MOREHEAD, Ky. – Coming off its impressive season debut two weeks ago, the Morehead State men's and women's cross country teams will travel east on I64 to run at the Thundering Herd Invitational on Friday. The six-team event will be Marshall's first home competition since 1989 and be held on the university's course at the Kennedy Center YMCA Complex in Huntington, W.Va.
Coach
Clay Dixon's men won and the women placed second at the Queen City Invitational on Sept. 1.
In a unique twist, the men's 8K race will be held first at 5:30 p.m., with the women's 5K to follow at 6:15 p.m. At the Queen City Invitational, the Eagle men ran a 5K.
"This will be the men's first 8K of the season and the freshmen's first 8K ever, so it will be interesting to see how some of them adjust to the longer race," Dixon said.
Morehead State will be the lone competitor from outside the Mountain State. Besides the host Thundering Herd, the remainder of the field is all Division II schools. That group includes Davis & Elkins, Fairmont State, Glenville State and West Virginia Tech.
Even though MSU regularly races track meets at Marshall, with Friday's races being the host's first cross country contest in Huntington in over 30 years, the course will be unfamiliar to the Eagle contingent.
"(It's) looking to be a nice evening for races. (The) field should have a good mix of competition," Dixon noted. "The course is new, but from what I can tell, it is over soccer fields and looks like it should be flat."
Dixon plans to enter 19 men and 15 women, however redshirt sophomore
Bella Almodovar's status will be evaluated on race day. If she runs, the number of MSU women moves to 16.
One individual who will not compete is
Wes Grogan. The senior was Morehead State's top finisher and placed second overall at the Queen City Invitational. However, it will be the first race of the season for two of MSU's top performers from last fall: seniors
Kyle Embry and
Jacob Vogelpohl.
Taylor Allen was somewhat the surprise leader of the MSU women at the Queen City meet. It marked the first time an Eagle freshman paced the squad in her first collegiate event since 2015.
Allen finished second overall two weeks ago after covering the course in 19:28.17.
The Eagles had four individuals place in the top 10 at that meet. Senior
Laikin Tarlton (19:38.74) was fourth, with sophomore
Abby Taylor (19:44.06) in sixth and junior
Lucy Singleton (19:48.25) in seventh.
Junior
Cloe Copas (14th in 20:44.83), senior
Isabella Copher (15th in 20:45.14), junior
Lilly Gray (16th in 21:04.70), sophomore
Christiana Brittian (19th in 21:15.42), junior
Megan Bush (21st in 21:28.05), sophomore
Casey Skaggs (25th in 22:07.67), junior
Jennifer Ramirez (27th in 22:47.02), sophomore
Kaylyn Holman (32nd in 23.42.12), freshman
Emily Spradlin (35th in 24:15.28) and sophomore
Natalie Curry (36th in 24:52.45) will all look to better their performances from the first meet.
Sophomore
Hope Harris also will run on Friday. She withdrew during the race two weeks ago.
Rounding out the Eagle men will be seniors
Justin Bland,
Justin Chavez,
Toby Cook,
Peyton Fairchild,
Jarrett Forrest,
Alex Murray and
Kyler Stewart; juniors
Sam Lucas,
Austin Montgomery and
Ethan Vance; and freshmen
Brady Baker,
Noah Bunting,
Asher Jack,
Armando Montes,
Keghan Thompson,
Garrett West and
Aidan Whitsell.
Live results for the meet can be found at the link: https://results.kvtfoa.net/20230915/
MSU will make its annual trek to Louisville and E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park for the Live in Lou Classic for its next meet. That event will be held on Saturday, Sept. 30, with the starting gun for the first race scheduled to go off at 9 a.m.
