

But she had something else working in her favor, as well. Lam got contact lenses for the first time. In the past, Lam did not wear contacts and did not wear her glasses while competing.

This fall, she saw a whole new world.

"My freshman and sophomore years, I pretty much ran blind," Lam said. "(With contacts) I felt like I could focus on other things. Not being able to see detail and stuff it is pretty hard to run."

And while she isn't a fan of hills, her ability to run them paid off this fall, as she won the KVAC A title on a hilly University of Maine at Augusta course with a time of 20 minutes, 37.50 seconds.

"She gets this determined look on her face and she just lets loose and goes for it," Cullenberg said of Lam's ability to run hills. "She is a smart runner in terms of how to run a hill, and down hill as well, she is equally as strong going down hill."

She caught what she considers a break in the following week, running the Eastern A meet at the relatively flat Belfast course. She also won the race with a time of 19:46.17.

Lam then finished eighth at the Class A state meet with a time of 19:37.72 and 51st at New Englands with a time of 19:47.0.

"My main goal was to go sub-20 for the first time," Lam said. "I had been close, but was never able to get over the 20-minute mark. KVAC and regionals, I wanted to win those, too."

Scott Martin -- 621-5618

smartin@centralmaine.com

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