Former West Holmes record-holder Mellor more than happy to see Galbraith break his record

ORRVILLE — As Zeke Galbraith crossed the finish line at Saturday’s Wayne/Holmes Invitational, breaking a 39-year-old school, record, Scot Mellor couldn’t help but be emotional.

The current West Holmes assistant coach was not only proud of the senior runner that he has had a hand in training over the past two seasons, but the previous program-record holder was just happy to see someone take the top spot from him.

“I was almost in tears when he came across the line, other than yelling to him, 'It's finally time — 39 years is much too long,” said Mellor, who set the school mark back in 1983. “When I came back to Ohio, and started coaching at West Holmes, this was one of my goals as a coach — to try and train a kid that would break the record.

“We've had a lot of really good runners that have been close, but it's phenomenal to see him do it.”

Galbraith not only broke Mellor’s record with his winning run of 15:48.3, he took down the previous standard by nearly five full seconds.

And Mellor, who can still remember the flat, runner-friendly course at Newcomerstown that he ran that time on nearly four decades ago, was more than happy to see him do it. He was Galbraith’s biggest cheerleader.

After serving as an athletic administrator in Indiana for the past 25 years, Mellor recently came back to Holmes County and is on both the cross country and track coaching staffs at the school, along with serving as the high school’s librarian.

The College of Wooster graduate, who become a full-time assistant on coach Kevin Beachy’s staff last fall, has always known that Galbraith had what it took to chase down that elusive time after watching the current West Holmes standout put together an impressive postseason as a junior, which resulted in an All-Ohio finish.

Mellor knows a thing or two about success on the cross-country course, running with local legends like Orrville’s Ben Weeman, who still holds the area 5K record with a 15:14, and Triway’s Matt Woods before a running career with the Fighting Scots.

And he thinks that the best for Galbraith is still yet to come.

“He's on pace, training-wise, to be running even faster once we get to districts, regionals and, hopefully, the state meet again,” said Mellor, who also said he hopes to coach a Knights group that could break the school’s 4x800-meter track record that he had a hand in setting. “It's neat to be back to my home area. It's been a long time.

“Zeke is the second All-Ohioan to make it and we're just hoping that he continues to lower his time.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: XC: Galbraith breaks Mellor's school record, with Mellor cheering on