Everything Clicked for Mercera
Feb 03, 2026 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
The Country of Curacao is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea. Curacao has a population of about 150,000, and you can drive around the island in less than two hours. Curacao joins Aruba and other Dutch islands of the Caribbean to form the Dutch Caribbean.
Curacao is known over the world for its indigenous bitter orange-based liqueur.
Last Friday, Willemstad, Curacao became known as the birthplace of the best women's pentathlete in the world.
The calls and texts from family, friends and neighbors from back home flooded the cellphone of Kansas State senior Vanessa Mercera late into last Friday night and into the early-morning hours of Saturday in Manhattan, Kansas, hours after the 21-year-old put together the best women's pentathlon this season among collegiate athletes in the United States and what at the time was the top performance in the world.
Mercera's staggering score of 4,429 points featured personal bests in all five events. First, she finished second by running the 60-meter hurdles in 8.36 seconds — topping her previous best of 8.55 seconds. Then she finished second in the high jump at 1.81m (5' 11.25") — topping her previous best of 1.77m. Then she finished seventh in the shot put at 11.38m (37' 4") — topping her previous best of 10.64m. Then she finished seventh in the long jump at 5.85m (19' 2 1/2") — topping her previous best of 5.62m. Then she won the 800m at 2:09.93 — topping her previous best of 2:18.29.
Between 10:45 a.m. and around 4:00 p.m., Mercera executed the pentathlon of her life, and at the time, the best pentathlon in the entire world as of Friday night. Her 4,429 points rank fourth in K-State history in the women's pentathlon and was a 406-point improvement from her previous personal best in February 2024.
"Competing at home here at K-State, the announcer was telling everybody what I needed to run to be No. 1 in the NCAA or No. 1 in the world," Mercera says. Then there were the lights, and competing under the lights, it was a lot of fun."
The mindset? Simple. Take care of one event after another.
"My strongest event is the 60 meter hurdles, and 800 meters and high jump was really good for me as well," she says. "The shot put, I'm not really good at that, but it was still a good day for me. I set a personal record, and it kept me in the mix. My long jump is one of my weakest events at this moment, but I'm working on it.
"Based on the practices I'd been having, I knew I was going to get good scores, but I just had to execute it that day — like the 800-meter and the high jump. The 800 meter was a seven second PR from what I did last year, so that really surprised me."
She pauses.
"It had to happen that day," she says. "And it happened."
She thinks back to the announcement that followed the completion of her 800-meter dash, when she saw "2:09.93" flash upon the scoreboard, and she was announced as No. 1 in the world. Cheers rang throughout the Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track.
Even now, Mercera pinches herself.
"Still trying to process that," she says. "It's just a lot to think that me — little old me — was No. 1 in the world that night. It's just a lot to process."
How far she's come.
"Curacao is 150,000 people on an island you can drive around in 1 ½ hours tops, and where you know everybody," Mercera says. "I like it. It was different, but I liked it. Growing up, I was just a high jumper. Going to a college in the United States was always my goal. I didn't know much about colleges. I just went to the first college I heard of."
And what was the name of that college?
"Cloud County Community College," she says, "in Concordia, Kansas."
Mercera learned about Cloud County from one of her teammates from Curacao, who had competed there. She contacted the coaching staff, and then?
"Two weeks later," she says, "I was in Kansas — a place I'd never heard of before."
As a freshman at Cloud County, Mercera finished third place in the heptathlon at the NJCAA Outdoor Championship. As a sophomore, she won the title.
It was while Mercera prepared for the national championships that K-State track and field staff under legendary head coach Cliff Rovelto came calling. Mercera knew of Rovelto's reputation in developing world-class talent, particularly in the multi-events and high jump — Mercera's two favorite events. Other major track and field programs contacted Mercera as well, and she practically had her choice of taking her talents anywhere across the country, but she committed to K-State in May 2023.
