He won the NCAA title in the 3,000 meters and is was the second Big Sky athlete to win the 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the conference outdoor championship.
He is an eight-time Big Sky Champion winning from 1989-93. That is why David Morris ranks 33rd on the Big Sky’s list of “50 Greatest Male Athletes.”
“That is an incredible honor,” said Morris. “There are so many great athletes that have competed in the Big Sky Conference that it’s hard to believe I deserve it. To be included with the best men every to compete in the Big Sky Conference is amazing. It’s probably the highest honor I’ve received.”
Morris started his collegiate career in 1989 where he finished third at the Big Sky Championships in the 5,000 meters. During the 1990 indoor season, Morris was sixth in both the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. During the outdoor season he was second in the 10,000 meters and third in the 5,000 meters.
During the 1992 indoor season, Morris won his first championship in both the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. He redshirted the 1992 outdoor season, which set up a big 1993 senior year.
Morris started his senior season winning the mile, 5,000 meters and 3,000 meters at the Big Sky Indoor Championship. After that meet he was named Outstanding Track Athlete. He went on to win the 3,000 meters at the NCAA Championships with a time of 8:04.17.
“It is pretty cool to be the only indoor champion but at the same time I would like to think that others at Montana would be able to compete on the national level,” said Morris. “I always wanted to compete at the national level. I felt that competing at the highest level should be a goal of every program. It was great to win the 3,000m.”
During the outdoor season, Morris became just the second Big Sky athlete to win the 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters.
“I was trying to get the ‘A’ qualifier for nationals in the 10,000,” said Morris. “We didn’t get many opportunities to run at low elevations, so we had a good chance to run some fast times. I missed the ‘A’ qualifier by a few seconds but made nationals with a ‘B’ time. I think I lapped the field in the 10,000-meter race. I wore spikes and my calves were so sore I didn’t know if I’d be able to run the next day.”
“The field wasn’t that strong in the 1,500,” added Morris. “My teammate had won the conference 3,000 indoors so he was probably the toughest competition. He wasn’t running particularly well at the time but he was fresh along with some others, so it was a good win. I didn’t want it to go too fast but also didn’t want it to be mass sprint to the finish so ran pretty fast but not all out. I took off with two laps to go. The 5,000 was tough because there were some excellent athletes in it. I think I just stayed on the leaders until the end and outkicked them. I was finishing so well that I was really tough to beat. Winning all three races was mostly about scoring points. We had some good seniors so we wanted to finish high as a team. We finished third.”
After the championship, Morris was named Track Outstanding Athlete.
“I won athlete of the meet so that was nice,” said Morris. “My legs were pretty trashed and I think that’s partially why I didn’t run well at the national meet.”
After his college career, Morris continued to run professionally for about 10 years.
“The high point was setting an official American record in the marathon of 2:09:32 in 1999,” said Morris. “I also finished 10th at the 1996 Olympic Marathon Trial. I ran in three world half-marathon championships and the marathon in Edmonton at the 2001 World Track and Field Championships. I won a couple of U.S. championships on the roads and finished top three in the marathon a couple of times.”
Currently, Morris is the assistant coach for Carroll College men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs in Helena, Montana.
