Griz signee finishes third at Foot Locker Nationals
12/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Cross Country
University of Montana signee Makena Morley, of Bigfork, finished third Saturday morning at the 36th annual Foot Locker Cross Country Championships at Balboa Park in San Diego, Calif.
Morley, who placed in the top 10 at the national meet for the third time in her prep career, finished in a time of 17:29, 16 seconds behind winner Anna Rohrer, of Mishawaka, Ind., who also won in 2012.
Ryen Frazier, of Raleigh, N.C., placed second in a time of 17:23.
"Makena wanted to win, but her other goal was to lay it all out there until she had nothing left to give. She went for it and had a great race. We're definitely proud," said UM cross country and distance coach Collin Fehr, Morley's primary recruiter and future coach.
Morley, who finished ninth at the race as a freshman in a time of 17:40, 24th as a sophomore (18:12) and eighth last year (17:43), led the 40-athlete race from the gun and into the second mile.
"Makena races best when she gets out early and feels in control, when she gets out and pushes the issue," said Fehr. "When she doesn't do that, she tends to get complacent and lets other runners get away from her."
Early in mile two, Rohrer and Frazier joined Morley at the front, and at the start of the third mile of the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) race, Rohrer and Frazier put a small gap on Morley. Rohrer ultimately powered away from Frazier to claim her second national championship.
"They were just flat-out impressive in their ability to push over that second lap," Fehr said of the first- and second-place finishers. "Rohrer was just relentless in how she pushed and pushed. It was dang impressive."
Morley fell off the pace and out of the view of the camera tracking the race leaders on FootLockerCC.com, but she held her third-place position over the final mile. She finished four seconds in front of Paige Hofstad, of New Braunfels, Texas. No other racers broke 17:45.
"It was good for Makena to be in that situation. Obviously she wants to win those types of races, so she needs to experience them and learn what it's going to take to get there. She got a taste of that today," added Fehr.
"It's a big compliment to her fortitude. It's easy to say you want to win, but when it's clear you're not going to, it can be easy to kind of let it go and drop way back. But she didn't. She stayed in it and kept giving it everything she had."
Morley signed a National Letter of Intent with Montana in early November. She'll compete for the Grizzlies for the first time next fall, following her final track season at Bigfork High.
