Morley finishes eighth at regionals

Friday, November 13

Albuquerque, N.M.

Montana

NCAA Mountain Regional

Nathan Wellington, Makena Morley, Gavin Hasty

11/13/2015 5:58:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: Montana Sports Information

Results

It won't become official until Saturday, but Montana's Makena Morley will be racing at nationals to cap her freshman cross country season.

Morley, who led the first four kilometers of the six-kilometer race, finished eighth Friday at the NCAA Mountain Regional at Albuquerque, N.M. She was the only freshman in the top 15.

Her performance will earn her a trip to the NCAA Championships, which will be held next Saturday at Louisville, Ky.

"It was a really exciting race to watch," said coach Collin Fehr. "Makena proved she's at this level. Just like at conference, she made a statement to everyone in the region and in the country that she's here to tango. She definitely has the potential to be all-American next week and place pretty high."

To automatically qualify on Friday for nationals, Morley needed to finish among the top four individuals who were not on the region's first- and second-place teams. Those two teams ended up being Colorado and New Mexico after the Buffaloes upset the top-ranked Lobos on their home course by a single point.

Four runners not from Colorado or New Mexico finished ahead of Morley. Air Force senior Hannah Everson was first in 20:45, Utah sophomore Hannah McInturff fourth (21:07), Colorado State sophomore Darby Gilfillan fifth (21:10) and Weber State junior Ellie Child sixth (21:13).

Three Colorado runners also finished ahead of Morley, who clocked a time of 21:15.

Utah, which finished third behind Colorado and New Mexico, will be one of the teams receiving an at-large bid to nationals when Saturday's announcement is made. That will make Morley one of the top four individual finishers from non-qualifying teams.

Flotrack is also projecting BYU, which was fourth, and Weber State, which was fifth, to make the at-large cut. That would further strengthen Morley's position.

To the surprise of no one who knows how Morley races, which included almost none of the fans watching on UNM's North Golf Course, Morley led the field through the first four kilometers. She was in the top three through five kilometers, then was caught and passed by a small chase pack.

"Makena ran awesome. She was feeling really good going into the race, and it showed early on. She went out at a blistering pace and led the entire field," said Fehr.

"If she would have run a little bit more tactically sound, she would have finished in the top three, no question. She has the ability to run with anybody in the field. We just need her to rein back a little bit early on so she has more in the tank for the last third of the race, when things really start to unfold."

Morley will be Montana's first runner at nationals since Katrina Drennen in 2009. She also had the Grizzlies' best placing at regionals since Sabrina Monro's runner-up finish in 2000. Heather Anderson placed eighth that year.

Though Fehr would have preferred a touch of restraint through the first few kilometers, Morley wouldn't change a thing from Friday's race, even if she could go back and run the race again.

"I wouldn't do anything differently," she said, a delightful hint of defiance in her voice. "I was going pretty fast the first part, but we also were at high elevation. If it had been lower, I could have kept it up a little bit more."

Not that the day came without its education for the first-time regional competitor. "The big lesson I learned today is that I can keep fighting even when I don't think I can. Usually when I start to get passed, I've kind of given up. Today I was like, I have to keep going, I have to keep pushing.

"I'm really excited for next Saturday. I think it's going to be a really good race."

A pair of underclassmen from the men's team also made the trip to Albuquerque. Sophomore Nathan Wellington finished 83rd in a time of 33:08 over the 10-kilometer course. Freshman Gavin Hasty was 97th in 33:59.

Wellington placed 76th last year on the same course, in a time of 32:21.

"The guys had an off day. They looked sluggish and were tired. They got out okay, but they didn't have it today," said Fehr. "They were disappointed. Nathan ran the same course last year and was a lot slower today.

"It wasn't an indication of how talented they are. I think they just ran out of juice. It's a long season. They really peaked out at conference two weeks ago and were just kind of hanging on, and it showed today. But they still fought hard and were grinding it out. They were competing, but it was tough."

Jonah Koech and Anthony Rotich, both of UTEP, finished first and second in times of 29:57.50 and 29:57.59. Air Force's Kyle Eller was a close third in 29:58.10.

Colorado won the team title with 67 points. The Buffaloes were trailed by UTEP (77), BYU (98), Southern Utah (114) and Air Force (124).

The women's race at nationals next Saturday will start at 10 a.m. (MT) at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville. Morley raced the same course on Oct. 17 at NCAA Pre-Nationals.