Melita was the individual champion at the Empire 8 Championship, hosted by St. John Fisher University on Saturday for the second time in the last three seasons, recording a time of 25:34.2 over the 8,000-meter course. Melita took the lead just before the halfway point of the race and never looked back, extending his lead to at the 6,000-meter mark and pulling away over the final 2,000-meters to win by 24 seconds. It is Melita’s third E8 weekly accolade of the season.