Aries Merritt

Merritt matched his season's best time of 13.12 to claim second at the 2011 USA Outdoor Championships and a World team berth. With his third-place finish at the 2009 USA Outdoor Championships, Merritt punched his ticket for a trip to a World Outdoor Championships for the first time in his career. Merritt’s most memorable performance in 2007 came in his win in Stockholm in the new personal best time of 13.09 seconds. In 2006, Merritt, a seven-time All-America and 2006 NCAA champion at the University of Tennessee, decided to forgo his final season of collegiate eligibility to pursue a career in professional track and field. Merritt left Tennessee with 14 total school, meet or facility records, including every high hurdles school record, in his possession. He finished the 2006 college season undefeated in every 55 hurdles, 60 hurdles and 110m hurdles race he finished, including prelims and finals, for a record of 18 wins in 18 complete races. Merritt in 2006 broke the 24-year-old Univ. of Tennessee school record of Willie Gault and the SEC meet record (13.29) of two-time Olympic silver medalist Terrence Trammell. Merritt won the 110m hurdles at the 2006 NCAA championships in 13.21 seconds, breaking Greg Foster’s NCAA meet record of 13.22 in 1978 and lowering his own school record (13.22) -- only National Track & Field Hall of Famer Renaldo Nehemiah from the University of Maryland has ever run faster at the collegiate level (13.00, May 6, 1979). While at Tennessee he won Ed Murphey Award (for most outstanding performance) and Most Valuable Track Athlete Award in 2005. As a prep star in Georgia, Merritt was one of only eight hurdlers nationally named to USA Today's All-USA High School Team ... Went undefeated in the 110 hurdles in Georgia his senior year ... Won the 2003 Georgia state 5A title in the 110m hurdles and took runner-up honors in the 300m hurdles ... Received Best Performance trophies at the 2003 5A Georgia state championships for running a 13.76 in the 110m hurdles and 36.71 in the 300m hurdles at the state meet ... Finished third in the 110m hurdles, fourth in the 400m hurdles and ran on the winning 4x100m and 4x400m relays in the 2003 Junior