MISSOULA — Whitney Morrison made the most of her trip to California for the Bryan Clay Multis.
The Grizzly senior set a new personal record and placed second place in her group with a score of 5,327. She had four PRs in the seven events and placed in the top four in her group in every single event in a balanced effort.
It’s the best heptathlon from a Grizzly athlete since Erika McLeod scored 5,425 points while winning the 2019 Big Sky Championship.
“Congratulations to Whitney on really taking advantage of the opportunity,” head coach Doug Fraley said. “It’s a special trip for our multis, and for her to go out there and perform the way it was designed to be for that trip, it doesn’t happen all the time and she took full advantage.”
While it’s still early in the season, particularly for multi athletes, Morrison’s score is the best in the Big Sky Conference and third-best in the NCAA’s West region to date.
Morrison opened the day with a time of 14.53 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. The time was just .01 off her previous best this season, won her heat, and was fourth in her group to put her in a good position after one event with 905 points.
In the high jump, Morrison smashed her previous outdoor PR by clearing five total bars on the day. She was successful on her first three attempts of the day, reaching 5-3¼ without a single miss.
She clipped one bar at the next height but would pass on her second attempt. She set her final mark and a new PR by clearing 5-5.¾. She finished third in the event, earning 818 points.
It jumped Morrison up to third place in the overall points table with 1,723 points, trailing the leader Sherika Christie by 63.
Morrison continue to climb the ranks in the fourth and final event of the opening day, finishing fourth overall in the 200-meter dash. Morrison ran a PR time of 25.44 in the event to earn 847 points.
She was at 3,020 points through the four events last year at the Big Sky Outdoor Championship on her way to a PR total of 5,112 points. The score earned her third place and All-Conference Honors.
In California, Morrison entered the second day with 3,172 points for the best four-event start of her career.
Friday opened with a huge mark in the long jump for Morrison. All three of her jumps would have been PR efforts, but it was the third and final jump that was the best. Morrison went 18-8 on her final attempt, besting her previous record by eight inches.
“That’s a real difference maker when she’s able to go out and jump 18-8 in the long jump,” Fraley said. “It’s an event that she’s gotten steadily better at, and so that was the standout result as far as this multi went.”
Morrison placed fourth in the event, racking up another 756 points to bring her total to 3,928 with two events to go. Christie had extended the lead out to 357 points.
The final field event saw Morrison deliver another strong performance. She placed third in the javelin with a throw of 116-10 to earn another 583 points. She trailed Christie by 392 points heading into the 800, and had a 215-point lead on Azusa Pacific’s Ashley Hume in third place.
The 800 has been one of Morrison’s strengths in previous multis, and it proved to be once again on Friday afternoon. While Christie’s lead would prove to be too much to overcome, Morrison made up significant ground and separated herself from any competition for second place with a time of 2:20.54.
It’s the fastest 800 time of Morrison’s career and was nearly 20 seconds faster than Christie. Morrison scored 816 points in the event to bring her final total to 5,327.
“The best thing about it is she scored over 5,300 points and this multi was just steady as she goes,” Fraley said. “She had PRs in events, but it was nothing outlandish or outrageous, it was just Whitney doing what she does. That’s great because it tells us that as good as this score was there is still a lot of room for her to improve to get ready for the outdoor championships.”
Morrison has steadily improved in nearly every heptathlon of her career. She started back in 2021 with a score of 4,595 and now in her sixth overall heptathlon she has improved over 700 points.
The local Missoula product, who attended Big Sky High School just like her coach Lindsey Hall, continues to make progress as she prepares for the Big Sky Championships in May.
“Congratulations to Whitney and Coach Hall, Lindsey has done a great job bringing her along and Whitney has done a great job developing.”
