Merber, Hale make their marks on national stage

Columbia’s track standouts—both juniors in the College—traveled to the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in June, after qualifying at a regional meet in North Carolina, to compete in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the first time since 2007 that multiple Lion runners have been so honored.

At a school where many students profess apathy for sports, that level of achievement can come as a surprise. Though lacking in the track pedigree of schools like Oregon or USC, Columbia has a history of sending runners to national competitions. Liam Boylan-Pett, CC ’08, who paced Merber on his way to breaking the four-minute mile in March, and Erison Hurtault, CC ’07, both qualified for the NCAA championships in 2007. Delilah DiCrescenzo, CC ’05, placed third in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Outdoor Nationals in 2006.

To anyone who tuned into this summer’s NCAAs, though, Merber and Hale’s prowess was apparent. In the preliminary heat of the 1500m, roughly the equivalent of the mile, Merber lined up between Andrew Wheating, a 2008 Olympian who owns the fourth fastest time in U.S. history, and Lee Emanuel, the winner of this year’s NCAA indoor 1500m title. At the line, Merber said, “I was just like, ‘Oooh! I guess I made it.’ This is a new level that I’ve always wanted to be at. With that definitely came some nerve, but also a new level of excitement.” It hardly showed. From the moment the gun went off, Merber jumped to the front of a slow race and stayed in contention, passing Wheating at one point, on the way to a fifth-place finish and a spot in the final.

Hale’s time in Oregon was similarly successful. One of only two underclassmen in her 400-meter heat, she earned All-American honors by being one of the top eight finishers who hold U.S. citizenship. Though she missed qualifying for the final by four-hundredths of a second—the same fraction that kept her out of this year’s indoor final—she remains upbeat about the outcome. “Maybe it was fate and it just wasn’t my time to make it to finals,” she said. “I mean, of course it’s frustrating, but I tried.”

In addition to running at the collegiate championships this season, Hale took part in the U.S. Outdoor Nationals, a meet populated by stars like Sanya Richards-Ross, a two-time Olympian and the reigning world champion in the women’s 400-meter. In Hale’s words, “It was amazing, because I’m just standing there like, ‘I watch these women run, I always wanted to be like them,’ and for [Richards-Ross] to look at me—she was talking to me, too.”

Despite the distraction of racing against some of the world’s fastest and most popular runners, Hale performed well, making it through to the semifinals and finishing only two-tenths of a second off her personal 400-meter best. “I can see myself in their shoes,” she said. “Because, I mean, even though I didn’t beat [Richards-Ross], she wasn’t that far off. And I still beat some of them. I didn’t finish last.”

Now that the 2009-2010 season is over, Merber and Hale are turning their eyes to this year’s meets. “The main priority every year is to always help the team as much as possible,” said Merber.
“But, personally, I missed All-American by one spot—I’d love to get All-American in both seasons of track, as well as cross country.”

Hale echoed him with a few goals of her own—to run in both the indoor and outdoor collegiate finals of the women’s 400-meter and achieve All-American honors at the end of both seasons.

Though both athletes still have two years left of college, they have also begun to consider their professional careers. The 2012 and 2016 Olympics, Merber says, are always in the back of his mind, even as he focuses intently on the upcoming season. And despite beginning a pre-med major in psychology at Columbia, Hale has shifted her focus to running—she expects to run professionally after college and postpone graduate school until later. Considering that she is related to Wilma Rudolph, a triple gold medalist at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, it seems like a smart decision.

If Merber and Hale continue to run well—and the amount of training they put in each week makes it difficult to imagine the contrary—the image of Columbia athletes as being largely unsuccessful could change. Though Columbia has always performed well in fencing, rowing, archery, and other sports associated with colleges in the northeast, having star athletes in marquee events like women’s sprints and the men’s 1500m could bring new exposure to the athletic community. In 2008, when Erison Hurtault—who ran in the NCAA outdoor championships in 2007—attempted to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in the men’s 400m, he achieved national prominence in a profile by the New York Times.

That change, of course, could take time to arrive. Though their achievements this summer portend successful futures, Merber and Hale have a ways to go before achieving national fame. While warming up for the women’s 400-meter semifinals, Sanya Richards-Ross asked Hale, “What school do you go to?” When Hale said Columbia, Richards-Ross responded, “Oh, wow, I never heard of that.”