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DISCUS THROWER ON RECORD-SETTING PACE DATE: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 BYLINE: Bruce Meadows COLUMN: ATHLETE OF THE WEEK Sonoma senior Melissa Van Paris knew her discus effort was a good one in a meet at Cardinal Newman last Wednesday. But it wasn't until the next day she found out her 135-4 throw was an all-time Empire Best, topping the 1999 mark of 134-8 by Montgomery High's Tia DeSoto. Her winning discus toss was obviously a school record, but so was her winning shot put of 42-3, which is also close to the all-time Empire Best of 43-1 3/4 by Ukiah's Coreen de los Santos in 1993. ``She's worked hard to get where she's at,'' said Sonoma coach Sherm Harris. ``What she's doing is really not that surprising.'' Van Paris, whose brother, Mark, was a stellar athlete at Sonoma and is now at Santa Rosa JC, said she constantly works on perfecting how she throws the shot and the discus. ``I have to continue working on my technique,'' said the 5-foot-10, 17-year-old Van Paris. ``It's not your upper-body strength as much as it's in your legs.'' She works with a number of throwing coaches, and also gets help from her father, Jeff, who was outstanding in the discus and shot put at Napa High. Melissa likes both events, but favors the discus these days. ``I improved quicker in the shot last season,'' said Van Paris, whose best discus mark had been 132-4 at the Redwood Empire Meet last season. ``But this year I've done a lot better in the discus.'' She went to the state meet in the shot put her sophomore and junior years, finishing 14th last season. Her goal is to make state in both events and throw well enough the first day to qualify for the nine-person finals on Saturday. ``The way she's improving, I think she has a shot at it,'' said Harris. ``She's really focused.'' Van Paris plans on attending SRJC next season, where she can take aim at DeSoto's school discus record there.
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