When she ran her first triathlon in the spring of her freshman year — the Angel’s Race in downtown Lynchburg — senior Megan Merryman never dreamed she would become Liberty University’s first triathlete to compete at the NCAA Women’s Collegiate National Championships and then turn professional in the sport.
Merryman joined the professional ranks on Jan. 1, two months after she reached the pinnacle of her collegiate career by placing sixth at the NCAA Women’s Triathlon National Championships, a Draft-Legal Sprint race held Nov. 5 in New Orleans. Merryman has even higher aspirations after she competes in her third USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships in late April in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and graduates with a degree in exercise science in May. She plans to compete in Half Ironman triathlons starting this summer and is hopeful that she could represent the United States in the Olympics someday.
“I’m not going to say I’d be opposed to going to Tokyo in 2020, but I’ve got a lot of work to do, that’s for sure,” Merryman said. “I guess 2024 would probably be a little more realistic, but (earlier) would be really cool.”
In New Orleans, Merryman was one of only a dozen club sport-level triathletes in a field of 48 women, with the majority coming from NCAA programs. She qualified for her professional triathlon license by finishing among the top five Americans (the race also included international competitors), completing the 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer cycling stage, and 5K run in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 40 seconds.
“The amount of development she’s made in three years is just incredible,” Liberty third-year Head Coach Parker Spencer said. “It’s a proud moment for a coach to see someone come so far so fast. A lot of it is her work ethic and mindset and ability to push herself to new limits. It also speaks to Liberty’s ability to develop athletes. If they’re dedicated and work hard, the sky’s the limit as to what they can accomplish at Liberty.”
Merryman, who was named Liberty’s 2015-16 Club Sports Female Athlete of the Year, credits Spencer and her fellow Flames, including the many male triathletes she has trained with, for her rapid rise in the sport. Spencer himself has competed in triathlon or duathlon world championships the past five summers and has qualified for both events again this year: triathlon in mid-September in The Netherlands and duathlon in mid-August in Canada.
“I’m very blessed to be on this team — to have an awesome coach and awesome teammates,” Merryman said. “Parker definitely sets us all up for success with our training plans, and he knows exactly what he’s talking about.”
Merryman also qualified for next summer’s world championships in Canada after winning her 20-24 age group and finishing second out of 55 participants in her first sprint duathlon, in which she competed just one day after the NCAA triathlon championships. The sprint duathlon features a 5K run, 20K cycling stage, and 2.5K run; Merryman clocked a 1:05:55.8 finish.
