Morehead, Ky. – The Eagle track and field squads will return from a 13-day break to travel to Lexington for the Kentucky Invitational. The two-day affair will begin Friday at 2:30 p.m. with the women's hammer throw. Competition will resume on Saturday at noon with the women's 4x100-meter relay and the women's shot put starting the day's events. All competition will take place at the UK Track and Field Complex.

It will be the second time this spring MSU will have had a 13-day gap in between meets. The Margaret Simons Invitational took place on March 25-26 at Murray State, with the Jim Vargo Invitational, the Eagles last competition, held on April 8-9 at Bellarmine.

In spite of poor weather, Morehead State had 11 'pr's' at the Jim Vargo meet. Coach Clay Dixon hopes the trend of top performances continues this weekend, especially considering an optimistic forecast.

"It's finally going to be nice weather, so we're looking for fast races," he said. "I told them don't waste this weekend. There'll be no rain, sleet, slow or wind, and up to 80 degrees. With the longest race a 1,500 held late in the day, by the time they run I don't see it being too hot for anybody."

Every meet thus far this season has featured dreary weather, which has made for less than ideal racing conditions. Still, the Eagles' performances have been impressive. Dixon hopes with warm weather the team will post even better times.

"The weather will be real helpful, unless it's really windy," he said. "We've not had a full taper intensity and mileage wise, but we've cut out big things that have worn down their bodies. I'm hoping that if not this week, next week or at the latest conference week, we will be in full peak form."

Fifteen teams are slated to compete in the non-scored event, including host Kentucky. Most of the field will be in-state foes, but the meet will also include Austin Peay and Murray State from the Ohio Valley Conference, as well as arch rival eastern Kentucky.

Morehead State competed at the meet last year with former Eagle Kilani Harvey setting school records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Among the returning athletes, sophomore Michael Dunagan had the best finish, placing 14th in the 800-meter run in a time of 1:55.93. Since 2010, MSU has competed at Kentucky six times (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2021).

One thing Dixon wants to see this weekend is if any of his runners are able to compete in multiple events without sacrificing their optimum performance. Dunagan; and sophomores Toby Cook, Kyler Stewart, Laikin Tarlton and Hannah Hostetler; and freshman Sam Lucas are part of this week's experiment.

The Eagles are beginning the tapering process in preparation for the OVC championship, which will take place on May 11-13 in Murray, Ky.

"On Tuesday (at practice), the long-distance group did a broken tempo: two miles, two miles and one mile, getting down to a 5K race pace. The middle distances did 200-meter sprints at race pace," he said. "In my experience it takes a week or a week and a half to fully recover from high intensity, race-paced stuff."

On Friday, 23 Eagles will compete in three events: the women's 200m, and the men's and women's 1,500-meter run. Juniors Dallas Jones and Sierra Kelley, and sophomore Tayla Lee will participate in the former event, which will begin at 5 p.m.

The gun will go off for the first heat of the women's 1,500m at 5:40 p.m., with MSU having three runners in both the second and third heats. The first group includes sophomores Isabella Copher and Tarlton, and freshman Cloe Copas. Sophomore Hannah Hostetler, freshman Megan Bush and newcomer Jennifer Ramirez will take part in the final section. Ramirez is a mid-season addition from the Eagle soccer team.

The men's 1,500m is slated to begin at 6 p.m. The Blue and Gold will have 13 runners competing across the final three sections. Heat two will include sophomores Kyle Embry, Jarrett Forrest, Wes Grogan, Stewart and Dunagan. Junior Cruz Ortiz-Ramirez; sophomores Justin Bland, Justin Chavez, Peyton Fairchild, Liam Dale and Jacob Vogelpohl; along with freshman Ethan Vance, are slotted into heat three. The final group will include freshmen Alex Murray and Lucas.

On Saturday, the Eagles will return with 19 additional entries. The team's day will begin at noon with its first running of a women's 4x100-meter relay this year. Freshman Grace Lopez, Lee, Kelley and Jones, will make up the foursome with freshman Keana Meriwether as an alternate.

Dixon is using the meet as a test for his club's short relay.

"I'll be seeing how they look. Are they smooth? I want to see if they can be competitive in the conference (meet)," he said. We'll see how it goes. If it can get points in the conference, let's do it. It's kind of a tester. We've had three or four practices at Rowan County (High School) in the last two weeks training on it. We're fortunate that their track is about five minutes from here. So, we've been able to practice it.

"So far everything looks pretty good. The first group still needs work, but how will it be with seven teams around it all screaming?" he added. "If it looks good enough, then we'll go with it. If there's no hope, let's not do this again. … If we can go 48 or 49 seconds or a 50 flat, and we just need a few tweaks on a couple of exchanges, we can do it. … It's a gamble, but it's still cool to go out and score points with it in the conference meet. Right now, we'd need a mid-48 to be the eighth-place team (at the conference meet)."

The team will have a break before its next event, the 100m, which will include Lopez and Lee. The 400-meter dash follows and will feature Kelley, Meriwether, Jones and freshman Lilly Gray. Lucas will be the squad's lone entry in the men's 400m.

"Dallas, Sierra and Keana, (I'm going to) have them do a 400," Dixon said. "It should be such a nice day. I want to see if they can go out and get a 'pr'."

The women's 800-meter run will begin at 2:35 p.m. Sophomores Riliegh Owens, Tarlton and Hostetler, plus freshman Christiana Lytle are slated to compete in it. The men's 800m will follow with Cook, Dunagan, Dale, Grogan, and freshman Austin Montgomery representing the Blue and Gold.

The meet will conclude with the 4x400-meter relay. The Eagles will have both a men's and women's entry. The women's foursome will include Copas, Tarlton, Owens and Hostetler, with Lytle as an alternate. The men will include Grogan, Montgomery, Dunagan and Cook. Dale and Lucas are alternates.

"For the guys, I want to see if can get an 'A' team together. The women are still determining (who will be on) the 'A' team," Dixon said. "We'll have some others who are not normally running (in the relay) do it this week, just to see if someone has 400 speed that I don't know about. Next week, I want to put an 'A' team together to see if we can score (at the conference meet) in that event."

Live stats will be available at the link: https://live.pttiming.com/?mid=4941.

After the UK meet, Morehead State will travel across the state to Louisville for its next competition, the Clark Wood Invitational on April 29-30.