MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State women's cross-country team placed 14th and the men's team was 22nd in the Blue Division of Saturday's Louisville Classic at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park.

Freshman Lucy Singleton paced the Eagles in the women's 5K race by finishing in 53rd place in 19:18.8. She was the third different team member to lead MSU in its three races this Fall. Singleton posted her fastest time this season by nearly 18 seconds.

"Everyone wasn't firing on all cylinders, but we did have four girls run personal bests. Two finally broke the 20-minute barrier, which is a huge accomplishment and nice to see," MSU coach Clay Dixon said. "We're making strikes in the right direction. It's difficult to have everybody run their best at the same time."

Freshman Laikin Tarlton was second on the squad, placing 74th in 19:37.0. Freshman Cloe Copas followed in 89th in 19:44.3, while sophomore Riliegh Owens was 100th in 19:50.2. Freshman Isabella Copher rounded out the scorers by finishing 104th with a time of 19:52.2. Sophomore Mary Alice Thornburg was 164th in 20:21.9, followed by freshman Megan Bush in 187th at 20:35.3, freshman Lilly Gray in 305th at 21:38.1 and junior Carrie Staviski in 354th at 22:14.5.

"The scores were close. In the best-case scenario, we could've been fifth, in the worst case, we could've been 20th. Between SIU Edwardsville (in 10th) and us, there were (five) teams separated by just 10 points. It just shows that every spot counts," Dixon continued. "If our top five girls each beat two extra people, we would have moved up five spots (in the team standings). So, in a race like that, it just goes to show that anything can happen."

"What Riliegh did today was big. She's shown in her workouts that she's capable of doing what she did today and she finally had her breakthrough race. When she finished and she collapsed at the finish line, I said to her, 'Riliegh, you did it! You finally broke 20 minutes!'  She's been going for that since high school. It's exciting," Dixon said. "Her teammate Close Copas also broke 20 for the first time, and I was excited to see that. And then to have our freshman Lucy Singleton as our leader. It was good to see her go out there and take charge."

Grand Valley State won the women's team competition with 94 points. Marshall was second at 149 with Northern Kentucky third at 204 and Southeast Missouri State fourth at 224. Morehead State tallied 402 points, besting 15th-place Purdue Fort Wayne (411 points), 16th-place Wright State (432) and 30th-place Evansville (814) among the area foes. SIU-Edwardsville was the only other Ohio Valley Conference team in the field and the Cougars finished 10th with 392 points.

Overall, 55 teams entered a complete squad, with a total of 491 runners competing. Marshall's Abby Herring was the individual winner in 17:45.7.

Both Eagle squads return to action in two weeks at the Evansville Invitational, while the men's top runners will head to Pre-Nationals in Tallahassee, Fla.