Morley places 39th at Pre-Nationals

Saturday, October 17

Louisville, Ky.

Montana

NCAA Pre-Nationals

10/17/2015 1:30:00 PM | Women's Cross Country

By: Montana Sports Information

Results

Montana freshman Makena Morley finished 39th Saturday morning at the NCAA Pre-Nationals cross country race at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.

It was the first major collegiate race for Morley, who won the Montana State Invitational four weeks ago in her only other race this fall.

"This was a big-time learning experience for Makena. The competition and depth of field was greater than anything she has experienced before. She's run in some big races with good competition, but never with the sheer number of runners who are at her level.

"I think it kind of caught her by surprise," said UM cross country coach Collin Fehr.

Colorado junior Erin Clark won the six-kilometer race in a time of 20:00.5. She beat Air Force senior Hannah Everson (20:01.2) and Tennessee senior Chelsea Blaase (20:02.6) to the line.

Morley, who missed the Montana Invitational two weeks ago because of a foot injury, came through in 20:40.3.

"Makena raced solid, just not up to what she could have done if her confidence was a little higher and if she was a little more prepared mentally for the type of race it was," said Fehr.

Running in the high-level seeded race, which was won by Michigan, followed by Colorado, Oregon and Stanford, Morley was in the top 20 through four kilometers.

"She was right in it through 4k. The last 2k is the most technical part of the course. There are some hills, and you get away from the crowds, so you're kind of on your own. That's when she lost focus a little bit and got swallowed up," said Fehr.

"With her foot injury, she's spent more time cross-training than she would like, so her confidence wasn't quite where it needed to be. She's capable of running much faster and placing much higher.

"But it was still a really good experience. We'll be able to prepare much more specifically for meets like this in the future. We'll learn from this and build her confidence up over the next few weeks before regionals."

Morley was the seventh freshman across the line and the second runner from the Big Sky Conference. Eastern Washington's Sarah Reiter, last year's Big Sky champion, finished 16th in a time of 20:25.9.

The rest of Montana's team competed Saturday at the Inland Empire Challenge in Lewiston, Idaho. The Grizzlies will compete at the Big Sky Conference championships at Cedar City, Utah, on Oct. 31 and the NCAA Mountain Regional on Nov. 13 in Albuquerque, N.M.