Graceful Gait

Anna Grace Morgan had always been a good cross-country runner. That’s why Mountain Brook High School head cross-country coach Michael McGovern said he pulled her up to join the varsity squad full time as an eighth-grader in 2012. 

But last fall, Morgan took her cross-country game from good to great. As a junior in 2015, she lowered her 5K personal best by well over a minute. She also garnered All-State recognition with a fifth-place finish at the state meet.

“It’s just something that’s got to click; it’s so mental,” Morgan said in regard to running cross-country. “You can be in perfect shape, but if you don’t know how to push yourself and survive the second and third mile, you’re not going to be good.”

This fall, Morgan will aim to build upon her individual success as she leads the Mountain Brook girls in their pursuit of a 14th-consecutive state championship. Entering her final year in the Spartan program, she’ll have the chance to cement a legacy that’s been more than 12 years in the making. 

It all started in 2004. 

That’s when Morgan’s older sister, Madeline Morgan, placed among the top 10 at the state cross-country meet as an eighth-grader. From there, she would go on to become one of the most accomplished athletes in Mountain Brook history. Madeline Morgan set a handful of school records and won multiple state championships in distance events on the track. 

She also helped thrust into motion the cross-country title streak her younger sister is striving to carry on.  

“For a long a part of her career, I guess I was too young to understand it, but then when I came into the program, I was like realizing, ‘Wow, she’s incredible,’” Anna Grace Morgan said of her older sister. “She’s been a really big motivation for me, and she’s always there to give me advice and set an example.”

Madeline Morgan went on to run collegiately at Duke University after graduating from Mountain Brook in 2009, but the family’s athletic impact at MBHS didn’t skip a beat. 

Jack Morgan, Anna Grace Morgan’s older brother, played a key role in the Spartan boys’ run of consecutive state cross-country championships from 2008 to 2010. He finished runner-up as a senior before continuing his career at Furman University. 

The season after her brother’s high school graduation, in fall 2011, Anna Grace Morgan made her initial cameo appearance on the Mountain Brook varsity girls squad while in seventh grade. 

Having coached all three siblings, McGovern said the family of runners shares a distinguishing trait.    

“The Morgans’ work ethic is unbelievable, and I think their parents have really instilled that into them that if you work hard, you will be successful, and that’s in everything they do,” McGovern said. “They’re all very good students and very good runners.”

Despite the vast achievements of her older siblings, Anna Grace Morgan still has a chance to do something that her sister and brother never did: win an individual state cross-country title. 

Madeline Morgan came close — she placed third three times — and Jack Morgan came closer, but neither sealed the deal. 

While Anna Grace Morgan stressed that her focus will be on bringing home a team championship, McGovern said his top runner has the capability of turning in a gold-medal performance at the state meet in mid-November. 

“I think top-three, top-five finisher in cross-country is an easy goal for her,” McGovern said. “And you know, if the cards fall right, a state championship is certainly a possibility.”

Prior to last October, Anna Grace Morgan’s name would have seldom arisen in championship chatter. In 2014, she placed 36th at state and did not once break 20 minutes for 5K.

But during the 2015 cross-country season, she said something began to click.

 “I guess it was just like looking up in the race and only seeing Frances [Patrick] ahead of me and thinking, ‘If I’m the second Mountain Brook person, I need to be up at the front because our team needs to do well,’” Anna Grace Morgan said. 

Like the flip of a switch, her realization yielded immediate results. 

Anna Grace Morgan opened the 2015 season with a 41-second personal best at the Chickasaw Trails Invitational in mid-September. One month later, she dropped her time by another 46 seconds, crossing the line at the Dew It On the Trails Invitational in 18 minutes, 29.10 seconds. Her blistering mark went down as the state’s sixth-fastest girls time of the season, regardless of classification. 

“I just feel like I had to step up, so I just did,” Anna Grace Morgan said. 

With Patrick, who won last year’s state championship, now graduated, Anna Grace Morgan will be the Spartan to chase. While it may be a new role, McGovern said it’s one that she is ready for. 

“It’s one of those things that she has come in and she has brought an effort and an attitude, and it’s been a consistent effort and attitude for five years,” McGovern said. “It’s one of those things that you can’t replicate.”