Junior Madeline Morgan has been excelling in her sport since she was in the seventh grade. The next year, her success translated into a spot on her high school varsity team. Now, it means getting the chance to run at the NCAA championships in Terre Haute, Ind.
When Morgan first started competing in the sport that would later become such a huge part of her life, she was admittedly less than passionate about it. In fact, the junior stated that the main reason she considered competitive running was largely due to the fact that her friends began doing it. But once she got started, she found it hard to stop.
“My first cross country season… was when I really got into it,” Morgan said. “It’s obviously something I love doing. A big part of it is being a part of a team…that definitely helps.”
Over the years, the support she found from her teammates and the enjoyment she felt while running combined to change her attitude about competing. Morgan found herself rapidly improving, and as her achievements grew, so did her love for the sport. By the time she finished high school, she had been named Alabama’s Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the Year for two years in a row, received the same award for track and field and won the Nike Team National Cross Country Championships. And those were just a few of her accomplishments, so when she began looking at universities, running was definitely on her mind.
“Running was a big part of [why I picked Duke]” Morgan said. “I felt like here was the best place where I’d be able to balance everything that I wanted to do and I wouldn’t feel like I was the only one taking a super-stressful course load because everyone here is. I liked that we were all in it together.”
Although Morgan’s specialty is clearly running, she has proven to be an expert at balancing other aspects of her life as well. With a pre-medicine course load, as well as involvement in a sorority on top of almost three hours of practice a day, everyday life can feel overwhelming. But according to Morgan, running provides her with perspective and confidence that she can carry off the course. Despite the fact that she admits that her passion for running leads her to sacrifice some of her other interests, she also said that the benefits easily outweigh the costs.
“I feel like this is the one time in your life when you actually get the chance to do something like this,” Morgan said. “I guess I’ll have the rest of my life to study or get where I want to be career-wise, and this is the one time where you really get to pursue your athletic dreams and really see what you can do there.”
This Monday, she will be able to put that passion and love of the sport on the line for the last time this season. But unlike the other races in her collegiate career, this time Morgan will have to run without a team, and with only her coaches—head coach Kevin Jermyn and assistant coach Patrick Wales-Dinan—for support. Regardless of the pressure of the high-level meet and the absence of her teammates, Morgan said the key to accomplishing her goal of an All-American finish is to run relaxed. For the junior, everything about the NCAA championships seems to be falling into place. While most runners might be distracted by predictions of cold and rainy conditions, Morgan looks forward to a muddy course. Rather than making her nervous, the fact that the results depend solely on her has made Morgan more eager to get on the course and see what she can do.
“It’s a very different kind of race,” she said. “You have to go out there and do your own thing and not really worry too much about everyone else.”
In looking back on her journey it is clear, even to Morgan, that she has come a long way from those first days on the track in seventh grade. Although she was successful from the very beginning, even Morgan could not have foreseen what a big part of her life running would become.
“I love it,” Morgan said. “I don’t know what I would be doing if I wasn’t a part of it.”
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