MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State track and field team will compete in its first outdoor meet of the season when the men and women travel to Bellarmine for the Jim Vargo Invitational at the Owsley B. Frazier Stadium on Friday. The first event will start at 9 a.m. The men's 110-meter hurdles begins the racing portion of the competition at 12:15 p.m.
It is the third year the Knights have hosted the meet and the second time MSU will participate. Last spring it was contested over two days in April. Like last year, it will be unscored.
The competition is named after longtime former BU coach Jim Vargo.
A total of 13 teams will have entries. Besides MSU and Bellarmine, Capital University (Ohio), the University of the Cumberlands (Ky.), Evansville, Indiana East, Lawrence Tech (Mich.), Midway, Seton Hill (Pa.), Southern Indiana, Spalding, Tiffin (Ohio) and Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.).
It will be the second time this season the Eagles will participate in a meet at Bellarmine. During the indoor campaign, the men took 14th and the women 12th in the Bellarmine Open on January 20.
As is the norm for the first outdoor meet of the season, MSU head track and field coach
Clay Dixon is concerned about the weather.
"It might be a cold day. If it turns out to be decent weather than we could see some decent times. We have a handful of people that are getting over some sickness so some people may not be to full strength," he said. "The men have looked particularly well the last few weeks since their last indoor meet. Workouts have been going well so I hope that translates to some good performances."
The men's 1,500-meter run is the first even including Eagle athletes. The first heat will begin at 12:30 p.m. The team will have 11 entries in that race. Juniors
Wes Grogan,
Kyle Embry,
Toby Cook and sophomore
Garrett Watts will be in Section 2. Junior
Jarrett Forrest will be in Section 3, along with junior
Jacob Vogelpohl, who is running unattached. Juniors Kyler Embry,
Justin Chavez,
Justin Bland will be in Section 4. Junior
Peyton Fairchild will be in Section 5, and sophomores Garrett Vance and
Alex Murray will be in Section 6. There will be a total of 94 runners in the event.
Grogan is the top returning Eagle from last year's meet where he finished eighth in 4:05.88.
The women's 1,500m will start at 1 p.m. Sophomore
Lucy Singleton will be in Section 1. Sophomore
Cloe Copas and freshman
Abby Taylor will be in Section 2. Junior
Isabella Copher and sophomore
Megan Bush will be in Section 3. Sophomore
Jennifer Ramirez will be in Section 4, freshmen
Hope Harris,
Natalie Curry,
Kaylyn Holman and
Casey Skaggs will be in Section 5. The Eagles will have 10 of the 77 entries.
The 400-meter dash follows at 2:10 p.m. Sophomore
Keana Meriwether will be the team's lone representative. She will be in the first section.
Meriwether won her heat and finished fifth overall in last year's race. She posted a time of 1:03.32.
Freshman
Natalia Davis will run in the second section of 100-meter dash at 2:40 p.m.
The men's 800-meter dash will include Cook in Section 2, Watts in Section 3, sophomores
Sam Lucas at
Micah Gray in Section 3 and sophomore
Austin Montgomery in Section 5. A total of 61 runners are entered. The starting gun will go off at 2:50 p.m. Cook was 13th last year in 1:59.17.
Lucas is the only returnee from last year's race. He was 31st in 2:09.45.
The women's competition begins at 3:10 p.m. The 49-person field includes Singleton in Section 1, junior
Riliegh Owens in Section 2, junior
Mary Alice Thornburg in Section 3 and sophomore
Christiana Lytle in Section 4.
Last year, Singleton finished in fourth with a then-personal best of 2:17.01. Lytle in 18th in a personal best time of 2:40.19.
The women's 200-meter dash begins at 4 p.m. Davis will be in Section 2 and with junior
Tayla Lee in Section 3.
Lee was 19th in last year's race in 29:41.
Embry, Forrest and Watts will all compete in the 5,000-meter run, which starts at 4:10 p.m. There is only one heat for the race. Surprisingly, the women will not have an entry.
Forrest led the Eagle pack in last year's race placing seventh in 15:25.72.
MSU will have entries in both 4x400-meter relay events. The men will start at 4:55 p.m., with the women at 5:05 p.m. The men's foursome will include
Richard Knupp, Lucas, Montgomery and Gray in Section 1. The Eagle women will run in the first section and comprise Meriwether, Singleton, Ownes and Thornburg.
Last year's 4x400m relays both finished fifth. The women were clocked in 4:21.15, with the men in3:40.04. None of the MSU athletes who competed last spring will participate in Friday's meet.
Live starts are available through the link:
http://milesplit.live/meets/521160.
Morehead State returns to action next week at the three-day Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State. The meet begins on Thursday at 4 p.m. and will continue through Saturday, culminating with the men's 4x400m relay at 6:10 p.m.
