University of Northern Iowa Athletics
University of Northern Iowa
NCAA Indoor Championships
Carter Morton concludes indoor track and field season with All-American honors
3/14/2026 5:04:00 PM | Track and Field
Redshirt senior takes sixth in heptathlon at NCAA Indoor Championships.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. --- UNI track and field's Carter Morton concluded the 2025-26 indoor competition season for the Panthers on Saturday, earning his second career First Team All-American honor after a sixth-place finish in the seven-event heptathlon at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center on the University of Arkansas campus.
The Jefferson, Iowa native, who placed fifth in the event last season, topped the 16-man field in the high jump with a new career-best mark, while also running a career-best time in the 1,000-meter run to close out the meet. Morton's final score of 6,003 points, just off his UNI and Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) record of 6,054 points, is only the second time a Panther heptathlete has broken 6,000 points in the event in program history.
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The 2026 MVC heptathlon champion, who also swept the MVC's indoor long jump and high jump titles this year, is the 11th Northern Iowa men's athlete to earn multiple indoor All-American honors:
- Jacob Pauli (1999, 2000, 2001)
- Dirk Homewood (2002, 2004, 2005)
- Tyler Mulder (2007, 2008, 2009)
- Darius King (2020, 2021, 2022)
- Balazs Csillag (2000, 2002)
- Kyle Smith (2004, 2007)
- Cody Eichmeier (2005, 2006)
- Terrance Reid (2005, 2007)
- Raven Cepeda (2007, 2008)
- Brandon Carnes (2016, 2017)
- Carter Morton (2025, 2026)
Morton opened the meet with a time of 7.07 seconds to take 13th place in the 60-meter dash before finishing tenth in the long jump with a 23 foot, nine inch leap, one inch shy of his career-best mark. Morton earned a big boost in the standings with his win in the high jump, jumping a career-best mark of seven feet and one-half inch, one-quarter of an inch better than his career-best earlier this season.
On the final day of action, Morton tied for 11th in the 60-meter hurdles (8.25) before taking fifth in the pole vault (16' 3 ½") before closing out the competition with a career-best time of 2:42.63 in the 1,000-meter run.
2026 NCAA INDOOR HEPTATHLON FINAL RESULTS
- Peyton Bair (Oregon) - 6,503 pts
- Kenneth Byrd (Louisville) - 6,132 pts
- Jip DeGreef (Illinois) - 6,120 pts
- Luuk Pelkmans (Illinois) - 6,081 pts
- Ben Barton (BYU) - 6,025 pts
- Carter Morton (UNI) - 6,003 pts
- Zach McGlynn (North Dakota State) - 5,995 pts
- Nathaniel Paris (Virginia Tech) - 5,917
- Aiden Carter (Oregon) - 5,908 pts
- Blake Harris (Texas A&M) - 5,885 pts
- Ryan Gregory (Long Beach State) - 5,867 pts
- Tayton Klein (Kansas) - 5,784 pts
- John Swabik (Kansas) - 5,447 pts
- Yannick Knobloch (TCU) - 4,873 pts
- Landon Helms (Boise State) - 4,189 pts
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UP NEXT
The UNI track and field team will kick off the 2026 outdoor competition season with a pair of meets at the WashU Distance Carnival in St. Louis (Mar. 26-27) and the Wartburg Outdoor Select in Waverly, Iowa (Mar. 27-28).
UNI track and field action can be followed all season long on social media on Facebook (UNI Track and Field), X (@UNITrackFieldXC) and on Instagram (@uni_tf_xc). Schedules and rosters, along with the latest Panther news and information can be found online at UNIpanthers.com.
Players Mentioned
