Auburn’s Alexi Morton knew she had a good shot at picking up Boise State’s first ever indoor pentathlon title at the recent Western Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Jackson Indoor Track in Nampa, Idaho.

Coming into the last of her five events, Morton had a five-point lead over Utah State’s Chari Hawkins, with just 800 meters separating her from the title.

“Before the 800, my coaches came out and told me that I could win it,” Morton said. “So I was a little nervous coming into it. But on the third lap, when I passed her, that’s when I knew I won.”

Morton’s 2:29.34 was more than three seconds faster than Hawkins, giving her and Boise State the school’s first-ever WAC pentathlon title and capping a record-setting day for the true freshman.

Morton, a 2010 Auburn Mountainview graduate, notched a career-best 3,769 points, a school record.

She also collected career-bests in four of her events, starting the day with a fourth-place finish of 8.89 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, .03 seconds faster than her previous best time.

In the high jump, Morton cleared 5 feet, 5 inches, 2 inches better than her personal best to finish fourth. In the shot put, Morton matched her best toss with a throw of 34 feet, 3/4 inches to take sixth.

Morton also shattered her long jump personal best, leaping 19-9½ to win the event.

In her final event of the pentathlon, Morton built on her five-point lead, shaving nearly seven seconds off her personal best time in the 800 with a time of 2:29.34 to finish fourth.

In addition to winning the WAC pentathlon title, Morton was honored with All-WAC First-Team honors.

“I wasn’t expecting to win,” Morton said after the meet. “I was expected to PR (personal record) because the meet before I hadn’t done that great, so I spent the whole week before working on little things that made the difference. But winning was not expected at all.”

Although Morton’s finish was good enough to earn her a No. 37 ranking nationwide in the pentathlon, she did not earn a bid to the NCAA Division I indoor championships. But there is still time. Morton is the fifth highest ranking freshman in the pentathlon nationwide.

Morton was the Auburn Reporter’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2009-10.