Jan Merrill

Janice ("Jan") Melbourne Merrill (born June 18, 1956 in New London, Connecticut) is a retired female middle distance runner from the United States. She was the dominant long distance runner of the middle 1970s, a notable front runner, her uniform with the large "M" on her chest would usually break away to an insurmountable lead in domestic meets. She was equally untouchable in self-promotion or dealing with the media, often deferring to her coach, Norm Higgins. At various points in time she held the American record in the women's 1500 metres (4:02.61 set on July 29, 1976) during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the 3,000 metres and 5,000 metres. She lost other record opportunities because the only times she could get a decent race in the United States was against men.

She won the U.S. title at 1500 metres twice outdoors, 3000 metres 4 times, twice in the indoor mile, twice in the indoor 2 mile and twice in Cross Country.

Merrill is now married hyphenating her name with Morin, and is a coach at Old Saybrook highschool. Jan Merrill could arguably go down as the best mid distance runner is US history.

Achievements