MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State track and field team is starting to get healthy at the right time. As the Eagles enter the midway point in the season, coach
Clay Dixon is getting two athletes back as the squad heads to Danville, Ky., for the Centre Twilight. When the team last competed, most of the squad went to Centre College while the remainder traveled to Cincinnati.
This week the entire MSU entourage will be at the Track in Andy Frye Stadium on Friday. The meet begins at 5 p.m.
Dixon will welcome back freshman
Christiana Brittian, who last ran during the cross country season, and sophomore
Lilly Gray, who will be in her first track and field meet since last May.
"(It's) looking to be a good one. I'm looking for our top people to be up front and our younger people to work on progressing," Dixon said. "I think the weather should be nice, so times can be fast. (The) biggest concern is the 5Ks and how late the meet might go for those people."
Thirty Eagles are entered 48 times in 11 events. The meet will operate on a rolling schedule.
For the women, Brittian, sophomore
Cloe Copas, freshman
Natalie Curry, freshman
Hope Harris and junior
Riliegh Owens will compete in the 5,000-meter run. That race will be the fourth-to-last of the night.
Junior Isabella Coper, freshman Kalylyn Homan, sophomore
Lucy Singleton, sophomore
Laikin Tarlton, junior
Mary Alice Thornburg and freshman
Christiana Lytle are entered in the 1,500-meter run, which will be the seventh event on the track.
Copher, Holman, Singleton, Tarlton and Thornburg are also slated to represent MSU in the 800-meter run. It is scheduled in the middle of the meet right after Centre holds its Senior Celebration.
Gray will join freshman
Natalia Davis, sophomore
Keana Meriwether and junior
Tayla Lee to run the 200-meter dash. Davis and Lee also will compete in the 100-meter dash, while Meriwether is entered in the 400-meter dash. The 100m is the 13th race of the night, right after the 400m. The 200m is near the end. It will follow the 400-meter hurdles and come before the 5K and the 4x400-meter relay.
For the first time this season, the Eagles will have a female running in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Freshman
Abby Taylor will toe the line around 5:25 p.m., in the race that will follow the 4x800-meter relay, which will open the meet.
On the guys' side, sophomores
Justin Bland,
Alex Murray and
Ethan Vance will be the Eagles participating in the 5,000m. The starting gun will go off following the women's race as the second-to-last event of the evening.
Morehead State will have 10 representatives in both the men's 1,500m and 800m. Junior
Justin Chavez, sophomore
Toby Cook, junior
Kyle Embry, junior
Jarrett Forrest, freshman
Micah Gray, sophomore
Wes Grogan, sophomore
Sam Lucas, sophomore
Austin Montgomery, sophomore
Kyler Stewart and sophomore
Garrett Watts will each run in both events.
For the second straight meet, sophomore
Peyton Fairchild will toe the line in the steeplechase. Two weeks ago, Fairchild registered a 10:33.74 and finished ninth at the Centre Invitational.
As the season hits the backstretch, Dixon plans on pacing his athletes in preparation for the Ohio Valley Conference Championship, which will be May 11-13 at SIU-Edwardsville.
"I expect (over) the next few weeks, we will have a few people that we might scratch to keep healthy," Dixon said.
The Centre Twilight will be available to view in multiple ways. Live results can be found at the link:
http://milesplit.live/overall. Additionally, the meet will be broadcast live and can be viewed at the link:
https://centrecolonels.com/watch/?Live=415&type=Live.
MSU heads to eastern Kentucky University next Friday and Saturday for the Rick Erdmann Twilight Invitational. The first race on Friday will be at 2 p.m., with Saturday's start time at noon.
