Morgan will look to claim All-America status
for the first time in his collegiate career this
weekend in Terre Haute. |
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – After a career performance last week at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship in Peoria, Illinois punched his ticket, Kansas junior Jacob Morgan will head to Terre Haute, Indiana to compete at the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championships to be run Saturday afternoon. Indiana State University will host the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Nov. 22 at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course for the 11th time in the last 13 years. The men’s 10K race will begin at approximately 12 p.m. (CT).
Morgan tallied a seventh-place finish at the Midwest Regional last week, while posting a career-best 10K time of 30:17.6. He was the top finisher for the KU men and earned one of 38 at-large individual bids to this week’s NCAA meet.
A junior from Topeka, Kansas, Morgan has consistently been one of the top performers for the Jayhawks this season after transferring from Colorado State, where he spent his first two years of his collegiate career. In five of the six races he has competed in, Morgan has been the highest-finishing Jayhawk, which includes an overall victory at the Rim Rock Classic on Oct. 4 and placing in the top-30 overall in all six meets.
Morgan has the opportunity to make Kansas cross country history Saturday by putting his name on the prestigious list of Jayhawk cross country All-Americans. Men donning the Crimson and Blue at the NCAA meet have attained All-America status 26 times in the 75-year history of the Cross Country National Championships, with Colby Wissel the most recent Jayhawk to earn the All-American title in back-to-back seasons in 2006 and 2007.
Morgan will be well prepared for the race to be held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course as he has already competed there twice in his collegiate career. He was a member of the Colorado State squad that took 26th at the NCAA Championship meet a year ago, also run at the Lavern Gibson course. There he finished 117th with a 10K time of 31:26.0. On Oct. 18 of this year, the Jayhawks took part in the ISU Pre-National Invitational at the same venue he will see Saturday, giving Morgan another lay of the land which should come in handy this weekend. The junior was KU’s top finisher in the 8K race, completing the course in 24:50.1 to finish 29th overall. The field Morgan ran against that day will not be all that different than the one he will see at Nationals, which proved he is capable of running through a Championship-caliber field and attaining All-America accolades.
Fans can watch Morgan’s race by logging on to the NCAA Championship central page here. Also be sure to follow @KansasXC to get live, in-race updates. Live splits and results will also be posted at the NCAA results page here during and after the competition.
