The 2024 cross country season isn't that long ago, really, but Morgan Delaney has both literally and figuratively come miles since then. 

The Polson senior is heading into Saturday's State Cross Country Championships without a loss this high school season, running six of her eight races in under 18 minutes. 

That includes a win at the prestigious Nike Bob Firman Classic in Spokane on Sept. 26; she ran her personal record time of 17:11.2. 

A certain Billings Central girl named Addison Kegel wasn't running in Spokane, or at the Mountain West Classic, and more on her later. What Delaney has done moved up a couple levels from 2024 and 2025. 

"What I see is an athlete that has been just really consistent," Jason Delaney, her dad and Polson's cross country coach, said. "An athlete that has required time off here and there, but she is a daily runner and has been for some time. 

"You don't always see the improvement, and then all of a sudden — when you keep chunking away — you see these big gains. I think she's been kind of enjoying that right now." 

Here's the deal: As a sophomore Morgan Delaney won the Class A cross country title, clocking 18:35.4. She'd run 18:19.1 eight days earlier, at the Western A Fall Classic. She'd put in 300 miles the summer before her freshman season, then 400 going into 2024, and it paid off.  

She also wanted to be faster. So she ran harder: 600 miles in the summer of 2025. 

"Going into my junior year, over the summer I ran really high mileage," she said this week. "My dad told me it would take a year for my times to come down; for my body to adjust. And I think that's exactly what happened. My times really started dropping." 

Spokane is an obvious high point.  

"Someone can always surprise you," Jason Delaney said. "But I kind of knew she had a puncher's chance. Luckily she punched a little bit beyond her weight that day. 

"Especially coming off Mountain West — I would have expected a little fatigue from Mountain West, you know? I thought it was really cool that she was able to do that two weeks in a row." 

From 2024 to now is a bit of a bell curve. Her best "cross" — her shorthand for cross country season — time in 2025 was 18:48 at the Mountain West. She took third at the state meet, running 18:57.9. 

Then came the postseason, and she clocked 17:54.9 at the Nike Northwest Regional Championships. That PR carried over to the following spring. 

"Last track season was my big jump," she said. "I really felt this cross is a reflection of how I did during track, especially at the end. Nationals and stuff." 

She ran PRs in the 1,600 and 3,200 and the State A track and field championships in Laurel in May; she finished second in both to Kegel, the phenom who broke the 8-year-old State A record in the 1,600 as a freshman. 

It's a healthy competition; they've known each other for quite a while and they ran together for the Mission Mercury Club last summer. At the Nike Nationals they finished third and 13th in the two-mile. 

"It was fun because were running as teammates," said Delaney, who took third in the 5,000 meters. "Addison and I are really close. We talk all the time." 

Saturday will mark the first time they've met this fall, but that's possibly not of the greatest interest to father and daughter (and daughter; sophomore Quinn Delaney is Polson's No. 2 runner).  

The Lady Pirates, with Quinn Delaney and Sara Dumouchel holding top-8 times, project as the Class A favorite. They're young, including an eighth-grader (Dumouchel), a freshman (Taryn Cochran) and one junior (Kimora Scott), but talented. 

"I definitely think we really do have a shot," Morgan Delaney said. "My freshman year we couldn't even get a full team out. It's a little bit different; our coach always says to win State you have to have a big team with a lot of people running the same time. 

"Our team's not like that. We're pretty small with a variety of times. But we're all pretty fast. It's pretty exciting." 

"We've got an exciting group right now, and exciting individuals on both sides," her dad said. "I'm really excited for the girls team, but also to see how the boys team does." 

Jackson Bontadelli, a senior who also plays on soccer's State A championship soccer squad — the Pirates host Billings Central in a semifinal Friday at 3 p.m. — has the second-best time among Class A boys, behind Hardin's Ben Bird.  

"Jackson's amazing. He's also deep in the playoffs in soccer right now, and balancing it better than I could imagine," his coach said. 

The miles have been put in; the payoff for Morgan Delaney is a scholarship to the University of Wyoming, her dad's alma mater. 

"It has little to do with me," Jason Delaney said. "It has more to do with an introduction with the coach (Scott Dahlberg) and them just hitting it off. The rest of it kind of fell into place." 

Morgan Delaney is going to graduate early from Polson High and start running indoor track with the Cowgirls in January. But she has a few races before them, including Saturday's. Over 10 weeks this past summer, she put in 630 miles of preparation. 

"I'm excited for it," she said. "I'm a little nervous just to see what I can do, because I haven't raced Addison yet. But I'm also excited because I haven't raced Addison yet. 

"Hopefully I run a good time."