LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Morehead State cross country teams met several of coach
Clay Dixon's goals as the Eagle men finished 23rd and the women 30th at Friday's NCAA Southeast Regional at the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park.
Junior
Kyle Embry and redshirt sophomore
Garrett Watts both placed among the top 100 runners the highest one-two finish for an Eagle men's pair since 2018 when the team had three top-100 performers and a fourth place 105th. It also marks the fifth time in the last 10 years two team members placed in double digits.
The men's squad also tallied 731 points and claimed 23rd. It was the third straight season the Eagles improved up their finish from the previous year. It was the team's best performance since placing 18th in 2019.
Coach
Clay Dixon noted some of the achievements put forth by the men's team on Friday.
"I'm proud of their performance. In 2019, they placed 27th. We didn't (have a regional meet) in 2020 because of Covid. In 2021, we placed 25th. This year we placed 23rd. So, we're moving up," he said. "Last year our fastest guy was 134th place and this year we had two guys do better than that, two guys (were) in the top 100. In the last 20 years, we've only had less than 25 runners on our team at Morehead place in the top 100. So, it's awesome to have two guys (do that). That was one of our goals."
North Carolina won the men's competition with 61 points, followed by Virginia with 83 points. Both squads earned the automatic berths to next Saturday's NCAA Championship in Stillwater, Okla. Wake Forest (88 points), North Carolina State (96) and Duke (135) rounded out the top five. The Eagles bested some common foes as well as some major college teams, including East Carolina (25th with 747 points), Murray State (26th with 747 points) and Northern Kentucky (27th with 757 points).
"It's always good to beat in-state rivals like Murray State and Northern Kentucky," Dixon said. "I'm proud of their performance and how they progressed throughout the race."
A total of 222 runners toed the starting line.
Embry led the way for the Eagles in 88th with a time of 31:49.5, it was an improvement in both areas for Embry, who was 154th last year n 32:43.10. Watts placed 98th in 32:01.0. It was his first 10K since finishing 150th in 33:11.1 at the 2019 regional.
Kyler Stewart was third on the team in 173rd n 33:54.1.
Peyton Fairchild was fourth in 181st in 34:17.0, while
Ethan Vance was 201st in 35:13.4.
Jacob Vogelpohl (206th in 35:31.8) and
Justin Bland (211th in 35:50.5) rounded out the Eagles.
Charlotte's Nickolas Scudder out-raced North Carolina's Parker Wolfe down the homestretch to claim the individual title. Scudder was clocked in 29:42.8, while Wolfe crossed the line in 29:44.6.
It was the first 10K cross country race for Stewart, Vance and Vogelpohl.
"I still need to look at if our team score dropped from the 8K split to the finish, but I kept telling them in that last 2K, there's going to be guys falling apart. We've just got to stay tough. That's where we've got to make up ground," Dixon said. "That's one of our strengths, training more for a 10K than an 8K."
Singleton led the Eagle women on Friday. She finished in 181st in 23:56.6.
Laikin Tarlton was next, placing 187th in 24:07.2. Last fall, she was 190th. Freshman
Christiana Brittian was a few spots back of Tarlton, finishing 191st in 24:25.2.
Cloe Copas also beat out her 2021 placing by crossing the line in 195th in 24:35.5. At last year's meet, she was 202nd.
The MSU women did a good job of packing together.
Isabella Copher followed in 202nd in 24:43.8, while
Megan Bush was 207th in 24:51.1. The top six Eagles all finished within 27 places and 55 seconds of each other.
Abby Taylor rounded out the team by coming in 225th in 26:13.5.
North Carolina State parlayed the top three individual finishers into a team title. The Wolfpack scored 25 points, with North Carolina second with 76 points, Virginia third with 109 points, Furman fourth with 133 points and Duke fifth with 188 points. N.C. State's Katelyn Tuohy won the race in 19:49.1, with defending champion and teammate Kelsey Chmiel staking second in 19:58.6 among the 232 individual entries.
MSU scored 911 points. The Eagles topped Longwood, which tallied 979 points.
"We went out a little bit conservative today. I think it was a little bit muddier at the start and then there were some big dips, but they went for it toward the second half," Dixon said. "We had our middle-pack girls really progress throughout, so I was proud of that. I'm not looking at times today, I'm just looking at how they progressed throughout the race. Christiana really stuck out today. Cloe really moved up well. So, it was good from that front."
Louisville experienced heavy rains which ended prior to the start of Prior to the start of the women's race.
"There's literally a puddle, just a massive stream in the middle of the course, so it was interesting to see that (and) just separate the course. I'm sure that had a little bit of a variability to it. And then some of the back portions, it was getting beat up with the mud. I'm sure it slowed it down. I'm going to guestimate 20 or 30 seconds slower than last year here," Dixon said. "So, even that, just looking at that Kyle ran a 31:49. I'm going to say that might be a top-20 10K time and then if you knock more time off that because of better conditions, I mean that's amazing."
