MOREHEAD, Ky. — Bolstered by two top-11 finishers, the Morehead State men's cross country team placed sixth at Friday's Falcon Invite in Bowling Green. It was the team's best performance in a meet that included more than three teams this season. The Eagle women claimed 10th in their race.
Two weeks after Eagle coach
Clay Dixon labeled both teams' performance as "mixed results," Friday was a completely different story.
"I'm kind of shocked because people ran better than expected, especially considering the quality of the competition. They stepped up. They're ready for conference," he said. "Both teams raced against really tough cross country schools. They did better than what I expected."
It was all the more amazing considering the hard workouts the team went through in the week prior to the race, something it needed to do to be ready to excel in the final two meets of the year.
Given the lead up to the trip, Dixon expected many of the runners to not be at full strength. That was not the case.
Even less-than-ideal weather in the first event did not hamper the performances.
"The men's team did great, especially considering Marshall was in 12th-place and we were 24th place at Louisville (two weeks ago) and today we were right up on them," Dixon said. "The women were (equally) impressive considering the winds were blowing at 35 mph. But, it died down for the men's race."
Junior
Kyle Embry led the Blue and Gold for the third time this season as he completed the Bob Rothermel 8,000-meter competition on the Bowling Green Cross Country Course in 25:20.8 to snare ninth place. Redshirt sophomore
Garrett Watts was two spots back in 11th in 25:28.9.
The top 15 runners stood on the podium.
"That's cool. It's great seeing them up there," Dixon said of Embry and Watts. "At one point they were in the lead pack for the first 60-70 percent of race. It started to spread out a little bit, but they were out there competing."
The third Eagle across the line, sophomore
Kyler Stewart finished 27th in 28:06.7, with sophomore
Jacob Vogelpohl in 33rd in 26:14.3 and sophomore
Peyton Fairchild taking 49th in 26:46.6 to round out the scoring quartet. Sophomore
Justin Bland finished 54th in 26:52.6, with junior
Jarrett Forrest in 57th in 27:04.0. Sophomore
Ethan Vance garnered 72nd place in 27:26.5, sophomore
Toby Cook was 75th in 27:29.1 and sixth-year student
Josh Grogan was 83rd in 27:44.6 to cap off the top-10 MSU runners.
"Our one-through-five-man gap in Louisville was about a minute and 50 seconds and today it was 1:24, so that's a positive thing," Dixon said. "That was our weakness, that our one through five spread was too big."
Redshirt sophomore
Liam Dale was 90th in 28:23.5, with junior
Justin Chavez in 94th in 28:42.5, sophomore
Austin Montgomery in 96th in 28:50.1, freshman
Gavin Brock in 100th in 29:10.8, sophomore
Sam Lucas in 106th in 30:04.4 and sophomore
Alex Murray in 107th in 30:06.7.
"The men had a little bit harder conditions than two weeks ago, (but) Kyler and Jacob ran really well. Peyton and Jarret were moving up as well," Dixon said. "I'm pleased with entire thing across the board. It was an all-around positive."
Morehead State finished just one point behind host Bowling Green in the team standings. Dayton won the meet with 34 points, followed by Ohio (81 points), Central Michigan (96 points) and Marshall (106 points). The Falcons tallied 116 points, with the Eagles at 117. Windsor (Ontario) collected 158 points to place seventh. Detroit Mercy (221 points) and Macomb Community College (295), placed eighth and ninth, respectively. Kent State only had four runners, so it did not factor into the team scoring (although it would have finished behind MSU).
For the first time this fall, sophomore
Laikin Tarlton led the Eagle pack after placing 62nd in the Steve Price Women's 6,000-meter race in 23:33.1. Sophomore
Lucy Singleton was just two-and-a-half seconds back in 64th in 23:35.7.
"The women, they looked strong, basically picking off runners throughout race, responding to moves, and that's important," Dixon said. "Today was really similar in (the) size (of the field) to (the) conference (meet). (So,) it gives them a little practice with that kind of competition."
Sophomore
Isabella Copher claimed 89th in 24:18.0, with freshman
Christiana Brittian in 91st in 24:19.7, sophomore
Cloe Copas in 95th in 24:31.4, sophomore
Megan Bush in 99th in 24:35.9, freshman
Abby Taylor in 105th in 24:44.1, redshirt sophomore
Hannah Hostetler in 109th in 24:56.4, freshman
Kaylyn Holman in 124th in 25:57.4, redshirt sophomore
Jennifer Ramirez in 127th in 26:33.2, freshman
Casey Skaggs in 129th in 26:52.2, freshman
Hope Harris in 130th in 27:47.8 and freshman
Natalie Curry in 137th in 20:08.2.
From top to bottom, Dixon was impressed with the performance of every team member.
"Even Natalie, our slowest girl, ran 50 seconds faster than her time at Michigan State (the only other 6K race this season)," he said. "I imagine most of the girls ran faster than their fastest 6K. Pretty much everybody did well. It's a step in the right direction."
Ohio won the women's meet with 36 points, more than doubling runner-up Dayton (76 points). Among the rest of the top 10, Marshall took third with 94 points, followed by host Bowling Green (98), Central Michigan (115), Kent State (171), Windsor (206), Ball State (221), Akron (233) and Morehead State (300). Detroit Mercy tallied 301 points to finish one spot behind MSU. Cleveland State was 12th (361) to round out the field of Division I squads.
Central Michigan's Adam Rzentkowski won the men's race by more than 11 seconds in 24:46.6, while Morgan County High School graduate Kailee Perry of Bowling Green captured the women's title as the only sub-21-minute finisher in 20:55.8.
The Eagles will now shift their focus toward the postseason as they prepare for the Ohio Valley Conference Championship on Friday, Oct. 29 at Tennessee Tech. The team will conclude its campaign on Friday, Nov. 11 with the NCAA Southeast Regional in Louisville.
