Bryn Morley shows well on national stage

Bryn Morley of Bigfork turned in a spectacular showing in the women’s 1,500-meter run final on Sunday at the USA Track & Field Junior Championships at Hayward Field.

Morley, who will be a freshman at Bigfork High School this fall, was timed in 4 minutes, 26.34 seconds to place third.

Alexa Efraimson, 17, of Camas, Wash., had the best time — 4:16.87 — with Elise Cranny of Niwot, Colo., second, 4:17.40. Efraimson will be a senior at Camas High School. Cranny will run for Stanford in the fall.

Efraimson and Cranny are the second and third ranked, respectively, prep runners in the U.S. at 1,500 meters. They won their preliminary heat races on Saturday.

Morley finished more than three seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher, Catherine Pagano, of Allendale, N.J., 4:29.46. Pagano, 4:36.22, edged Morley. 4:36.23, in Saturday’s preliminary race.

Junior Nationals is for athletes under the age of 20.

The top four runners from the two heats on Saturday along with the next four best times advanced to the finals on Sunday.

The American record for the 1,500 is 4:04.62 by Mary Cain and was set on May 17, 2013.

The world record is 3:51.34. That is held by Yinglai Lang of China, set in 1997.