The 5-foot-4 senior raced to the Class 4A individual state championship this past season with a time of 19:41. Melendrez also broke the tape at the Reed Invitational, the Douglas Class Races and the High Desert League meet, while finishing second at the Nevada Twilight Classic and fifth at the Clovis Invitational.
Melendrez has maintained a weighted 4.21 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete in cross country and track and field on scholarship at the University of Nevada this fall.
A devoted member of her church community, Melendrez is co-founder of Kids on Track, a youth running camp.