Montana freshman Makena Morley finished 97th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.
The Bigfork graduate, racing on her birthday and becoming the first UM athlete at nationals since 2009, covered the six-kilometer course in a time of 20:49.
Notre Dame senior Molly Seidel won the women’s race with a time of 19:28. Boise State freshman Allie Ostrander, in 19:33, was second, Arkansas senior Dominique Scott, in 19:40, was third.
New Mexico, with four runners in the top 15, ran away with the team title. Colorado and Oregon rounded out the top three.
Morley 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 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.”
Montana’s indoor track and field season opens in two weeks at Eastern Washington’s Candy Cane VIII. The Grizzlies’ distance runners won’t compete for the first time until the Montana State Open Jan. 15.
In the men’s 10K race, Flathead graduate and Colorado sophomore Zach Perrin placed 195th and finished with a time of 31:57.
Syracuse unseated Colorado, the two-time national champs, by winning the program’s first title since 1957. The Orange entered the race No. 2 in the rankings and took down unanimous No. 1 Colorado by placing three runners in the top-10. Syracuse secured 82 points in the victory followed by Colorado (91), Stanford (151) and Oregon (183).