Former Howe athlete setting college records

Morgan Bailey on her way to a school record in the 60 m hurdles

After a successful high school career in Howe by placing fourth at the state track meet in 2013, Morgan Bailey is now eclipsing collegiate records for Friends University in Witchita, Kansas

The daughter of Amy and Kelly Lindsay and Jim Bailey, graduated from Howe in 2013 after moving here in the second grade While in high school, Bailey was on the state 4x800 meter relay team her freshman year Her senior year, she placed fourth in the 300 meter hurdles with a lifetime best 45 72 time She was unable to run track during her sophomore year at Howe due to knee surgery to repair torn anterior cruciate ligament. However, she placed in all other years in all other events.

Ironically, it wasn't track that she went to Friends University to play. She was given a partial athletic scholarship as well as academic scholarship to play basketball After playing one season on the junior varsity team, she decided that she was done with basketball almost a year and tried out for the track team

Unable to get on the roster last spring, Bailey had to wait until this season to start participating In her first ever collegiate event on Dec 13, Bailey set the Friendship University school record by running a 9 22 in the 60 meter hurdles.

"I've done the 200 (meters) and the 4x400 (meter) relay and I did the long and triple jump and high jump at conference just to get points, but it's not something I normally do " said Bailey

Her 9 22 time in the 60 meters qualified her for B-Standard for nationals and in the Jan 21 event, Bailey was named Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Indoor Track Athlete of the Week by finishing second of 17 in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 9.26. She was also on the 4x400 relay team that placed fourth. At conference, she ran a 26 17 in the 200 meters

Just recently, Bailey broke her own school record with a time of 9 17 in the 60 meter hurdles She is scheduled to run in the nationals competition this week but is waiting on the results from an MRI from a left hip injury that she received during her last hurdles event

After nationals are over with, Bailey will start with outdoor track and then says that she's planning on not coming back to track

"I plan on going to law school so, depending on if I get accepted, going to go to (Texas) A&M so I can go to Texas and start gaining internships and connections " said Bailey "I'm coming back to ensure that I have a future in whatever I'm doing "

Bailey says that she has looked at A&M's 60 meter times just to see if she might want to walk-on and try to compete at that level.

"My 9 17 time will almost allow me to compete with D-1 (division one) schools " said Bailey "I was going to see how I did and then contact the A&M coach, but for now I'm just going to focus on school "