The following article is written by Brock Drazen, Athletic Director at Merritt College and Head Coach of the Merritt College Track & Field team, and was originally an announcement sent to the Merritt Community and District Office on February 14th with an update on February 21st. Thank you Coach Drazen!
"It's that time of year again: Outdoor Track and Field is upon us and Merritt College Tracksters opened up this past Friday/Saturday at De Anza College with some sparkling efforts in the cold, wind, and sometimes rain—quite a change from last year's early season weather. I have two videos below: 1) Amelia Liao in the 100m hurdles and 2) a compilation video of many of the Merritt competitors.
I will try and highlight members of the team throughout the season. Today, I have Amelia on the individual video because she has a great story of resilience and determination. In her freshman year of Fall 2021, Amelia broke the navicular bone in her foot. This is one of the tougher broken bones to heal/rehab and Amelia had to miss all of last spring's track season. Still, Amelia persevered, rehabbed, trained, cheered on her teammates, and continued pursuing her Biology major (3.75 GPA) while preparing for her chance to compete. She finally got that chance this past Saturday when she burst into the state lead in the 100m hurdles.
Some other highlights include defending 400m state champion, Anthony Coleman, opening an early state lead in that event; Paul Randall taking the state lead in the high jump and several others in the top 5 in Northern California to open the season: Bianca Townsend 2nd in the discus and 4th in hammer throw; Chaison Wesley 5th in the 100m and 3rd in the 200m; Kwaku Owusu 3rd in the 400m; Erik Erdiakoff 6th in the 400m; Markus Clayton 5th in the long jump.
This coming Saturday, we will be competing at Cal Berkeley in a somewhat low-intensity all-comers meet but it will give us another chance to post some competitive times going forward. There is a long way to go but we are off and running! I will do my best to keep you all up to date on the season's progress so that we can all enjoy this journey once again."
Update from February 21, 2023
Here is a brief update on the Merritt College Track and Field team and our stadium renovation. The team competed at Cal Berkeley on Saturday at an All-Comer's meet which basically means everyone is invited from youth groups to high schools to colleges and masters (old people like me). I don't think I would do the meet again as our highly competitive students weren't thrilled with the competition or the pace of the meet! We did, however, post some nice marks including the 4x100m relay team which now holds 2nd in Northern California with an opening time of 42.16 (see video below).
The other link here is a video of our incredibly beautiful stadium at Merritt where the renovation is nearly complete.
Our next competition is at Chabot College on Feb 25. Have a great week. Brock
Merritt Stadium Promo (Video Length -48 seconds)
4x100m relay (Video Length-1 minute 31 seconds)