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S E R V I N G M I D VA L L E Y & U P PE R L AC K AWA N N A VA L L E Y THEVALLEYADVANTAGE.COM |JUNE 14, 2019
Several Mid Valley High School seniors celebrated their acceptance to Penn State | PAGE 7
A Valley View High School freshman was named a conference track and field all-star | PAGE 9
Leaping ahead
Peckville native makes great strides on field and in classroom BY CHRISTOPHER CORNELL ADVANTAGE EDITOR
The University of Scranton is relatively new to the world of track and field, but its team is starting to get some recognition, in part because of one student athlete. Senior Mark Merli, a native of Peckville and an alumni of Valley View High School, was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Men’s Track & Field Team, which was selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He is also a nominee for the All American Team, which will be announced this month. Merli is the first men’s track and field competitor to earn to earn Academic All-District honors from CoSIDA. Merli finished fifth in the Landmark Conference championships in the long jump with a school and personal record of 6.60 meters, while taking eighth place in the triple jump with a leap of 12.19 meters. He helped the Royals tie for fifth place in the team competition. Merli won the long jump at the Golden Ram Invitational and finished second in the same event at the Monarch Open. During the indoor season, Merli posted a pair of top-five results at the Landmark Conference championships, taking fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 12.37 meters and was fifth in the long jump, checking in at 6.42 meters. His performance helped
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Scranton to a sixth place team finish. Merli was the runner-up in the long jump at the DuCharme Invitation, while also placing third in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.99 seconds. During his junior year, Merli finished fourth in the long jump at the Landmark Conference Outdoor Championships and placed fifth in three events at the Landmark Conference Indoor Championships: long jump, triple jump and the 4x200-meter relay. The Royals finished in sixth place in both championship meets. Merli competed in six different events during his career at Scranton, posting personal bests of 6.99 seconds in the 55-meter dash, 7.64 seconds in the 60-meter dash, 11.61 seconds in the 100-meter dash, 25.33 seconds in the 200 meter dash, 6.60 meters in the long jump, and 12.83 meters in the triple jump. He holds Scranton’s indoor school record for the long jump and the program’s outdoor records for both the long jump and the triple jump. Despite his hard work in athletics, Merli also maintained his classroom work, he earned a 3.90 cumulative grade-point average as an exercise science major. He is a four-time Landmark Conference academic honor roll student and was named to the Landmark Conference Winter All-Sportsmanship Team. Merli also earned Landmark Conference Field Athlete of the Week honors and was named University of Scranton athlete of the week. Mark Merli, a native of Peckville and an alumni of Valley View High School, was He is the son of Chet and Cathy Merli of named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Men’s Track & Field Team, which Peckville. was selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
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