Former Nebraska Wesleyan athlete Mike Morgan turned in a top performance for Team USA  on Sept. 4, as he finished the men’s marathon in 2:18:30 to place 31st on the final day of the IAAF World Track and Field Championships.  

Morgan was a two-time All-American in Track & Field for the Prairie Wolves and is a 2003 graduate of NWU.  He was the top U.S. finisher in the marathon at the 2011 World Championships.

The men ran a looped course through the streets of Downtown Daegu. The morning was slightly overcast, with a finishing temperature of 79 degrees and humidity recorded as high as 65 percent.

The American men ran in a pack in the early portions of the race. At the 5 km split all five men were within one second of each other in 16:05-16:06 in places 51-55 with one Russian mixing it up in the American pack.

Jeffrey Eggleston (Flagstaff, Ariz.) and Mike Morgan (Rochester Hills, Mich.) stayed together in the 51st and 52nd position through 10 km in 32:00/32:02; however, the rest of the American pack began to string out at this point. Mike Sayenko (Bellevue, Wash.) joined a pair of Spanish runners to hit the split in 32:10 in 55th place. Sergio Reyes (Palmdale, Calif.) and Nick Arciniaga (Flagstaff, Ariz.) joined efforts to run 57th and 58th in 32:17.

Over the next 5 km, Eggleston significantly improved his position by passing seven runners to take the 43rd spot and split 15 km in 47:40. Morgan passed a few competitors as well to move into 49th and run 17 seconds behind Eggleston.

By the halfway point, the conservative start taken by Eggleston and Morgan paid off as they again passed more athletes to position themselves in 37th and 38th places respectively. Eggleston stayed on the shoulder of a Russian athlete to split 1:07:09, while Morgan joined an Israeli athlete to split 1:07:41. Reyes and Sayenko ran in a pair at 53rd/54th place and came through in 1:08:48. Arciniaga ran in 59th at 1:10:07.

Over the next 10 km, Eggleston and Morgan continued their gradual improvement as Eggleston moved to 35th and split at 25 km 1:19:37 with a Japanese athlete, and Morgan found himself running in no-man’s land but improved to 37th in 1:20:12. During the next 5 km, the two Americans moved closer together as they came through 30 km in 32nd and 33rd with only 17 seconds separating the pair (1:35:16/1:36:48).

But once Morgan moved alongside Eggleston, he gained momentum and blew past nine runners in only five kilometers. Morgan moved into first for Team USA and went through the 35 km mark in 24th place in 1:52:49. Eggleston fell back slightly to 35th in 1:54:05.

At the 40 km mark, Morgan lost two spots and split 2:10:08, while Eggleston dropped one spot to 36th (2:14:22).

Coming into the finish, Morgan fell to the ground with only meters to go, but was able to get up and cross the line in 2:18:30. Sayenko was the next finisher for Team USA in 2:22:49 for 37th place. Eggleston finished in 2:23:33 for 39th place, Arciniaga took 41st in 2:24:06 and Reyes rounded out the squad in 45th place in 2:29:15.

“It was tough out there," said Morgan. "I tried to play it conservative, I was 1:07:40 at the half and felt great at 30k, Then 35k..boom. Just like any marathon but even worse today. The silent killer was humidity and the sun peaking through a little bit that last 5k didn’t help. Then I had a nice wipeout...before the line, got up and walked it in. I still felt terrible and it’s 10 minutes later...I felt very prepared, but I was in survival mode that second half.”

(Story taken from USA Track & Field News)