Aaron Merritt's 'work ethic', Ryin Miller's drive push the Seaman track duo to success

TOPEKA — Comparison is often the thief of joy.

But, it's usually not when it comes to your own teammate. Comparing each other’s success is actually motivating two Seaman athletes.

Aaron Merritt, a senior, and sophomore Ryin Miller are dominating their individual track and field events this season. They are also looking to each other for inspiration and ingenuity each day in practice.

“It’s his work ethic. He wants to win you can tell” Miller said of Merritt. “His form, I don’t understand how he does it. His 110-meter hurdle time is my 100-meter all out sprint.”

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Merritt leads the state in 100-meter dash

Last week was one of the best of Merritt’s young athletic career. He committed to run at Kansas and also took the top spot in the state in the 100-meter dash. Merritt took gold in the 100-meter dash of last Monday’s Seaman Relays. He came across the line in a state best 10.48.

“The conditions were great and it was a home meet and I had to show out for that,” Merritt said. “I had a lot of rest over the weekend which helped, too.”

Momentum for the sprinter trickled into Friday’s Joe Schrag City Meet where he won the 100-meter dash and the 110-meter hurdles. Merritt ranks second in the state in the 110-meter huddles with a time of 14.31, which came in the Seaman Relays, too.

Merritt qualified for last year’s state championship in the hurdles, but he finished in 16th place. He is looking to smash that in the coming weeks. He has mightily improved thanks to the work he learned from his club team, the Topeka Blazers, last summer.

“We were really drilling on my top speed,” Merritt explained. “Last year, my blocks were phenomenal, but I would die out on my top speed. We were doing a lot of longer reps on that top speed work.”

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Miller nationally ranked in 1,600-meter run

While Merritt is working on exploding out of his blocks during practice, Miller may already be finishing her distance work out. She isn’t your normal spring sport athlete. She is excelling on the track and on the soccer pitch. Miller bounces from practice to practice simply because she ‘loves to compete.’

“Ryin Miller really puts me to shame,” Merritt smiled. “Top 20 in the nation is crazy and she comes out and runs track for half an hour, does the work out and goes straight to soccer practice. She doesn’t stop and I could never ever do that.”

Miller has helped the Vikings to a 10-2-1 record in soccer. Even more impressively, she is one of the nation’s best runners. She ranks 19th in the country after hitting a time of 4:46.90 in Friday’s 1,600-meter run. Not only does she lead the state in the 1,600, she is the top runner in the 3,200 and the 800-meter run.

In the City meet, it was obvious that Miller was going to win each event. Her first 200-meters were different. The turnover in her legs along with an efficient form made her fly around Hummer Sports Park. It’s a different type of difficulty for Miller as she runs by herself in most events, the only person pushing her is herself.

“It’s hard sometimes, but it is a whole lot easier with my teammates and with the crowd,” Miller said.

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Lofty goals set for Miller and Merritt

The goals for Miller and Merritt are lofty, but they aren’t unheard of as the state championship approaches at the end of May. Miller wants to win the state title in the 800, 1,600 and the 3,200. That hasn’t been done in Class 5A since 2018 when Pittsburg’s McKenzie Wilks won all three.

“I want to break 2:10 [in the 800] and I would like to win all three at state if possible,” Miller said. “It’s definitely going to be a challenge and I want to get third for our 4x400.”

For Merritt, he is trying to get as close to 10.3 as possible in the 100-meter dash. In the final weeks, he plans to work hard on rounding out everything from form to block work to excel at state.

The duo hopes to conclude the season with state medals around each of their necks come the last weekend in May. A comparison that will bring joy to themselves and Seaman High School.

Liam Keating covers high school sports for The Topeka Capital-Journal. Send stats or information to him at Lkeating@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Seaman track: Aaron Merritt, Ryin Miller push each other to success