Mojave XC brother-sister duo race into Regionals

While Clark High School in Las Vegas seems to have a stranglehold on the 4A Southern Regional Cross Country Championship, Mojave High School in North Las Vegas will likely have a few top finishers.

Juniors Elliot Green and Kieran Morrow lead the boys with the seventh- and eighth-fastest 5Ks run in the region this season. Only Clark has more boys in the top-10 with six. Green and Morrow’s times rank top-20 in 4A as well. 

Kieran has some familiar company on the Rattler cross country team, as older sister Evelyn posted the 14th-best 5K time in the region at the CSN Invitational in Las Vegas on Oct. 3. Their mother, Mallory, said they took very different routes to discover running.

“When Kieran was in elementary school, he’d get in a little bit of trouble, and one of his counselors—they had a treadmill—and he would run on the treadmill and calm down a bit,” she said, adding later that she had to pay Evelyn $50 to “just go run with her brother.”

Evelyn made state in her first year on the Lady Rattler XC team.

“I told her she had to have a sport to look good when applying for colleges,” Mallory said. Evelyn did join the track team “of her own volition,” however, making regionals in the mile and two-mile races. Evelyn is considering her collegiate options with the hopes of studying statistics and mathematics. She’s a member of the Rambo Rattlers LGBTQ+ club and the MHS Dungeons and Dragons club.

Kieran is a JROTC member interested in mechanical engineering. He also runs long-distance races for the track team and sometimes runs the 800-meter and on the 4×800-meter relay team. He’s been running even longer distances, however, doing the Death by 5K in Las Vegas when he was just 15. The race consists of ten 5K races in 24 hours. 

“Around my freshman year, some people started thinking I was older than I actually was,” he said. He hopes to break his coach’s school record in the 5K (17:08) at regionals on Friday, Oct. 30 in Boulder City.

Both Morrows thanked coaches Jennifer Mathews and James Yamka. Mathews said, “The Morrow siblings have natural running ability. Getting them to believe in themselves is my job as their coach. I believe neither of them has tapped into their full potential yet. We’ve seen huge improvements in both of them from last year, and I’m excited to see their continued improvement in the postseason.” 

The Morrows also thanked their mother, aunt and grandmother for making them who they are, and Kieran thanked an old next-door neighbor, Tyler Thorne, with whom he used to run. Thorne also completed the Death by 5K 24 Hour Challenge.

When asked what changes or improvements they’d like to see in their community or at their high school, both gave thoughtful answers.

“If the adults around us, especially at CCSD, would be open to listening to the students’ opinions…the students’ voice is as important as the adults,” said Evelyn. 

Kieran wants to see improvements made in North Las Vegas for pedestrian traffic.

“I think there could definitely be some improvements in the walkways…because in some of my practices I’m running around obstacles.”

The Morrows and the Rattlers hope to tackle the obstacles presented at Veterans’ Memorial Park in Boulder City during the 4A Southern Regional races and 4A State Cross Country Meet. The 4A boys’ regional races start at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30. The girls begin at 1:35 p.m.