MOREHEAD, Ky. – Morehead State track and field coach will send nine women and seven men to Murray, Ky., for the three-day Ohio Valley Conference Championship. The heptathlon will begin the competition on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET with the meet running through Friday when the awards ceremony will take place at approximately 6 p.m. ET. Roy Stewart Stadium will host the track races and some of the field events, with the remaining throws taking place at Hamilton Field. It will be the first time Murray State has hosted the meet since 2011.

Last spring, the Eagle men placed eighth, while the Eagle women finished 11th. Eastern Illinois won the men's meet for the 18th consecutive year, while Southeast Missouri captured the women's crown for the first time in seven seasons and its 10th overall.

Eight men's teams and 10 women's squads will participate in this year's championship.

Live scoring will be available at the link: http://cfpitiming.com/2022_Outdoor_Season/OVC_2022/OVC_Outdoor_2022.html

All three days of the meet will be televised on ESPN+. Day one can be found on the link: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=02b70f5b-e733-473e-9958-9feaabe6c232. The day two link is: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=627abf8e-8240-48df-992a-ab5b8f8ac452. The day three link is: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=111d1b52-4478-42dc-b849-df2a84bd1e57.

Morehead State's men have won the meet twice in their history, in 1955 and 1956, while the women have never claimed the title.

"I want them to go out there and compete and score some points in general. It's pretty simple," Dixon said. "We've put people in their best events with their best opportunity to score points."

Dixon expects his troops to be the most competitive in the 800-meter run, 1,500-meter run, 10,000-meter run, and the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays.

"The training with the men's 800 group has been really good. Wes (Grogan), Toby (Cook) and Michael (Dunagan) have been putting up 'pr's nearly every meet. Jacob (Vogelpohl) has been looking really good all season. They should be exciting to watch," Dixon said. "Lucy's (Singleton) a gamer no matter what. All are in racing shape. Lucy had some issues with her hamstring, but she's feeling pretty good (now) and has been doing workouts the last week and a half without it bothering her. We chose not to race her at Liberty to make sure she was fully ready for the OVCs.

"Laikin (Tarlton) feels great. The 1,500 is basically a Russian roulette. It's a totally different game if everyone is perfect," Dixon added. "You have a few scratches here and there and with the heat, you never know what is going to happen. I'd rather have her in there (and take a chance) than not and regret it. It's the same with the guys, because you never know what can happen (in that event)."

Most of the team's entries ranked among the top 25 on the league's top performances list. It was one of the criteria Dixon used to formulate the lineup for the week.

Wednesday's prelims for the men's 1,500-meter run will kick off the meet for the Eagles. The race will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET. Morehead State will also participate in the 200-meter dash and the 10,000-meter run later in the evening.

The 400-meter dash will be the team's first event on Thursday. Later that day, the 100-meter dash and the 800-meter run will take place.

Friday will feature exclusively finals. The women's 4x100m relay will be the first event for the Blue and Gold. The start gun is slated to go off at 12:40 p.m. The 1,500m, the 400m, the 100m, the 800m, the 200m, the 5,000-meter run and the 4x400m relay will take place, in order, as the day unfolds.

Last May, Morehead State's men scored 14 points, while the women tallied seven. Dunagan, a sophomore, placed seventh in the 800m in 1:54.89, and teamed with Darby Pillow, sophomore Justin Bland and Grogan (also a sophomore) were eighth in the 4x400m in 3:30.77. The top performances came from Jarrett Mattingly, who was fourth in the 10,000m and Kilani Harvey, who was fifth in the women's 100m. Both have since graduated.

The men have finished eighth in each of the last three conference meets. The women were 11th in 2019 and 2021, after having claimed 12th in 2017 and 2018. Covid-19 canceled the 2020 event.

Eagles will be represented 25 times over 13 events.

The team's women's competitors will include: freshman Megan Bush and sophomore Isabella Copher in the 5,000m and 10,00m; Tarlton (a sophomore) and Singleton (a freshman) in the 1,500m; freshman Grace Lopez in the 100m; juniors Dallas Jones and Tayla Lee in the 200m; and freshman Keana Meriwether and junior Sierra Kelley in the 400m.

Lopez, Lee, Kelley and Jones will form the team's 4x100m relay entry; while Kelley, Meriwether, Siingleton and Jones will make up the 4x400m contingent.

On the men's side, sophomores Cook, Liam Dale, Dunagan and Grogan will run the 800m; sophomores Kyle Embry and Jarrett Forrest will take part in the 1,500m; Embry, Forrest and sophomore Jacob Vogelpohl will represent the squad in the 5,000m; and Vogelpohl will toe the line in the 10,000m.

Cook, Grogan, Dunagan and Dale will combine to form the 4x400m quartet.

Morehead State will run its first 10K this week. Dixon has been withholding his athletes from competing in the event due to the heavy toll it takes on the body.

"Jacob is on fire. He has had a 'pr' in every single race this year and we've been gearing his training toward running a 10K. He's definitely a 5K/10K kind of guy," Dixon said. "Megan and Isabella will run in the 10K. It'll be our first 10K for the girls since 2019. There are only 12 runners entered, so we have a good chance to score. It's a numbers' game there. After looking at last year's results, I thought we'd benefit from having entries. Those two are pure cross country girls, so they're (a) good (choice) for it."

The Eagles ran at Murray State in the Margaret Simmons Invitational on March 25-26, which Dixon thinks will benefit his team. His biggest concern will be the potential for significantly high temperatures, especially midday on Thursday.

"It's nice that we went there earlier in the year. … We know where to warm up and where to check in. If we hadn't gone, we'd be spending the first day trying to figure out where to go to do this and that. (So) there are pros to having done it before," he said. "It'll be a mental boost for us not having 30 mile-an-hour winds or temperatures in the 40s and 50s, but it might be in the 80s. … If it's that hot it's a total wild card. … Luckily, we are just having our people doing their main event. Many of the others (will have their athletes) in multiple events."