LA JOLLA, Calif. — UC San Diego cross country has added Meriah Earle to its staff as an assistant coach ahead of the 2022 season, Head Coach Nate Garcia '00 announced Wednesday. Earle, who also joins the Tritons' track and field staff in the same role, has experience coaching both sports at the high school and collegiate levels. She comes to La Jolla after simultaneously serving as an assistant coach at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad and a volunteer coach at Cal State San Marcos.
 
"Meriah is going to be a great addition to our staff," Garcia said. "She brings a wealth of personal experience in our sports as well as having experience coaching at nearly every level of the sport. She has a great vision for what it means to succeed at the highest level and has already started the process of making her mark on our teams."
 
In her time at Pacific Ridge, Earle helped the Firebirds reach multiple CIF State Championship meets. At the 2019 cross country championships, she coached a pair of freshmen to top-ten finishes. During that time, she also trained herself in marathon running, earning a spot at both the 2020 and upcoming 2024 Olympic Trials. Earle ran both cross country and track collegiately at San Diego State and is excited to dive fully back into collegiate athletics with the Tritons.
 
"I've always felt that there is nothing quite like college athletics and it has been a life-long dream of mine to return to the scene," Earle said. "I'm most looking forward to being a positive supporting force for your scholar athletes as they grow in the sport and learn the balancing act of academics and competing. I hope to illustrate to them that running and the lessons learned through training and racing are a way of life that will last long after college." 
 
UC San Diego cross country begins its second season of Division I competition on September 1, when the Tritons head to Mammoth Lakes for a dual with UCLA.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.