Coaching Staff

Merita Mullen is the Founding Director of Synchronized Skating and Head Coach for Team Excel Synchronized Skating Teams. She brings more than 30 years experience to her new role with Team Excel. She is a recognized leader worldwide in the sport of synchronized skating. Mullen has developed competitive synchronized skating teams at all levels from Beginner to Senior and Collegiate.

Her immediate goal with Team Excel is to create awareness and interest in synchronized skating at the earliest stages of skater development by including a “Learn to Skate Synchro” module in Basic Skills classes in conjunction with The Skating Club of Boston and also offering advanced synchronized skaters the opportunity to train with a staff of world class synchronized skating coaches to achieve their potential as individuals and teams.

Prior to directing Team Excel, she was the Director of Synchronized Skating for The Colonials Synchronized Skating Teams for over twenty years. Under her direction, coaching, and creative influence, The Colonials consistently qualified for and competed in the U.S. Synchronized Team Skating Championships, having won medals in the Juvenile, Intermediate, and Junior divisions. The Junior team repeatedly earned a Team USA envelope assignment, competing in ten International Championships and two consecutive World Challenge Cups in 2007 and 2008. The Junior team won medals for U.S. Figure Skating in Nottingham, England, Louviers, France, and during repeat trips to Prague, Milan, Italy and Neuchatel, Switzerland. Further, the Intermediate team stood on the U.S. Championship podium for seventeen years, sixteen of them being consecutive years.

Merita also holds several key positions within U.S. Figure Skating. She is the Coaching Representative to the National Selections Committee for Synchronized Skating Competitions and the current Collegiate Committee National Vice Chair in charge of Synchronized Skating for U.S. Figure Skating.

She does extensive volunteer work for U.S. Figure Skating and the Professional Skaters Association while representing Team Excel and the Skating Club of Boston. She mentors developmental synchronized skating coaches, and travels the country teaching and coaching in seminars that feature synchronized skating.

Merita earned a Bachelors degree from The American University and is the mother of two daughters. She is an active volunteer in all of their sports and social activities.

Krista Benson is a coach for Team Excel Synchronized Skating Teams. This will be Krista’s third year as a synchro coach, and second year with Team Excel. Krista has been involved with synchronized skating since joining the Colonials Synchronized Skating Teams in 1994. She was a member of the Colonials Junior team for four years and competed internationally three of those four years, including trips to Milan, Italy and Neuchatel, Switzerland. Krista is a member of the Professional Skaters Association, a gold medalist in Moves in the Field, and has passed her Pre-Gold Dances.

Krista attended Boston College where she graduated with a degree in history in 2007. While in school, she skated with the BC Collegiate synchronized skating team. She was Vice President of the Synchronized Skating Club her sophomore and junior years, and President of the Club her senior year. The BC synchronized skating team qualified for Nationals every year and consistently placed in the top ten at Nationals.

Kristin Curran is a coach for Team Excel Synchronized Skating Teams and has a strong background in the USFSA Basic Skills and ISI programs. Kristin began coaching at the age of sixteen, interning at the CFSC Basic Skills classes and currently teaches all levels of figure skaters and also beginner level speed skaters.

Kristin skated for The Colonials Synchronized Skating Teams from 2002-2006, including two years on their international junior team. While on the junior team, she skated in the Spring Cup held in Milan, Italy and the Nottingham Cup held in Nottingham, England and earned medals at each event. Kristin is a gold medalist in Moves in the Field and Ice Dancing. She is also working on completing her international dances.

After graduating college in 2009, Kristin now works as a Medical Assistant.

Melissa Delano is a coach for Team Excel Synchronized Skating Teams. Melissa has been deeply involved in the sport of synchronized skating for over ten years. She skated from 1999-2006 for the Pawtucket & Providence Synchronized Skating teams in Pawtucket, RI. She has enjoyed the experience of skating for Merita on past Senior and Collegiate teams. She is currently a member of the Team Excel Collegiate team.

At age twelve, Melissa volunteered for the City of Pawtucket’s Learn to Skate program where she continued as a volunteer until she graduated in 2007.

Melissa has her gold MIF, she is working on completing her gold dances and is on the professional staff with the Pawtucket & Providence FSC.

Melissa is in her Senior year at Bridgewater State College where she is majoring in accounting and finance.

Jane Gruber provides strength and conditioning support to Team Excel members, specializing in physical therapy and fitness, and assisting skaters as they address sports-related injuries or physical challenges. The teams that she has trained have consistently been National and International competitors.

Jane earned a doctorate in physical therapy from MGH Institute in Health Professions and is the Director of Rehabilitation Services at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She has two daughters, and her daughter Allison skated with Merita for nine years.