Cross Country: Perry making her mark

The first several months of college are usually spent adjusting to the new environment. For… The first several months of college are usually spent adjusting to the new environment. For Morgan Perry, it took no time to feel at home and establish herself as one of Pitt’s top runners.

Even before coming to campus, Perry had started to find a home on the cross-country team with her newly minted mentor, senior Miya Johnson.

Since Perry’s first visit to Pitt, Johnson has been a big sister, role model and mentor to Perry. They stayed in contact after the visit by talking to one another on the phone. During her official visit, Perry said she felt an immediate connection to Johnson.

“She could trust me and I could trust her,” Perry said.

Their relationship has continued to develop since Perry arrived on campus. The fact that no one served as a mentor to Johnson when she entered the program helped motivate her to be a better mentor to Perry.

“There weren’t many distance girls when I came into the program,” Johnson said. “I didn’t have a mentor, so I feel it’s kind of my job to [mentor Morgan].”

Perry has found success early and often this year. Coming from a state championship team at Pennsbury High School, she has consistently finished among the top runners from the Pitt team and was first among Pitt runners at the Big East Championships two weeks ago. This weekend, the freshman will run with seven other Panthers at the NCAA Division I Mid-Atlantic Regional meet. This tournament, depending on her finish in comparison to others across the country, could lead her to the NCAA National Championships, held November 19th in Louisville, Ky.

Alonzo Webb, Pitt’s cross-country and track and field head coach, said Perry has been the team’s top runner at meets because of her ability.

“It’s unusual for a freshman to come into a Division I program, be a leader and compete,” Webb said. “She wants people to be able to count on her. She doesn’t want to let anyone down.”

In her first meet of the year, she led the Panthers with a 14th overall finish and a time of 19:56. She followed that performance by pacing the team again with a personal record of 18:34.68, good for a fifth-place finish overall.

Perry finished 17th overall and second among her teammates at the third meet of the year with a time of 19:50.58, an improvement from her first meet, which was at Schenley Park. In the following race, she ran a team best 22:43.20, finishing 18th.

Perry attributed her success to the pressure to succeed that she faced in high school, where her team was a cross-country powerhouse. She has gained high-level experience from being a member of a state championship team that went undefeated last year.

“In high school, we always had the pressure to win,” Perry said. “We literally had to win every single meet [to qualify for states] and we did. It’s a normal thing for me to want to do well. It’s kind of built-in now because I dealt with it all throughout my high school career.”

Two weekends ago at the Big East Championships, Perry placed first among Pitt runners with a 6K time of 23:19.50.

“I’m never satisfied, to be honest,” Perry said.

Perry has displayed this attribute in training as well as in races. When the team splits into groups, Perry is the only freshman in the fastest group. Despite her success in high school, Perry doesn’t have a background in long-distance running. When she started running track in seventh grade, she thought she was going to be a 200 or 400-meter sprinter. She only started cross-country in her sophomore year of high school and even then, she was hesitant.

“Oh no, that’s too much running,” Perry said in retrospect.

But she succeeded almost right away, placing in the top three on her team for her whole high school career. Simultaneously, she made the shift to longer distances in track, first to the 800-meter and then the mile.

Perry’s siblings did not run much growing up. Her 23-year-old brother Robert ran track in middle school before moving onto lacrosse and wrestling in high school, while her twin sister Lindsay is a cheerleader.

Perry’s father, Robert, was a sprinter, and her uncle and cousin were hurdlers. While the family has a history of competitive running, Morgan is the only one who does long distance.

“We’ll joke about it. ‘Race me in the sprint, I’ll race you in long distance,’” Perry said.

But more than anything, the runners in her family are proud and excited for her. They went to all of her high school meets and have tried to guide her career.

Her father, especially, has aided Perry with her running.

“When it comes to running, he’s like my other coach,” Perry said. “We always talk strategy the night before [a race]. He gives me pep talks.”

While Perry doesn’t have a preference between cross-country and track, she noted the significant differences between the two and specifically how they affect her mindset during the race.

With cross-country, for example, Perry explained how strategically she has to factor in the layout of a course — something that doesn’t necessarily come into play on a track.

“On hills, I tend to be a little more passive because they’re my weak point,” Perry said. “Off of the hill is where I’ll be aggressive. I’ll take the hill a bit lighter and then off the top is when I’ll be more aggressive.”

Track involves strategy, but there isn’t as much time to think about it because the race is so much shorter.  Perry described cross-country as “laid back” and track as “more intense” and “uptight.”

“You can get boxed in,” Perry said. “There’s a pack that you generally want to stay with the whole time. You don’t want to run in lane four when you can run in lane one simply because you’ll be running a longer distance.”

Perry, who is undecided as a major, is enrolled in the school of Arts and Sciences.

If there is one thing that Perry has had a hard time adjusting to, it is life without her two cats: Drew, a “Halloween cat,” as Perry described him, and Britney, a tortoiseshell cat.

“Miss is an understatement,” Perry said, “I go on Photobucket and look at their pictures. It’s a mess.”