Morley finishes 97th at cross country national championship

University of Montana freshman Makena Morley finished 97th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Louisville Ky.

Morley covered the six-kilometer course in a time of 20 minutes, 49 seconds. The women’s race was won by Notre Dame senior Molly Seidel, who finished with a time of 19:28. Boise State freshman Allie Ostrander was second in 19:33 and Arkansas senior Dominique Scott was third in 19:40.

Morley, who won four Class B cross country state championships at Bigfork, had all-America aspirations, which would have required a top-40 finish, and she was in position to reach her goal in the early going. Through two kilometers she was in 24th place and running with the main pack, less than two seconds off the leaders.

From there the Big Sky Conference champion would drift back. She placed fourth among Big Sky runners, finishing behind Eastern Washington’s Sarah Reiter, Weber State’s Hailey Whetten and Northern Arizona’s Melanie Townsend, and was the 16th freshman across the line.

“She was in it early and put herself into position, but the field is so deep and competitive, that if you lose focus even for a minute, you can get swallowed up,” said Montana coach Collin Fehr.

“So much can happen so fast in this race that you can’t have anything go wrong. You have to be totally on it from start to finish and have complete awareness.”

Morley’s time was nine seconds off her finish at NCAA Pre-Nationals in mid-October, when she was just returning from an early-season injury that forced her to miss the Montana Invitational.

“It wasn’t Makena’s best day out there,” Fehr added. “It wasn’t an indication of what her potential is or how well she can finish at this race.

“We’ll use this as a motivating force as we shift gears and start working toward track and those national meets, and toward this race next year, because we want to get back here.”