MOREHEAD, Ky. — For the fourth time in the last five years, the Morehead State indoor track and field season will begin at the conclusion of fall exams with a trek to Huntington, W.Va., for the Marshall Opener. The competition will take place on Friday at the Jeff Small Track in the Chris Cline Indoor Athletics Complex, with field events starting at 5:30 p.m. and running events at 7 p.m.
MSU will send two athletes to the meet, redshirt sophomore
Micah Gray and freshman
Ginger Hayden. Gray is entered in the third heat of the 300-meter dash slated to begin shortly after 8:15 p.m. Hayden's lone event will be the long jump. It starts at 5:30 p.m.
It will be just the fourth time in 15 years the Eagles will open their indoor season in December.
However, it will be the first time Morehead State will send men to Friday's competition.
"This will be just a small opener for just a couple of our people. This is a fun way to end the semester and see where we leave off for winter break," said MSU coach
Clay Dixon.
The four-team, 22-event competition also will be the season opener for the Thundering Herd. The University of Charleston (W.Va.) and Campbellsville (Ky.) Univ. also will participate.
Last December, the Eagles placed second with 13 points, having only entered five events. Marshall won the meet with 85 points.
In 2022,
Natalia Davis finished third in the 200-meter dash in 27.67 and fourth in the 60-meter dash in 8.42. Also in the 200m,
Lucy Singleton was fourth (28.43), with
Tayla Lee fifth (28.54) and
Keana Meriwether sixth (30.93).
Laikin Tarlton led a pack of seven MSU entrants in the 1,000-meter run. She placed third in 3:19.24, with
Cloe Copas in fourth in 3:22.38,
Christiana Brittian in fifth in 3:22.41,
Kaylyn Holman in sixth in 3:29.18,
Abby Taylor in seventh in 3:34.21,
Hope Harris in eighth in 3:44.09 and
Natalie Curry in ninth in 4:18.92.
The other two MSU athletes,
Christiana Lytle in the 300-meter dash and
Riliegh Owens in the 600-meter run, both placed fourth. Lytle was clocked in 49.04 and Owens in 1:51.81.
In its other two performances at the Marshall Opener, Morehead State was second in 2021 and third in 2019.
In their previous appearances at the meet, the Eagles' best finish was second. In 2021,
Sierra Kelley was the runner-up in the 300m in 42.61, with Singleton matching the feat in the 400-meter dash in 1:02.43; while in 2019, Owens, Emma Gundler,
Dallas Jones and Lee did the same in the 4x400-meter relay by finishing in 4:31.16.
Friday's live results can be found at the link:
https://results.kvtfoa.net/20231208/.
Morehead State will return to Marshall for two additional meets this season, the Marshall Alumni Classic on Saturday, Jan. 13, and the two-day Marshall Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9-10. The Classic is the next competition on the team's schedule.