"Being in Kansas, this was all I knew, and I had friends close by at Cloud Country, which is just 1 ½ hours away," Mercera says. "I chose the college that was closer to home. It's worked out for me."
As a junior, she set personal bests along the way to finishing sixth in the 2023 Indoor Big 12 Championships. She capped her outdoor season by advancing to the NCAA West Preliminary in the high jump and tied for 24th place.
She values the relationship she has built with current K-State head coach Travis Geopfert, who remains one of her biggest supporters.
"Having Coach Travis means a lot to me because we have overcome some stuff from last year," she says. "I hadn't competed last year, and he gave me some chances to come back. I came back. Him giving me a second chance to prove myself and now I'm doing better and doing my stuff like I'm supposed to do it, it's really good to have a coach like that. It's a really good program for me."
One of Mercera's proudest moments arrived during the first meet of this indoor season when she broke the K-State record in the 400 meters at the Thane Baker Invitational on January 16. She ran the 400 meters in 53.04 seconds, which was four seconds faster than her previous time.
That brings us to last Friday, when Mercera vaulted herself to the top of the world in the women's pentathlon.
And there's more to come.
"I'm really excited," she says. "We're going to compete at Arkansas in a couple weeks. Hopefully, I can break my own school records again. Obviously, I'll have national championships in March, and my goal is to win, and then keep competing outdoors in the 4x400 for the Netherlands, and then compete in some international meets for my country.
"It's going to be a long season."
Afterward, after she set all these personal bests, and after she launched herself into rare air across the world, Mercera didn't go out and celebrate her achievements or take time to relax her mind after conquering a test for which she had so mightily prepared for over the previous days, weeks and months.
No, Mercera was tucked away inside her room in Manhattan, fielding phone calls, answering texts — and eager to attack the months ahead.
"I was still riding that high a little bit," she says. "It was a little hard to sleep Friday night. My mom was very happy. The whole community of Curacao, everybody texted me, and everybody was happy.
"I stayed up. I wanted to see how other people performed across the world — and see how I can improve the next time."
The Country of Curacao is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea. Curacao has a population of about 150,000, and you can drive around the island in less than two hours. Curacao joins Aruba and other Dutch islands of the Caribbean to form the Dutch Caribbean.
Curacao is known over the world for its indigenous bitter orange-based liqueur.
Last Friday, Willemstad, Curacao became known as the birthplace of the best women's pentathlete in the world.
The calls and texts from family, friends and neighbors from back home flooded the cellphone of Kansas State senior Vanessa Mercera late into last Friday night and into the early-morning hours of Saturday in Manhattan, Kansas, hours after the 21-year-old put together the best women's pentathlon this season among collegiate athletes in the United States and what at the time was the top performance in the world.
Mercera's staggering score of 4,429 points featured personal bests in all five events. First, she finished second by running the 60-meter hurdles in 8.36 seconds — topping her previous best of 8.55 seconds. Then she finished second in the high jump at 1.81m (5' 11.25") — topping her previous best of 1.77m. Then she finished seventh in the shot put at 11.38m (37' 4") — topping her previous best of 10.64m. Then she finished seventh in the long jump at 5.85m (19' 2 1/2") — topping her previous best of 5.62m. Then she won the 800m at 2:09.93 — topping her previous best of 2:18.29.
Between 10:45 a.m. and around 4:00 p.m., Mercera executed the pentathlon of her life, and at the time, the best pentathlon in the entire world as of Friday night. Her 4,429 points rank fourth in K-State history in the women's pentathlon and was a 406-point improvement from her previous personal best in February 2024.
"Competing at home here at K-State, the announcer was telling everybody what I needed to run to be No. 1 in the NCAA or No. 1 in the world," Mercera says. Then there were the lights, and competing under the lights, it was a lot of fun."
The mindset? Simple. Take care of one event after another.
