Career
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 (4:0261 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 mentor
Merrill is now married hyphenating her name with Morin, and is an assistant coach at Rutgers University.