Morehead, Ky. – After a one-week break, the Morehead State track and field team returns to action in the two-day Jim Vargo Invitational. The second annual meet honoring Bellarmine's long-time coach will take place at the school's Owsley B. Frazier Stadium beginning on Friday with the men's hammer throw at 11 a.m. and running through approximately 8:15 p.m. after the completion of the 10,000-meter run, and then resuming on Saturday with the men's discus at 11 a.m. and concluding around 5:45 p.m. with the 4x400-meter relay.

The competition will include invitational and open sections for several races. The Eagles will have representatives in three of those former events. It is something that coach Clay Dixon sees as a point of respect for the program.

"To have 10 running in the invitational section of this meet was an honor and is really exciting," he said. "It's a middle of the season invitational and it's good to know that we're up there with 10 people in the fastest sections. I read there are 26 teams coming. Being among the best in those heats (in those races out) of 26 teams is pretty good."

The non-scored meet is expected to include: Bellarmine, Aquinas College (Mich.), Asbury, Centre, Campbellsville, Davenport University (Mich.), Evansville, Eastern Kentucky, Ferris State (Ohio), Illinois-Springfield, Indianapolis, Kentucky State, Lawrence Tech (Mich.), Midway, Ohio Christian, Purdue Northwest, Shawnee State, Spalding, Southern Indiana, Thomas More, Tiffin, Transylvania, Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.), Wright State and Xavier (Ohio).

In total, MSU will have 30 runners entered 39 times in 12 different races.

Morehead State will have multiple entries compete on Friday. The Eagles first event will also be the meet's first track race, the men's invitational 800-meter run, which will be held at 4:30 p.m. It will include sophomore Michael Dunagan and sophomore Toby Cook. The women's invitational 800m will follow and feature freshman Lucy Singleton.

The invitational 1,500-meter run and 3,000-meter steeplechase will follow, but MSU will not have any runners in those races. Then at 5:50 p.m., four sophomores: Kyle Embry, Jacob Vogelpohl, Jarrett Forrest and Peyton Fairchild will toe the line for the men's invitational 5,000-meter run. After that race, sophomores Isabella Copher and Laikin Tarlton, and freshman Megan Bush will compete in the women's invitational 5000m.

The 10,000m will complete the day's events, but despite the fact that most of Morehead State's athletes participate in the distance races Dixon will not have any representative in action.

"I don't like (competing in) that too much at this point. It really affects you for more than a week or two, or for some even longer, so I really want to save (running it) for the end of the year," he said. "Typically, you need someone like Jarrett Mattingly, or fifth-year seniors who are strong enough to handle that. It's taxing. If you ran a marathon you don't expect to feel good the next day; the same is true for the 10K. If you have someone older, more mature and has more strength in their legs, you can do it, but if you look at our team we're still pretty young. The only one on the team with 10K experience on the track is Peyton."

The weekend forecast is a concern for Dixon. It could significantly slow times, which is one way he measures the progress of his athletes from week to week.

"I'm really hoping the rain and cold weather hold off and for it to stay in the mid-40s, because we can manage that. But, there's a potential for snow flurries and strong winds, and those would really affect us."

The rest of the Eagles will compete on Saturday with the open 1,500m the first race to include individuals from MSU.  The starting gun for the men's event will go off at 12:20 p.m. Sophomores Justin Bland, Justin Chavez, Liam Dale, Wes Grogan and Kyler Stewart, as well as freshman Alex Murray, plus Dunagan and Cook will all take part in it. The women's open 1,500m will follow with Eagle sophomores Riliegh Owens and Hannah Hostetler competing.

The shorter distance races come next, with junior Sierra Kelley, sophomore JD Camacho and freshman Keana Meriwether running the 400-meter dash. It will be followed by freshman Grace Lopez in the 100-meter dash.

Freshman Cloe Copas, freshman Christiana Lytle, Hostetler, Owens, freshman Sam Lucas, freshman Austin Montgomery and junior Cruz Ortiz-Ramirez will compete in the women's and men's 800-meter run, which is the next event.

After a break for the 400-meter hurdles, the 200-meter dash will conclude the sprints. Lopez, Meriwether, and juniors Dallas Jones and Tayla Lee will represent the Eagles.

The open 5,000m is the final individual event. Freshman Ethan Vance is the lone MSU entrant expected to race.

The meet concludes with the 4x400-meter relay. Dixon has not decided upon a lineup for either the men or women. Camacho, Copas, Jones, Kelley, Meriwether and Owens are in the mix for the ladies; while Dale, Grogan, Lucas, Montgomery and Ortiz-Ramirez are the pool of guys from which he will select a quartet.

Dixon also considered entering a women's 4x100-meter relay, but decided against it because of the weather.

"With the 4x4, we're starting to throw people in there to see if they're looking good (to run in it at the end of the year). Running a 4x1 is a possibility, but it's not in the official plans just yet. It basically depends on our practices. We did it last year at conference," he said. "Originally, we had a lot of our sprinters in multiple events, but because of the weather we don't want to risk tearing a hamstring because of the potential for snow. I told them, 'Let's not overdo it this meet and hope for better weather later and do it then.'"

Morehead State has competed at outdoor meets hosted by Bellarmine four times in the last 10 years, with the most recent coming in 2019. That event was not scored.

The Eagles have yet to compete in an outdoor meet with good weather this spring. Dixon hopes that trend does not continue this weekend. His goals for the team are contingent based on the conditions.

"A lot depends on the weather. If it's snowing, there likely will be no 'pr's, especially from the sprint group," he said. "It will be good if it's not windy and not have runners spending half of their races running into the wind. We can handle rain and cold better than wind. Hopefully, we can at least have one meet this season when it's not snowing.

"Another reason we need decent weather … you can't tell if you have accurate times. If we get a lot of 'pr's (this weekend) that would be nice, but there's a lot of factors," he concluded. "We haven't run in two weeks, so you'd think we should be relatively fresh, but we had two really hard workouts (this past) week and some of the runners may need more time to recover."

Live results for the meet will be available. To keep track of the action, click: http://milesplit.live/meets/473554.

Next up for Morehead State is the Kentucky Invitational in Lexington in two weeks, April 22-23.