By JONATHON ZENK, Northwestern State Sports Information
EUGENE, Oregon — Until now, only three athletes in Northwestern State history have reached the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in each of their first two seasons with the program. Years later, they all rank among the program’s legends.
Six-time All-American and two-time national champion high jumper Brian Brown reached nationals in 1987 and 1988.
Latrell Frederick earned three All-America honors in the javelin after getting to NC’s in 2000 and 2001 in his first two collegiate campaigns.
Another javelin great, Cody Fillinch, who won All-America honors at each of his four NCAA Outdoors, got there in his first two years, 2006-07.
Two weeks ago, sophomore long jumper Roy Morris joined that short list after a tremendous performance at the NCAA East Region championships, finishing sixth.
After earning a second team All-American spot last season, Morris aims to repeat as an All-American with a top 16 finish tonight among a 24-man field on the first day of the national meet.
The Evangel Christian product competes at 8:40 p.m. (CDT) tonight at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. Fans can watch the long jump on ESPN+.
“It feels amazing to go back to nationals,” Morris said. “I can’t be more blessed than I am right now. It feels amazing to see the position God put me in. I can’t ask for much more than that.”
Last season, Morris made a surprise appearance at nationals after a jump of 24-8 at regionals to finish ninth at the NCAA East competition. Morris led after the first of two flights before a lengthy weather delay caused disruption and forced the second flight to not compete until late at night.
The competitor in Morris wanted to make a statement at this year’s regional meet, knowing some thought he benefited from the delay last season. He did, with a personal best mark of 25-7 ¼.
“He’s a competitor, through and through,” assistant coach Alex Wills said. “When it comes to those pressure situations, he keeps a level head and that is something not every athlete can do. That is one of the things you can’t really coach. They either have it or they don’t. He can keep a level head in those pressure situations. We had a plan going into the competition and he stuck to it.”
After making it to nationals last June, Morris and Wills knew there was more potential to untap. During the offseason, the two worked relentlessly to improve certain aspects of Morris’ game, and once the training paid off, there was no stopping the Greenwood resident.
This season, Morris went out to not only prove he could make it back to nationals but also show others that he deserved the spot a year ago.
“I really put the work in to advance to where I was last year,” Morris said. “I know a lot of people doubted me and saying it was the weather delay. I just went out and proved that it wasn’t the weather delay, but it was because of the work I put in.”
Throughout his first season and a half with the Demons, Morris had the goal of jumping 25-0.
That happened in early April at the Pepsi Florida Relays, one of five times going 25 feet in the next two months — all at pivotal points in competition.
It was also at that time that Morris also went to a new approach — one that helped earn the gold medal at the Southland Conference Championships and ultimately, another nationals appearance.
“Last year, we worked on being technical and this year, the big thing we worked on was speed down the runway,” Wills said. “We worked all fall on getting him quicker. I pushed him back so his approach was further out so we could build that speed even more. It took a while, as the Florida Relays were the first one we really got to try that new approach and it worked out well. We just kept building off that.”
He did it again on his final jump in a pressure situation to win the gold medal at the conference championships — doing so by a quarter inch —and was 25-plus on all three jumps at the NCAA East First Round in Kentucky.
His first went 7.66 meters (25-1 ¾), which was just shy of a personal best. That attempt would have finished 12th and earned the last East slot for nationals if he didn’t make any more attempts.
Morris’ second jump put any thought he might not make it to nationals to bed, as he recorded a personal best jump of 7.80 meters (25-7 ¼) to cement his spot in Oregon.
The mark that earned him a spot at nationals a season ago wouldn’t have even put him inside the East Region top 20 this time around.
“We knew about his potential this year and even last year,” Wills said. “I’ve been telling coaches he’s going to jump 7.70 or 7.80, so for him to come out and hit that exact mark was amazing. But not only that, all three of his jumps were over 25 feet and he had only done that twice previously during his career. For him to come out and hit that mark all three times just shows that he is really that type of competitor and we’re ready to see what he can do at nationals.”
Morris uses a calm, level-headed demeanor during his jumps, which has helped him achieve several of his goals. Now he aims for another — to become one of the top eight long jumpers in the country to earn a first team All-American slot tonight.
Also competing for NSU tonight, at 10:36 in Heat 1 of three, will be the men’s 4×400 meter relay team in the semifinal round. ESPN will have coverage.
Lady Demon sprinter Rushana Dwyer runs Thursday in the 400 meter dash semifinals.