Morley wins 4th Gatorade award

Bigfork High School standout Makena Morley has been named the 2014-15 Gatorade Montana Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.

The Gatorade Company along with USA TODAY made the announcement on Thursday in a press release.

Morley has won this prestigious award, which honors an individual’s excellence in sports and academics along with personal character, four times. Only seven other distance girls have done that.

Morley, a senior, finished third at the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships with a time of 17:29 in San Diego last month. Earlier she won the Foot Locker West Regional championships in 17:33.5 and also took fifth at the Nike Cross Nationals Northwest Regional championships in 19:15.5.

Morley won a fourth consecutive Class B individual state titles and posted a state-record time of 16:33.20 in October, 2014, leading the Vikings to a second place team finish.

She has maintained a 3.98 GPA in the classroom, is a member of her school’s garden club, has volunteered as a youth running instructor and is active in the Bigfork Buddies mentoring program for elementary school students.

 Morley has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on an athletic scholarship at the University of Montana beginning this fall.

She is also a finalist for the Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award to be announced later this month.