The 2016-2017 Track & Field Team

 

 

 

 

 

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The 2015-16 Track & Field Team Takes Off!

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Track news and highlights from Coach Brock Drazen

Check out the video highlights below  from our meet at De Anza last Saturday. Merritt’s 4x100m relay started the day off on the right note with a victory.  The team of Melvin Brown (Emery HS), Elijah Harper (Oakland Tech), Asa Allen (Berkeley HS) and Benny Lokula (Livermore HS) worked well together.

Sophomores Brown and Lokula will graduate in May and are reviewing several transfer opportunities.  Sophomore Allie Arsiniega, a transplant from South Carolina, ran a personal best 4:58 in the 1500m.  The last lap of the race (linked below) is especially impressive as she pulls away for the victory.  Like the sophomore guys, Allie completed her applications this past fall and already has offers on the table for transfer.  She ranks 4h in Northern California after her race performance.

Sophomore Tyler Daugherty (Chicago area native) ran a blazing 800m race and sits 2nd in NorCal.  Tyler will graduate in May and is another student prepared for transfer.

Our 4x400m relay took home an exciting win holding off a hard charging Menlo College team.  The team of Asa Allen, John McDonald (Lincoln HS of Stockton), Elijah Harper and Tyler Daugherty once again displayed teamwork and coordination in their victory.  The relay is currently 3rd in NorCal behind American River College and Sequoias.

Ray’Ven Sanders (Oakland Tech) was solid in the 100 hurdles and moved to 3rd in NorCal wither her 15.26 clocking.  She also won the high jump event and is sitting at #5 in NorCal in that event with a jump of 5 feet and a 1/2 inch.

Lastly, freshman Clem DeGiovanni (Berkeley HS), was solid in the high jump and took his first competitive steps in the triple jump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-PTfYXPypo  4x100m Relay (Brown/Harper/Allen/Lokula)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVeuxtQsxSM  Allie Arsiniega 1500m and Blake Brown Triple Jump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHcwbyRyjRQ  Tyler Daugherty 800m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FqzccPeFo 4x400m relay Allen/Mcdonald/Harper/Daugherty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0CglHlPmEM  Ray’Ven Sanders 100 hurdles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc2-blkoHBs  Clem DeGiovanni TJ/HJ

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The 2014-15 Track & Field Team is Off and Running!

Track Team 2015 Spring

The 2014-15 track team started with a bang this season as up and coming runners are making great strides, reports Coach Brock Drazen about a recent meet and includes videos (with music!)  below.  “We had a nice weather weekend for track and a few of our Merritt students shined at UC Davis. Adeeb Nasir set an early season personal best sprinting the 100m in 10.73 posting the fastest time of the day in that event. This puts Adeeb 6th in Northern California and in the hunt for a spot at the state championship. Tyler Daugherty posted a 4:09 in the 1500m to take the win in an exciting finish–if you don’t like long races advance the race to the last lap.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKFr8IF0K7Q&list=UU4_9s1ThcyaM-IthbaMhAmg  Adeeb  100m


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDtfFaHEdSY&list=UU4_9s1ThcyaM-IthbaMhAmg  Tyler 1500m

The week before, Kaori Nguyen won the 100m at American River College

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FTIGV0uNHw  Kaori Nguyen 100m

Go out and catch a meet and watch for the next superstars – click here for the schedule!

 

Congratulations on the Success of the 2013-14 Track & Field Team
(and to Coach Drazen)!

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Track and Field State Championship 
Highlighted by Kemarley Brown’s World Record (See Video!)

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As Coach Brock Drazen reports, the Merritt College Track and Field team had an eventful state championship this past weekend highlighted by Kemarley Brown’s world leading, national community college record 9.93 seconds wind legal time in the 100m race.  Kemarley (pictured above) came back an hour later with a win in the 200m (wind aided 20.29) and was named male athlete of the meet when all was said and done.

Sometime about 12 hours later, American sprinter Justin Gatlin won a Diamond League 100m race in Shanghai in 9.92 to claim the world lead not before the television crew spoke about Kemarley and his feat from a day earlier.  While big news for our program, school, district and in the USA, this is a HUGE story in Jamaica where you may know that track and field is a national past time.  Kemarley will return to Jamaica and will participate in his country’s national championship.  He has been invited just this morning by Nike to compete in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, OR (Track Town USA) in less than two weeks and has been getting nonstop contacts from people around the world.  This has been a thrilling ride for all of us and know that our students have handled the focus with great pride, humility and with abundant pleasure.  Kemarley’s growth and maturity, physically and mentally has been visible in these past two years and I can assure you that the foundation of his success is a built on the many contributions small and large, subtle and obvious of so many people working at Peralta and at Merritt.

