"I was probably in 20th place," the Presentation High School senior recalls of the scenario at Morley Field in San Diego's Balboa Park earlier this month. "People were cheering and yelling ... "

The crowd's enthusiasm, along with her own competitive spirit, helped Grelli shift into another gear. "Then, right before the finish line, somebody yelled I was in 16th."

Determined to earn All-America status, Grelli completed the late surge. She finished the 5-kilometer race in 18:08, two seconds ahead of Massachusetts runner Lindsay Donaldson, for 15th place and the final All-America berth. Katelyn Kaltenbach, a junior from Colorado, won the race in 17:24.

The Foot Locker national event featured the top 32 male and 32 female in the country, eight runners from each of four regions--Northeast, Midwest, South and West. A week earlier, in Walnut, Calif., Grelli became the only Bay Area athlete to qualify for the U.S. championship race. She placed fifth in a field of 68 runners, a vast improvement from the previous year's West Regional. Shortly after capturing the state championship in Fresno, her time of 18:19 was just 12 seconds behind in the 2002 event, but she finished 54th out of 80 runners.

Reaching the national race to conclude her high school career was Grelli's "ultimate goal." Competing against "the best in the country" was an "awesome" experience, she says.

Awesome is not an adjective Grelli uses to describe the start of her senior season. "Awful" is a better descriptor. "I was really, really frustrated," Grelli says about a hip flexor injury that forced her to miss much of the season's first two months.

The injury, "probably caused by overwork," according to Melissa's father, Vince, likely occurred during a summer running camp in the Midwest. "I knew something didn't feel right," Melissa explains, "but I just ran through it."

Then, after returning home and just before her senior year began, Melissa recounts, "I couldn't lift my leg!" She first took a week off, then began intensive physical therapy.

"My family, friends and coach [Chris Cozort] were amazing," Melissa says. "They gave me confidence that I could still succeed." The support team convinced Melissa that her countless hours of work during three years of training would carry her through the down time.

The encouraging words proved to be all true, as Grelli captured the Central Coast Section title and overcame a respiratory infection to place second in the state meet, before her Foot Locker successes.

Now, as Grelli prepares with her Presentation teammates for the 2004 track and field season, she also looks forward to her college running career. She has accepted a track and cross country scholarship to Georgetown University, beginning next fall.

"It's a place where I can excel academically and athletically," says the straight-A student, who is considering business law as her major field of study.

Before deciding to attend the Washington, D.C. school, Grelli took recruiting trips to Duke and California. She also considered Stanford and Colorado.