NAU Recruit Is Entered This Weekend In The Mile And 2-Mile Against Stacked Fields

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

A year ago around this time, Tristian Merchant was preparing to test his fitness at the Arcadia Invitational — an elite high school meet in Southern California with a history of producing some of the nation's best times and marks.

But due to the rapid onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, combined with the cancellation of the outdoor track and field season around the country, the Alaska native never got the opportunity to show what he could do.

A year later, the senior from Anchorage Christian High will travel to Myrtle Beach, S.C. and open up his outdoor season at the NSAF USA Meet of Champions — one of the first elite-level outdoor track and field opportunities since June of 2019. 

WATCH THE NSAF USA MEET OF CHAMPIONS LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY

“It’s definitely something I’ve been super excited for,” Merchant said. “Missing out on Arcadia last year, that was definitely a meet we were gearing up toward and I was looking forward to. I think this is like a slightly earlier Arcadia, just on the other side of the country. So I’m super excited to have all of these guys that are quick (to race against) and definitely thankful for that.”

Merchant, who flew out from Anchorage to South Carolina this week, is scheduled to run the boys championship mile (Sunday, 3:18 p.m. EDT) and 2-mile (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. EDT).

Saturday’s 2-mile will pit him against a stacked field that includes indoor high school boys mile record holder Hobbs Kessler of Michigan, Indiana’s Izaiah Steury, West Virginia's Larry Josh Edwards and Connecticut stars Gavin Sherry, Aidan Puffer and Nicholas Bendtsen.

Merchant said he doesn’t have a time in mind, rather he just wants to stay competitive in his first outdoor race of 2021. 

“I couldn't say any times I'll be able to hit, but obviously it’s a race, so you’re trying to stick in and do your best, and that’s kind of the goal I have,” he said. “I’d like to run some fast times, but you know whatever happens, it could be a championship-style race or it might be really slow, but I’m just hoping to stick in it and run with the top guys, that's the main goal.”

Merchant last made national headlines all the way back in the fall of 2020 where he churned out an historic final high school cross country season.

On his way to becoming a three-time state champion, he won the Region III championship in 14:41.4 seconds, the fastest 5,000-meter time in Alaska high school history. At the state meet, he set a state and course record at Kincaid Park, clocking 14:51. He’s the only Alaskan to run under 15 minutes at the state championships. His state meet speed rating was the second-fastest of anyone in the country.

Since then, Merchant’s kept a low profile with a focus on training this winter. 

“So basically right after the fall, after the cross country switch, it was a tiny little bit of easy running, then we started doing some generic pace work and then from there, the beginning of the (indoor) season we started hitting some race-pace stuff,” he said.

Racing for his club, the Alaska Running Academy, Merchant’s only big race this indoor season was in early February at the East Coast Invitational at Virginia Beach Sports Center where he finished second in the boys mile, clocking 4:17.93. While he said his training has been “normal” comparatively to other years, he said it's hard to gauge what type of shape he is in right now. 

“This year has been a little different on the types of workouts we’ve done, but it’s kind of hard to tell because we’ve done 8:50-8:45 pace for workouts, but we’ve done a lot of mile work, and also not even using a watch for some workouts,” he said. “But this definitely is a week (and meet) we are going to take seriously.” 

Merchant, who is committed to run for Northern Arizona University this coming fall, said he was able to watch his future teammates take home the men's NCAA Division 1 Cross Country team title last week as four of the team's five scorers finished in the top nine.

He’s hoping to emulate some of that success this weekend. 

“Especially just seeing the top four guys being really close and bunched up together, I think that’s super exciting," Merchant said. "And obviously I have Hobbs (in the 2-mile race) down here who is phenomenal and super good at running, so I would love to run with him, but he might be in a little bit of a different category than me. But I’m just hoping I can stay close to those guys and kind of finish like NAU finished and have good times and a good race.”