I threw out of a parking lot and qualified for nationals. What’s your excuse?

NIU thrower Ashley Morrow wanted that slogan on a T-shirt.

All season, she practiced throwing, but not from a track, in a track facility or even in the grass.

No, she, along with the rest of the throwers, used the Convocation Center parking lot, as NIU lacks a proper practice facility.

“Our coach, Coach Jennings, always says we can laugh about it,” Morrow said, of practicing in a parking lot. “We make fun of the situation. It’s just another hurdle to get over.”

In May, Morrow made history, as she became the first NIU athlete to compete in the NCAA Women’s Track and Field Championships.

For Morrow, practicing in a parking lot could barely be called a bump, let alone a hurdle.

At 12 years old, Morrow sat alone. She was trying to find someone to relate with- just one person. Then the young girl was isolated in group therapy.

“Everyone was dealing with divorce. I couldn’t relate,” Morrow said. “I was going through a death.”

Morrow attended a funeral a week prior to her first day of seventh grade. The young girl was forced to lay her mother to rest. Morrow returned to school, looking for support, but it wasn’t there.

She was fighting to fit in, but her body was making that impossible.

Morrow was strong for her age. Not just mentally and emotionally, but physically. Everyday, a fellow student asked her to be their bodyguard due to her large body frame.

“I [would] probably cry before I ever fought,” Morrow said about being a bodyguard.

The kind and friendly Morrow was a competitor. However, there was a problem-she didn’t have an outlet. Morrow tried basketball, but found her strength to be an issue.

“If I did a check and accidentally knocked a girl down, I’d help them up,” she said. “My coaches would yell at me to get down the court.”

It was later in high school that Morrow finally found a sport involving no contact – track and field.

However, Morrow was still facing adversity at school. A cloud of negativity followed her every footstep.

“A couple of people didn’t believe in me. They didn’t think I would succeed as a Division I athlete,” Morrow said. “They didn’t even think I would go to college.”

Skip a couple chapters of Morrow’s “life DVD,” and you’re back to the present. In her four years as a Huskie athlete, Morrow has set three school records.

“Ashley is a remarkable person and student-athlete,” head coach Connie Teaberry said. “She has overcome tremendous obstacles to reach this point, and it could not have happened to a better person.”

That doesn’t match her largest accomplishment over the past five years. Morrow is set to graduate at the end of the summer semester from NIU.

The O’Fallon native doubted if she should celebrate the occasion.

Although Morrow had moved more than four hours from home, adversity hadn’t forgotten her.

At 20, Morrow had to bury another family member, her father. Without her parents attending, she wondered if there was really a point to walking.

Then, the senior remembered her parents are always there, always looking over her back.

Mom on one shoulder, Dad on the other, and, in the middle, it reads “my guardian angels”. It was the most painful thing Morrow has ever done, but the tribute was worth the pain.

Morrow will walk in December, and will get ready for her next challenges in competitive weight lifting and becoming a consoler.

She threw out of a parking lot and got to nationals. She’s got no excuses.

What’re yours?