Montana's Makena Morley, the reigning Big Sky Conference cross country champion who this month decided to transfer, has picked University of Colorado as her landing spot.
Morley committed to the national power Buffaloes this week after a recent visit, confirming her desire to leave the Grizzlies. The true freshman distance runner will enroll at Colorado for the spring semester and run track and field and cross country.
"The fit just wasn't good," Morley told the Missoulian last week of her time with the Griz. "It wasn't working out here with me and the (cross country) coach."
Montana granted Morley a transfer release earlier this month and she began looking at other schools. She visited Iowa State this past weekend and Colorado the weekend before. Both were among the top 16 teams in the nation in this fall's final NCAA Division I women's cross country rankings.
People are also reading…
The Buffs finished second at the NCAA National Cross Country Championships in November under the guidance of veteran coach Mark Wetmore.
Morley was one of Montana's most highly decorated prep runners coming out of Bigfork High before signing with the Griz last November. After a high school career that included four straight State B cross country titles and an all-class state record time, Morley earned UM's first Big Sky individual championship since 2000 this fall.
She went on to finish 97th at the national meet in Louisville, Kentucky on Nov. 21, Montana's first qualifier for the 6-kilometer race since 2009.
It was after that meet that she decided to transfer because of a growing divide between she and women's cross country coach Collin Fehr. Morley said she needed to make a quick decision in order to enroll for spring classes elsewhere, which start in early January at most schools.
"It's such a bummer because I love Missoula and I love the team and everything," Morley said. "It's been really hard to go through with this whole process."
Montana's last individual cross country champion, Sabrina Monro, also transferred from the program after winning Big Sky titles in 1999 and 2000. The Boulder, Montana native finished her collegiate career at Washington.
Morley will join a handful of other western Montana natives in the other Boulder, the college town just north of Denver where the Pac-12 school is located. Missoula Hellgate products Adam Peterman and Chris Herrick also run for the Buffaloes, as does one-time Kalispell Flathead standout Zach Perrin.
The 19-year-old Morley plans to redshirt the indoor track and field season, which is currently ongoing, to recover from a foot injury -- plantar fasciitis -- that she has been dealing with since early fall, and compete in full this spring for the outdoor season.
Morley is allowed to transfer and begin competition right away under the NCAA's one-time transfer exception rule, which allows student-athletes to transfer from one Division I program to another without being required to sit out a year as long as he or she has at least two years of eligibility remaining in any sport other than football, men's and women's basketball or baseball.