Morgan Groth (born August 31, 1943) set a world record and won the 1964 Olympic Trials during his career as a middle distance runner at Oregon State.
As a Beaver he set the world record in the 2-mile relay with a time of 7:18.9 at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, California. He ran the anchor and NCAA half mile champion, Norm Hoffman, joined Groth to set the world record. Morgan Groth also won the first ever Golden West Invitational with a national mile record of 4:10.0 in 1961. The top ten senior mile runners in the US were invited. He later ran for the Quantico Marines. Prior to college, Groth ran for Alhambra High School in his hometown of Martinez, California, originally competing inn high jump. In 1961, he finished second in the mile at the CIF California State Meet.
Groth set the American record in the 800 meters in 1964 (1:45.7) and then won the U.S. Olympic Trials with a time of 1:47.1, one second better than Tom Farrell and Jerry Siebert but due in part to an injury prior to the Olympics, did not qualify for the finals.In his senior year, Groth bounced back to set the U.S. record for the 880 in 1965, won the NCAA Championship in the mile and the AAU title in the 880. He has a personal best of 3:57 in the mile.
Morgan Groth is a member of the OSU Athletic Hall of Fame.