Missoula's Morrison, indoor pentathlon champ, eyes strong finish to Montana outdoor career

A hometown kid, hailing from Missoula Big Sky, Morrison's early career was hindered by injuries. After consistently finishing at the top of state championship leaderboards for the Eagles, the initial moments in Morrison's college career weren't as joyous.

"When you're out of it for so long," Morrison told 406 MT Sports Saturday, "it's really hard to find motivation to come back."

Flash-forward five years and she's now the reigning Big Sky Conference indoor champion in the pentathlon. Montana kicked off its outdoor season Saturday with the Al Manuel Invitational/Griz-Cat Dual at Dornblaser Field. Morrison was right back at it, soaking up as much of the college experience as she can.

"I definitely wasn't realizing that it was my last season the first few meets," Morrison said. "But now that we're on to outdoor and it's actually my last season, it's kind of hitting hard."

Track has always been a family endeavor for Morrison. At Big Sky, her father, Dave Morrison, was on her coaching staff. The Eagles placed fifth at the state meet her sophomore season in 2018 and COVID-19 canceled her senior year state meet in 2020.

"Being there with my coaches that I also got to hang out with when I was younger, being able to grow up with them and then be coached by them, it was really cool," Morrison recalled.

The family-centric nature of her experiences in the sport helped explain why she chose to become a Grizzly. Instead of moving away for college, Morrison moved a couple blocks down the road. The coaches, Morrison said, are what brought her to UM.

"It felt more like a family here," she said.

From there, injuries began to creep in. Leading into her freshman season, Morrison partially tore her patella tendon, located in the knee, before also partially tearing her UCL in her elbow.

The road to recovery was long, progress from day-to-day incredibly gradual. Finding a love for the sport again "definitely took time," Morrison said.

Her performances at Big Sky Championships were impressive, consistently finishing in the top 10 for both the pentathlon and heptathlon. But they were well below her ceiling.

That ceiling began to come back into frame as her senior season in 2024, when she placed third at the Big Sky outdoor meet. With the upward trajectory finally in place, Morrison decided to come back for one more ride with the Grizzlies (she is currently a grad student).

The decision quickly paid off. Morrison enjoyed a stellar fall indoor season in 2024, culminating in a first-place finish in the pentathlon at the Big Sky Championship in Flagstaff, Arizona.

"That was probably the first season that I wasn't injured," Morrison said. "So it was really nice to make it through healthy and with first place, which I wasn't expected to get."

A personal-record finish on the high jump in Flagstaff boosted her confidence all the way to an individual title.

"I had a positive feeling for the rest of the meet," Morrison said after beating her own record. "PR'ing in events like that is more special than anything."

In the outdoor-season-opening meet against the Bobcats, whose men's team won the Big Sky indoor title and women's team placed second, Morrison enjoyed a solid outing. She placed fifth in the javelin throw, launching it 123.8 feet, and placed sixth in the long jump with a leap of 17.9 feet.

Morrison placed fourth in the triple jump, reaching 38.2 feet and earning a point for Montana. Her 400-meter hurdle time of 1 minute and 2.24 seconds earned UM another pair of points, and her second-place high jump finish (5.3 feet) earned the Griz three points.

Not much changes for the athlete's preparation from indoor to outdoor season, Morrison said, besides the introduction of javelin throwing.

As the Missoula native nears the end of her track career at UM, the impact she's had on the rest of her team is evident from the praise her teammates sing.

"Whitney is just one of those people that's always gonna have your back, always gonna watch out for you and will always answer when you need her," said junior Brooke Stayner, who is also a Missoula native. "It's so cool that she's having such success, because you love to see the right people have the success.

"Whitney is the best person I could ever imagine to have that."

In the dual competition, the Cats swept both the men's and women's matchups. The Montana State men outscored Montana 113-73, while the women beat the Griz 119.5-69.5.

In the Men's Open, featuring schools from around the Treasure State, Montana Tech emerged victorious with a score of 173. In the Women's Open, Rocky Mountain College left Zootown with a win thanks to a score of 153.