Mercurio jumps to spot on national team
Angela Mercurio will get a late start to her fourth and final year of studies at the University of Nebraska.
Instead of hitting the books and preparing for the indoor track and field season, the Kitchener native and biochemistry major will spend two weeks in Taiwan as part of the Canadian contingent at the Aug. 19-30 Summer Universiade (FISU). The personable triplejump specialist will be joined by Cambridge sprinter Jellisa Westney on the 51-member track and field team that was unveiled last week by Athletics Canada.
The Canadian delegation, in total, will include 276 studentathletes, 114 mission and support staff, and three referees in 16 sports. The majority of that list was released Tuesday, with the women’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams to be announced at a later date.
“I really wanted to make a national team this year … so I was really excited when I made standard. This will be a great experience to actually compete internationally for Canada,” the 21-year-old Mercurio said Tuesday, over the phone from Lincoln, Neb. “It’s a little scary that I’ll miss two weeks of school but I’m definitely still excited to have such a great opportunity.”
A graduate of St. Mary’s High School, Mercurio will be representing Canada for a second time. She previously achieved the feat two years ago at the Panamerican junior championships in Edmonton, where she finished seventh.
Mercurio punched her ticket to Taiwan with a 13.38-metre effort May 27 in Austin, Texas, at the West qualifying meet for the NCAA Division 1 championship. She went on to finish 12th at NCAA nationals, with a 13.13metre jump, and earlier this month finished in second place, at 13.19, at the Canadian championship in Ottawa.
Mercurio is coming off her strongest season at Nebraska and finished the year as a second-team all-American for her 12th-place finish at nationals.
She finished third at the Big Ten Conference championships and sixth at the NCAA West qualifier.
She also blew past the 13metre mark for the first time in her career during the outdoor season.
“This year, I placed more of an emphasis on strength training, lifting heavier in the weight room, and then, just getting faster, learning better running mechanics,” said Mercurio of her breakthrough season.
“This is the first year that I can really say that I was pushed in the weight room, and that definitely translated to the track.”
In addition to her athletic prowess, she has racked up a significant number of awards for academic success and leadership. In her downtime, what there is of it, she is a member of her school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, volunteers her time with children and seniors, and shadows doctors to prepare for medical school.
Mercurio hasn’t decided what she’ll do after her final year at Nebraska but said there are two possible routes to follow. She’ll either continue her athletic career or stop competing and focus on the next stage of her educational journey.
“It will depend on how the season goes because my goal is medical school (in Ontario) and I don’t think I’ll be able to balance jumping and medical school,” she said.
“There are so many things that can happen, so I definitely have two plans and will decide next year what I’ll do next.”
Mercurio, prior to attending Nebraska, finished second in the triple jump at the 2013 Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship. One year earlier, she was a runner-up at OFSAA in the long jump.
She arrived at Nebraska with a tumour in her left knee that required her to have surgery and miss the indoor season.
She recovered in time to join the Huskers for the outdoor campaign.
Mercurio and Westney, who attended Michigan State University, both trained with Waterloo-based Supreme Athletics before heading to the United States on track scholarships.