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Bigfork’s Bryn Morley Earns Top 40 Finish at NCAA Pre-Nationals

Freshman was top finisher for Northern Arizona University in her first national collegiate race

By Andy Viano
Bigfork High School's Bryn Morley, photographed for Best of Preps Spring 2018. Justin Franz | Flathead Beacon

Bigfork High School graduate Bryn Morley is picking up right where she left off following a sensational high school career.

Morley, a freshman at Northern Arizona University, finished 39th at the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wisconsin on Oct. 13, completing the 6K course in 21:00.4. The Bigfork native was the top finisher for NAU, helping the Lumberjacks to a ninth-place finish as a team. The race marked the first national competition of Morley’s career.

A three-time Class B state cross country champion in high school, Morley won six individual track titles as well for the Valkyries and led her team to back-to-back state championships in track and field.

Morley and NAU will return to action Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Big Sky Conference championship meet in Sacramento, California. If Morley qualifies for the NCAA Division I Championships, she would return to Madison on Nov. 17.

Bryn’s older sister, Makena, did not race in the pre-nationals for the University of Colorado but is in the midst of a fine season of her own as part of the nation’s No. 1 ranked team. The Buffaloes won the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational earlier this year in Madison partly on the strength of a sixth-place finish from Morley (19:45.2). A senior, Morley has placed in the top 50 at the NCAA national championship meet each of the last two years.