Morehead, Ky. – The Morehead State track and field team must like competing at the University of Louisville's Clark Wood Invitational.

The last time the team participated in the meet, it came away with a champion. Justin Moakler captured the 1,500-meter run (3:49.06).

On Saturday at the Owsley B. Frazier Cardinal Park, sophomore Jacob Vogelpohl led a trio of Eagle top-five finishers in the 3,000-meter run by winning the event in 8:47.44. He became the Morehead State track and field team's first winner this outdoor season. Freshman Lucy Singleton capture a pair of races at Marshall meets in the indoor campaign.

The two-day meet featured some outstanding individual performances, but Vogelpohl was the one that really stood out.

"Three days ago, he came up to me and said, 'Clay, what do you think about an 8:45 pace' and I said 'All right, let's go for it.' Today he goes out there and is classic Jacob. He hits every single split he set for himself. That's just how he races. He knows how to set splits and hit them," MSU coach Clay Dixon said. "Jacob continued to improve."

Vogelpohl started off slowly, but over the final six laps he remained consistent running splits (in seconds) of 70.1, 70.1, 70.3, 70.4, 71.9 and 70.5. Behind him were DePaul's Griffin Lehnhardt (8:51.00) and Bellarmine's DK Schnieders (9:06.89). Sophomore Justin Bland (9:29.83), freshman Ethan Vance (10:06.87) and freshman Alex Murray (10:22.64) placed third through sixth.

"The leaders went out way too fast and he was back there all alone. But he did not that bother him. He just has a gut instinct and as they started fading, he picked them off one by one," Dixon said. "On lap six, he took the lead and never relinquished it, and he had about a 300-meter gap on the second person when he finished. He was within one second of his pace goal every lap."

The meet started off with a bang on Friday night as MSU put together three sub two-minute performances in the 800-meter run. Sophomore Michael Duanagan (1:53.74) finished 10th, sophomore Wes Grogan (1:55.82) was 14th and junior Cruz Ortiz-Ramirez (2:00.38) was 18th and all notched 'pr's.

"We had breakout races in the 800," said Dixon.

Later in the evening, in the women's 5,000-meter run sophomore Laikin Tarlton placed 20th (18:44.06), freshman Megan Bush came in 22nd (19:35.34) and sophomore Isabella Copher finished 23rd (20:21.23). sophomore Peyton Fairchild was 27th (16:03.84), with sophomore Kyler Stewart 28th (16:15.77) and sophomore Justin Chavez 29th (16:21.87) in the men's race.

The sprints opened the action on Saturday, but for the second straight week freshman Grace Lopez withdrew from the 100-meter dash. A change in the order of the 4x100-meter relay did not lead to a faster time as the quartet of freshman Keana Meriwether, junior Tayla Lee, junior Sierra Kelley and junior Dallas Jones placed fifth in 50.78.

Highlighting the 1,500-meter run was the return of freshman Lucy Singleton, who missed last week's meet the Kentucky Invitational. She responded by tying her season's best.

Singleton led the Eagle pack after placing 26th in 4:46.98. Sophomore Hannah Hostetler followed in 32n in 5:09.54, with sophomore Riliegh Owens in 33rd in 5:14.21, freshman Cloe Copas in 34th in 5:17.42 and freshman Jennifer Ramirez in 36th in 5:25.61.

"Being cautious with Lucy last week, 2nd 1500 ever, tough field, went for it. Faced a little at end, but good to see where she's at in her 1500 form, because we don't know what we're going to run her in just yet."

Sophomore Kyle Embry was 10th in the men's race in 3:59.16, with sophomore Toby Cook in 19th in 4:11.25 and sophomore Liam Dale in 21st in 4:20.89.

MSU had two entries in the men's 400-meter dash. It did not have anyone run in the women's race. Freshman Austin Montgomery was 24th in 54.08, with freshman Sam Lucas in 26th in 56.12.

The meet concluded with the 4x400-meter relay. Dixon left the day encouraged about the possibility of scoring in that event at the Ohio Valley Conference championship.

"We had good splits in three of the four legs in the 4x4. I think it was a season's best," Dixon said. "Sierra ran a 60, which was a season best, Keana ran a 62 and is showing more and more consistency, Dallas ran a 63, which is the fastest she's done all season. Three of our four girls on the 'A' team are moving in the right direction. We have the potential of scoring in the OVCs."

Jones, Kelley, Meriwether and Singleton teamed up for the relay, which placed eighth in 4:!4.39.

The 17-team, non-scored meet was the final one for MSU which involved the entire squad.

Despite the outstanding individual performances of a few athletes, Dixon was less impressed about the rest of the team's results.

"The best description I can give is that after the meet I was talking to the Bowling Green coach and I asked how him how his weekend went and he said ok, and he asked me the same question and I said, 'Yeah ok is about right," Dixon said. "It's hard to come back from 18 'pr's and 13 season bests last week, but it was ok considering how windy it was. … Yesterday we had three 'pr's, today we had one."

On Wednesday, the Blue and Gold will head to its final competition before the Ohio Valley Conference Championship, the Liberty Twilight Qualifier in Lynchburg, Va. Dixon plans to take eight individuals there as a tune-up for the league meet which will run from May 11-13 in Murray, Ky.