Bigfork runner named to Team USA
Bigfork senior Makena Morley received an early Christmas present on Monday when USA Track & Field named her to the six-member Team USA that will run in the 2015 Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country junior women’s race on Jan. 10 in Scotland.
Fellow high school seniors Anna Rohrer of Mishawaka, Ind., and Ryen Frazier of Raleigh, N.C., will join Morley on the team of the country’s elite long-distance runners under 20-years-old.
Rohrer won the national title at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships held Dec. 13 in San Diego, Calif. Frazier finished second and Morley third.
Also on the team are college freshmen Regan Rome (William & Mary), Mary Grace Doggett (North Carolina State) and Katie Lembo (Providence).
“I was super excited when I got the email,” Morley said.
“I’ve always wanted to go since my freshman year.
“I was like, ‘I get to go to Scotland!’ I couldn’t believe it,” Morley added.
“I was screaming and jumping up and down.”
Top five finishers at the Foot Locker nationals are considered for the team, along with top performers at the other national prep and collegiate championships. Morley will be one of 30 athletes representing Team USA in either junior or senior competition.
The junior women’s race is a 4-kilometer event held against the top runners from Great Britain and Europe in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park, a grassy and occasionally muddy course of rolling hills that has hosted the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
The home team swept the top three spots in the last race, with Great Britain’s Bobby Clay winning in 13 minutes, 59 seconds.
Racing with a pair of girls she’s competed against at the national level helps ease the shock of what will be a new environment for Morley.
“I’m excited. Sometimes those races can be hard because you’re racing people you don’t know,” Morley said.
“That’s good because I know how those two girls (Rohrer and Frazier) race and I know them. It will be fun.”
Morley, who will run at the University of Montana next fall, wrapped up a near perfect prep career for Bigfork by winning her fourth Class B state championship, only the fourth girl in Treasure State history to complete the career sweep. She did so by setting the Montana state record for a 3-mile course, finishing in a personal best 16:33.2 at this fall’s state meet at Bill Roberts Golf Course in Helena, beating the record she set her junior year at the University of Montana Golf Course in Missoula. She ran the 5-kilometer Foot Locker Nationals in 17:29 earlier this month.
The race will be streamed live online at USATF.tv.