MOREHEAD, Ky. – Sophomore Kyle Embry paced the Morehead State men's cross-country team at Friday's Florida State Invitational/Pre-Nationals in Tallahassee, Fla., becoming the first Eagle to lead the squad in two meets this season.

Embry covered the Apalachee Regional Park 8K course in 26:34.6 to finish 137th in the Open Division race. It marked the third time this fall he has run under 26 minutes and 35 seconds. He previously topped the Blue and Gold at the Commodore Classic with a time of 26:33.9 on Sept. 17.

Emby was one of eight MSU runners to compete against the elite field, which included teams from all over the country since the course will serve as this year's NCAA Division I Championship meet at the end of November.

"The course was really, really nice, with a couple of rolling hills, but it was mostly nice short paths with some fine-gravel paths," MSU coach Clay Dixon said. "But, right before the start the sun peeked out over the trees and it got noticeably hotter and the humidity was up there, too. … . Our team is naturally better at tougher courses, the hillier the better, (with) rougher terrain, tall grass. We can surprise teams because we train on tougher terrain. We don't have blazing-fast time trials, but are better when we're on messy, sloppy courses."

Freshman Justin Bland was the second Eagle across the finish line in 143rd in 26:37.3. Sophomore Jarrett Forrest was 186th in 27:28.1, followed by freshman Kyle Stewart in 188th in 27:30.1, sophomore Michael Dunagan in 189th in 27:32.0, sophomore Justin Chavez in 192nd in 27:34.5, sophomore Peyton Fairchild in 212th in 28:05.4 and freshman Toby Cook in 227th in 28:39.5.

"We had a breakout performance with Justin Bland. Now we have five solid guys who've gone out this season and either had solid times or top performances. Now we just need all five to peak at the same time," Dixon said.

Bland dropped nearly a minute and a half off his previous best time this season.

"Justin was our second runner, but he had a massive 'pr'. Our plan before the race was to start conservatively and then pick people off as they start to fade," Dixon added. "If you look at Justin's splits, every thousand meters he was picking off one-two-three runners and by the end of the race, he had passed between 82 and 86 runners. That was our plan from the gun."

MSU finished 24th with 621 points. The Eagles bested some high-profile schools such as Florida International 25th (632 points), Rice 26th (655 points), Troy 27th (729 points) and Florida Atlantic 29th (828 points). Thirty-two teams with a total of 267 runners were entered in the Open Division.

"The best way to look at (the difference in courses) is placement of runners and other teams. Only one team was there that we faced before, Northern Kentucky," Dixon said. "If you look at Northern Kentucky at Louisville and us, versus us and Northern Kentucky and where we were at yesterday, I think Northern Kentucky beat us by (around) 140 points at Louisville and yesterday they beat us by (approximately) 95. So, we improved by 45 points over two weeks."

The last time Morehead State participated in the Pre-Nationals, the Eagles placed 25th out of 41 teams at Louisville in 2017.

Arkansas State sophomore Lexington Hilton won the race by 25.5 seconds in a time of 23:52.3. The nation's top-ranked men's team, Northern Arizona, had four of the top eight finishers to capture the title with 38 points. The Lumberjacks also had a team entry in the Garnet Division race and won it as well with three runners finishing in the top 10 and four in the top 25.

Fifth-ranked Brigham Young, Georgetown (D.C), Kansas State and Arkansas State rounded out the rest of the top five in the Open Division. Other notable finishes include: Toledo in sixth (174), Richmond in 10th (284), Elon in 18th (494), Northern Kentucky in 17th (527) and Charleston Southern in 23rd (563). Like MSU, Richmond, Elon, Northern Kentucky and Charleston Southern are members of the Southeast Region.