Tony Parnell also came up big with a 4th place finish in 10.43, an impressive performance from a hard working, determined guy who trained consistently always with an eye on reaching his maximum potential.  By finishing in the top 4, Tony becomes a community college All-American.  All 4 members of our 4x100m relay, Parnell, Brown, Tom Jacobs and Rajee Orr were also named All-American after finishing 2nd in the relay at state.  It was momentarily disappointing for all of us as we had fended off all community college challengers all season long until this final race (including besting Mt. Sac twice during the season).  Nonetheless, we set a season best mark in the race (40.22) and could only congratulate Mt. Sac  on achieving their season best mark (40.09) to win the title.  I still have to post the 200m race but below are two versions of the 100m and the relay.  Overall, Merritt finished 6th at the meet behind two Norcal teams (American River and Sequoias) and three Socal teams (Riverside, Cerritos and Mt. Sac).  Defeating the likes of SF City again and realizing that neither Chabot nor DVC had anyone make the state championship is a feather in our recruiting cap–and it’s that time of year.

Eight members of the track team are  are graduating this year:  Tony Parnell, Leo Theus III, Tamba Smith, Aliyah Wilkins, Rajee Orr, Kemarley Brown, Gary Moore and Tom Jacobs (Fall ’14).  This will make 32 transferring graduates since 2010 and thanks to our new website, I will be documenting the successes of our track/XC alumni over the next month on our alumni page.

Congratulations to all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62hDpdwFh_E&index=3&list=UU4_9s1ThcyaM-IthbaMhAmg&noredirect=1  100m Championship 4 minute version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpIEnXj1VYA&list=UU4_9s1ThcyaM-IthbaMhAmg  100m Championship 1 minute version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqpO4f8bww&list=UU4_9s1ThcyaM-IthbaMhAmg&noredirect=1  4x100m relay

 

Track Team Going to Finals! See Videos from Championship Trials

Track photo best copy

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Coach Brock Drazen proudly reports (and includes videos!): Our Northern California Championship Trials (top 24) were held this past Friday and several of our student-athletes have made it through to the finals this coming Saturday at De Anza beginning at 2PM.  The finals will include the top 9 from the north in track events with the top 4 advancing to the state championship (Southern California fills in the other 4 spots with 1 final spot determined based on the better remaining time between the north and south).  In field events, the top 6 advance to state.

Our 4x100m relay (currently top time in the state) advanced with a win in the first of two heats. In the 100m, Kemarley Brown showed how effective team work can be in what appears to be an individual event.  Kemarley advanced with the fastest time among three heats but he also paced the race for Rajee Orr who happened to be in the lane right next to Kemarley.  Rajee’s 10.51 was 2nd fastest of the day and a personal best.  Tony Parnell also set a personal best with a heat win in 10.63 giving Merritt 3 spots in the final.

In the 200m, Kemarley Brown and Rajee Orr both advanced while Steven Gissentanner moved on in the triple jump and high jump.

 

Happy New Year!

We had a great 2012-13 season (see highlights below) and are looking forward to the new year. Our season schedule and roster is linked on the left. Our first meet of the season is February 22, 2014 at Cal Berkeley.

Please check out the video below of the transformation of Merritt’s track. It was resurfaced by Beynon Sports from October 23, 2013 to Dec.13, 2013, changing it from a beat up, hardened and crumbled Mondo track surface to a polyurethane granular track. The new track will make its public debut on April 12, 2014 at our first home meet since 2011.

Highlights of 2012-13 Season

Click here to view Merritt Track and Field’s YouTube Channel

Kemarley Brown took home the California Community College State Championship title on Saturday, May 18, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl0hrWUQIyI  Kemarley Brown wins Norcal 100m Championship http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdTAh_Qw3W4  Kemarley Brown wins State Championship May 18, 2013 Kemarley also doubled in the 100 and 200m earlier this season at the Stanford Invitational winning against competitors from universities all over the country. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4r0ep8qh 100m at Stanford.

Rajee Orr took home the 200m Northern California Title in 21.28.  He will seek a state championship on Saturday May 18, 2013 at the California State Championship at the College of San Mateo.  Below is a link to his Northern California championship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5PtOSM2iOQ  Rajee Orr Wins 200m at Norcal Championship

Rajee also Came in 6th in the 100m and 3rd in the 200m at the State Championship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdtG4btgDPk Rajee at State 200m

Tamba Smith has had a solid first season ever running the hurdles taking home the gold in the 400 hurdles and silver in the 100 hurdles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irPGm-AwIZc  Tamba Smith 100 hurdles at Sacramento City College Big 8 Championship

Congrats to the following team members who graduated on Friday, May 24, 2013 at 4:30pm at Merritt College: John Barker, Javhan Cosby, Andrew Hunte, Thomas Rudenko, Maxamillian Thomas and Maria Scognamiglio