"My strongest event is the 60 meter hurdles, and 800 meters and high jump was really good for me as well," she says. "The shot put, I'm not really good at that, but it was still a good day for me. I set a personal record, and it kept me in the mix. My long jump is one of my weakest events at this moment, but I'm working on it.
"Based on the practices I'd been having, I knew I was going to get good scores, but I just had to execute it that day — like the 800-meter and the high jump. The 800 meter was a seven second PR from what I did last year, so that really surprised me."
She pauses.
"It had to happen that day," she says. "And it happened."
She thinks back to the announcement that followed the completion of her 800-meter dash, when she saw "2:09.93" flash upon the scoreboard, and she was announced as No. 1 in the world. Cheers rang throughout the Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track.
Even now, Mercera pinches herself.
"Still trying to process that," she says. "It's just a lot to think that me — little old me — was No. 1 in the world that night. It's just a lot to process."
How far she's come.
"Curacao is 150,000 people on an island you can drive around in 1 ½ hours tops, and where you know everybody," Mercera says. "I like it. It was different, but I liked it. Growing up, I was just a high jumper. Going to a college in the United States was always my goal. I didn't know much about colleges. I just went to the first college I heard of."
And what was the name of that college?
"Cloud County Community College," she says, "in Concordia, Kansas."
Mercera learned about Cloud County from one of her teammates from Curacao, who had competed there. She contacted the coaching staff, and then?
"Two weeks later," she says, "I was in Kansas — a place I'd never heard of before."
As a freshman at Cloud County, Mercera finished third place in the heptathlon at the NJCAA Outdoor Championship. As a sophomore, she won the title.
It was while Mercera prepared for the national championships that K-State track and field staff under legendary head coach Cliff Rovelto came calling. Mercera knew of Rovelto's reputation in developing world-class talent, particularly in the multi-events and high jump — Mercera's two favorite events. Other major track and field programs contacted Mercera as well, and she practically had her choice of taking her talents anywhere across the country, but she committed to K-State in May 2023.
"Being in Kansas, this was all I knew, and I had friends close by at Cloud Country, which is just 1 ½ hours away," Mercera says. "I chose the college that was closer to home. It's worked out for me."
As a junior, she set personal bests along the way to finishing sixth in the 2023 Indoor Big 12 Championships. She capped her outdoor season by advancing to the NCAA West Preliminary in the high jump and tied for 24th place.
She values the relationship she has built with current K-State head coach Travis Geopfert, who remains one of her biggest supporters.
"Having Coach Travis means a lot to me because we have overcome some stuff from last year," she says. "I hadn't competed last year, and he gave me some chances to come back. I came back. Him giving me a second chance to prove myself and now I'm doing better and doing my stuff like I'm supposed to do it, it's really good to have a coach like that. It's a really good program for me."
One of Mercera's proudest moments arrived during the first meet of this indoor season when she broke the K-State record in the 400 meters at the Thane Baker Invitational on January 16. She ran the 400 meters in 53.04 seconds, which was four seconds faster than her previous time.
That brings us to last Friday, when Mercera vaulted herself to the top of the world in the women's pentathlon.
And there's more to come.
"I'm really excited," she says. "We're going to compete at Arkansas in a couple weeks. Hopefully, I can break my own school records again. Obviously, I'll have national championships in March, and my goal is to win, and then keep competing outdoors in the 4x400 for the Netherlands, and then compete in some international meets for my country.
"It's going to be a long season."
Afterward, after she set all these personal bests, and after she launched herself into rare air across the world, Mercera didn't go out and celebrate her achievements or take time to relax her mind after conquering a test for which she had so mightily prepared for over the previous days, weeks and months.
No, Mercera was tucked away inside her room in Manhattan, fielding phone calls, answering texts — and eager to attack the months ahead.
"I was still riding that high a little bit," she says. "It was a little hard to sleep Friday night. My mom was very happy. The whole community of Curacao, everybody texted me, and everybody was happy.
"I stayed up. I wanted to see how other people performed across the world — and see how I can improve the next time."
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