University of Northern Iowa junior Carter Morton set a new career-high score with 7,454 points to claim the decathlon title at the Drake Relays on Thursday afternoon at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
The first Panther to win the decathlon at the Blue Oval since Daniel Gooris in 2013, Morton’s score cracks the top-four all-time in school history.
The Greene County graduate set new career-best marks in five events including high jump, 400 meter run, discus, javelin and the 1500 meter run. He had first place finishes in the high jump (2.11 meters), long jump (7.18 meters), pole vault (4.70 meters) and javelin (53.90 meters). Morton, the reigning Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) runner up in the decathlon, finished last year’s competition at Drake Stadium in fourth place with 6,697 points.
“It has always been one of my goals to get a Drake Relays flag and I finally got one,“ Morton said. “To all the small town kids… takes hard work and it is going to hurt, but in the end it will pay off.”
Morton is a 2020 Greene County High School graduate and is the son of Chad and Deb Morton of Jefferson.
