Morehead, Ky. – The Morehead State women's track and field team resumes its indoor season with another meet at Marshall University. In its first competition after returning from winter break, the Eagles will compete in Saturday's Marshall Classic at the Jeff Small Track at the Chris Cline Athletic Complex in Huntington, W.Va. The first event begins at 10 a.m.
MSU also participated in the meet last year and finished third in the four-team competition. The Blue and Gold also began the indoor campaign at MU on Dec. 9 in the Marshall Opener.
Saturday's contest will feature seven teams in 15 women's and nine men's events, although the Eagles will only enter six races. Coach Clay Dixon is sending 15 athletes. A total of seven squads are expected to participate.
"This weekend is just about seeing where everyone is at and how well winter training went," he said. "This should help me understand what we need to work on over the next few weeks leading up to OVC indoor (championship on Feb. 22-23)."
The long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put and weight throw will open the meet, with the vast majority of those competitions coming before noon.
The Eagles' first event will be the 60-meter dash prelims with freshman
Natalia Davis entered. At the Marshall Opener, Davis finished fourth in 8.42. The starting gun for the race will go off at 1:15 p.m. The finals will be held at 2:20 p.m. Heat winners and the next fastest finishers will make up the 8-lane final.
The women's mile is next at 1:35 p.m. Six MSU runners are entered: sophomores
Cloe Copas,
Jennifer Ramirez,
Lucy Singleton and
Laikin Tarlton; freshman
Kaylyn Holman and junior
Mary Alice Thornburg. It will be the first event for Thornburg since March 26, 2022, at the Margaret Simmons Invitational.
Tarlton was seventh (5:30.73) and Copas ninth (5:40.48) at last year's meet. In their last race at the Marshall Opener, Tarlton was third, Copas fourth and Holman sixth in the 1,000-meter run; while Ramirez was fifth in the 300-meter dash, and Singleton was fourth in the 200-meter dash.
Singleton set a then-meet record in the 600-meter run with a winning time of 1:38.33 at the 2022 Marshall Classic. This year's race will begin at 2:45 p.m., but she is not entered in Saturday's event.
Freshman
Christiana Lytle will race in the 400-meter dash at 2 p.m. Lytle placed fourth in the 300m at the Marshall Opener.
Freshman
Natalie Curry will be the lone entry in the 800-meter run, which begins at 2:55 p.m. Curry was ninth in the Marshall Opener's 1,000m.
Davis will return to race in the 200m. The starting gun will go off at 3 p.m. Davis, who finished third in 27.67 at the Marshall Opener, is the lone Eagle who is scheduled to compete in multiple events. Junior
Tayla Lee and sophomore
Keana Meriwether are also entered. Lee was fifth in 28.54 and
Meriwether sixth in 30.93 at the meet five weeks ago. Meriwether also was fourth in the 400m (1:06.08) and eighth in the 200m (30.11) last year.
Morehead State will conclude its day with the 3,000-meter run. Junior
Isabella Copher, sophomore
Megan Bush, and freshmen
Casey Skaggs and
Abby Taylor will toe the line for the Eagles. Copher placed fourth and set a 'pr' in last year's meet with a time of 10:58.16, while Bush was 10th in 11:32.89.
In her only track race of the season, Taylor was seventh in the 1,000m at the Marshall Opener. It will be the indoor collegiate debut for Skaggs.
The day will finish with the women's and men's 4x400-meter relays, but MSU will not have an entry in either race.
Live results can be found at the link: https://results.kvtfoa.net/20230114MU/.
After Saturday, the Eagles will return to compete next Friday at the Bellarmine Open in Louisville.
