Difference between revisions of "Whittni Orton"

Latest revision as of 16:12, 8 August 2024

Whittni Orton Morgan is a former runner on the Brigham Young University women’s track team. On July 7, 2024, USA track and field finalized the team going to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, and Whittni moved into third place, making the team. Morgan placed fifth in the 5,000-meter at the Olympic trials held two weeks previous. "Two of the women who qualified in the 5,000-meter race also qualified in other distances and opted to focus on those. Elle St. Pierre, who was first in the 5,000-meter race at the trials, also qualified in the 1,500-meter race and decided to focus on the 1,500. Parker Valby, the fourth-place finisher in the 5,000 at the trials, was also the second-place finisher in the 10,000 and chose to focus on the 10,000 and dropped out of the 5,000, the Deseret News reported."[1]

She is going on to the 5,000-meter Olympic finals after coming in sixth in her qualification heat on Friday, August 2. She had a season’s best time of 15 minutes, 2.14 seconds. At the finals she placed 14th with a personal best time of 14:53.57.

Whittni had surgery in November 2023 to repair her patellar tendon, which was performed by former Olympic champion speedskater Eric Heiden. Diljeet Taylor, Whittni's BYU coach, has continued to train Morgan as a professional. Taylor knew that St. Pierre and Valby would likely drop out of the 5,000, and told Morgan before her race in trials that fifth place might be enough to make the Olympic team. Morgan had only the 12th-fastest time entering the Olympic trials 5,000-meter race.

In November 2021, Whittni won an individual national title at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the first BYU woman ever to win an individual crown. She finished with a 19:25.4 time in the Women's 6K. The BYU women’s cross country team placed second overall. In March 2021, she placed in the top 17 at the 2020 NCAA women's cross-country championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

In March 2018, she earned All-American honors by placing seventh in the mile at the NCAA indoor championships. With stress fractures, she was almost redshirted for the outdoor season, but she came back and ran the 1500-meters in 4:14.41 in the 2018 NCAA West Regional track meet to finish eighth and qualify for nationals. As of the end of January 2019, she holds two BYU records, the distance medley race (10:56.61; she ran the first leg of 1200 meters) and the indoor mile (4:38.88). In November 2019, the BYU women’s cross country team won the NCAA Mountain Region Championship.

Whittni is from Panguitch, Utah. Before going to BYU, she participated in high school sports. She was a four-time 1A individual cross country state champion, a 1A cross country state record holder, and a four-time individual state champion in the 3200-meters, the 1600-meters, and the 800-meters. She was also a three-time basketball state champion and a two-time volleyball state champion. She was named Utah’s 2016 Female Athlete of the Year.

She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Whittni was joined by other Latter-day Saint Olympic athletes addressing young adults on the topic of “Sports and the Gospel” at a devotional in a Versailles meetinghouse on Sunday, July 28, with Elder Franck A. Poznanski, an Area Seventy, presiding. In her remarks, she spoke of overcoming injuries and doubts and the importance of faith and perseverance. She also spoke about the unwavering support of others and the power of prayer.

“There’s so many little miracles throughout the whole process that are kind of insane when you look back on them,” she said. “And He was there the whole time.”

At one point, she asked the Lord to miraculously heal her knee. When it didn’t happen, she learned to trust in His “different plan.”

“God got me here, and I’m going to keep that faith and that trust with Him,” she said. “I know that He is the reason I am here.”[2]