It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks with our state championship meet followed days later by graduation and then high school recruiting in overdrive with the OAL track and field championships, North Coast Section (NCS) Meet of Champions, and the high school state championships at Buchanon HS in Clovis. Onboarding new students, finding college homes for grads, and starting up our high school summer program with Oakland Pal (over 100 high school students this year!) has kept me movin' and groovin'.
Recent Posts
Here's a quick update and some videos from our late-season competitions.
Adam Moore competed at the Northern California Decathlon Championship at Santa Rosa Junior College on April 8-9, and qualified for the state championship at College of San Mateo, finishing 5th overall, scoring 5581 in 10 events over two days. Adam competed in the 100m, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, and 400m on day 1 and came back in the 110 high hurdles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin, and 1500m on day 2.
What a night—A mixture a pain and heartbreak over the difficult financial circumstances we are in and the decisions we were faced with followed by inspiration and hope from a new model of shared governance and presentations from Berkeley City College. This update is intended for the inspiration and hope side of the equation with some brief thoughts about the pain and heartbreak.
This has been an eventful season filled with the most challenging weather we have faced since Brock Drazen began coaching. Here is an update from Coach Drazen:
The following article is written by Brock Drazen, Athletic Director at Merritt College and Head Coach of the Merritt College Track & Field team, and is used by permission from an announcement sent to all Peralta employees on May 22, 2022.
Our season has come to an end with 2 more state champions this past Saturday at Modesto Junior College. Isela Ochoa won in the 400 hurdles making that 2 for 2 in 2022 and 2023 and Kwaku Owusu won in the 400m for his first state championship.
The Northern California Championship Trials are in the books and Merritt College Track and Field is moving on to the NorCal finals this coming Friday with strong showings across the board. Both the 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay teams advanced to the final 9 which is always nerve-racking and satisfying because the precision and teamwork of the relays often impacts all the rest of the individual performances (dramatic videos below).
