Carter Morton (2nd from right) photo courtesy of Chad and Deb Morton

History on more than one level was made Saturday when Carter Morton of Jefferson became a Division I First Team All-American in the seven event Heptathlon in Virginia Beach, VA at the track & field indoor championships. Morton, a fifth year athlete at the U. of Northern Iowa, placed fifth in the 16 person field after entering with the tenth highest regular season score of 5,807. On Friday and Saturday, Morton scored a personal best 5,852 points. He won the long jump and high jump, was fourth in pole vault, eighth in the 1,000 meter run, twelfth in the shot put, thirteenth in the 60 meter hurdles, and fourteenth in the 60 meter dash.

The only athletes to finish ahead of Morton were from Power 4 schools Mississippi State, Arkansas, Miami (FL), and BYU. The 2020 Greene County High School Ram of the Year finished 161 points behind the winner, but he also topped the scores of athletes from Iowa and Iowa State, who entered the competition with higher regular season scores than Morton.

UNI had not had a heptathlete at the men’s NCAA Championship in more than a decade. He’s the first UNI male to become an All-American in track & field since 2009.

Morton is believed to be the first male to graduate from high school in Jefferson to become a DI track & field All-American. Kris (Curnyn) Hagedorn was an All-American thrower for the Iowa State women in the mid-to late 1990’s.

Carter’s parents are Chad and Deb Morton of Jefferson.