THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994 TAG: 9406010168
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KERNELS, SUN SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: 940602 LENGTH: HARRISONBURG
Some were winning, others losing.
{REST} Either way, he could have been one of them. His times this year in the 100 (10.6) and 200 (21.7) meters - the best this season in Group AA - say the Lakeland sophomore should have been one of them.
He wasn't.
Faulk never made it past the preliminaries - even getting beat badly in a fourth-place finish in the 200.
You got it. Fourth place.
Question: When has that ever happened to Faulk this season?
Answer: Never.
``At first I thought it was a nightmare,'' he said ``and then I had to pinch myself to see if it was real.''
This was no ``Nightmare on Faulk Street.'' Or maybe it was. Faulk had just been on the tailpipe end of what he's done to runners all season: smoked them.
``I wasn't ready for being behind,'' said Faulk, who had lost only three races this season until the state meet. ``I didn't even have to look up at the time. I knew it was slow.
``I didn't know how to react.''
As soon as Faulk stepped on the rubbery JMU track, he was all the rage. Faulk this. Faulk that.
When you come in with the times he has been consistently running all year, you're known more by name and number than by face.
But it turned out that Faulk would become a victim of his own reputation.
``I thought I'd win the 200 - or at least make it to the final of the two things,'' he said.
His only consolation - and what salvaged a season - came in the 4x100 relay. Only then did you see the effortless speed, the gliding stride that have become Faulk trademarks.
He took the second hand-off in a dead heat with seven other runners. Then glided away. Untouched. The Cavaliers (which also included Jerome Harris, LaRon Claude, Monolito Johnson) held on to become state runner-ups finishing in 43.51.
\ THE TRANSFORMATION OF MELVIN FAULK from just a fast runner to a really, really fast runner started this fall.
Man can't live on track talent alone and neither could Faulk. For the first time, he trained in the off-season.
Then the Faulk wins started to come.
Then the records - like the school ones he's broken three times in both events and the biggie: the Peninsula Relays meet record in the 200.
That got somebody's attention.
``He's just come out of the woodwork,'' said York coach Lewis Young, who has been coaching in the area for 17 years. ``If he continues to improve, I think he could be the best (Group) AA sprinter we've had since I've been here.''
``He's just got natural speed,'' Tabb coach George Coulter said. ``He comes out fast and just gets faster.''
But soon questions were being asked about him by track and field spin doctors - including Faulk: How fast is he? How far can he go? Has he peaked?
The answers of which wouldn't come until the district meet, when he won the 200 meters.
Little did he realize that by winning, it only created more questions and raised the stakes a little higher.
So when he won the Region I title in the 200, the next logical step was to ask: can he do it at the state tournament?
\ ONE WIN, MAYBE EVEN a place, would have continued Faulk's elevation to the plateau of near-legendary Suffolk sprinters like Greg Rountree or Terrence Warren, that many feel he's destined to reach.
Rountree and Warren both ran for the late John F. Kennedy during the 80s.
Rountree, Faulk's mentor and the coach of Lakeland's girls team, still holds the state record at 400 meters (47.2 in '84).
Warren, who went on to break several records at Hampton University and is now a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, still holds the state record in the 200 (21.1 in '87) and is tied for the state record in the 100 meters (10.4 in '88).
Lakeland boys coach James Dabney says he sees that kind of potential in Faulk. The talent is there he says.
Dabney, 49, whose career as a track coach in Suffolk has spanned almost two decades, knew the potential was there when he saw Faulk, as a ninth grader, keeping up with the older runners, blowing by others.
``We saw the potential,'' Dabney said. ``A lightbulb went off . . . this kid is going to be good.
``I didn't think it would be this quick.''
The only place to go is up. A state title would cement Faulk's searing times. And his reputation.
But it looks like he'll have to wait a while.
``Eventually, he'll have to,'' Nansemond River distance coach Kenny Gribshaw said about Faulk winning a state title. ``I don't think we'll have to put the call on him yet - especially this young.''
Said York track coach Young: ``Listen. He's only a sophomore. If he continues to work, Lord have mercy.''
by CNB