MOREHEAD, Ky. – On Friday, sophomore
Abby Taylor moved up four spots from last year's eighth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships to highlight Morehead State's Day 2 action of the 2024 competition at Eastern Illinois' O'Brien Field in Charleston, Ill.
Taylor covered the course in 11:28.10 to take fourth and get the Eagles on the scoreboard at the meet by tallying the first points for either MSU team. It was a drop of more than 33 seconds over her time of 12:01.32 from last year.
"Abby ran a good race. Her water barriers needed to be more efficient, but she is definitely one of the best steeplers in our conference," MSU head coach
Clay Dixon said.
Taylor started out with the lead pack and held her spot there until crossing the line.
"Heading into OVC(s), I knew I had a chance at a top-five placement and on a good day even a top-three position," she said. "Prior to the race, I was feeling pretty nervous, but I started my warmup and got to listen to some worship music and talk to the Lord about my upcoming race.
"And as the race started, I got out with the front pack of five runners. And for the first several laps (I) stayed with that pack," she continued. "It was clear my water jumps were not as efficient as the top three girls, and this led to me losing some ground on the lead pack. I kept the gap as close as I could to third place and ultimately finished in fourth, giving it all I had for the day."
Top-ranked Aylana Cezar, a sophomore from Western Illinois, won the race in 11:01.25.
Senior
Peyton Fairchild cut 5.57 seconds off his "pr", but finished ninth in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:35.99, while fifth-year runner and teammate Jarrett Forest was 13th in 9:54.09. It was a decrease in placing for the pair, who were sixth and fifth, respectively, at last spring's championships, although running against a field one-third smaller.
Western Illinois senior Logan Lommel won in 8:59.73. UT Martin sophomore Brady Millikin was eighth in 9:28.51, more than seven seconds ahead of Fairchild.
"That group went out fast! They went for it. Peyton was in a position with about 600 (meters) to go but that group was sitting on him," Dixon said. "Last year (his placing) would have been fourth and this year that time was ninth. (The) same with Jarrett, he would have been eighth last year (with that time). They both went for it, so I'm proud of that."
Hard luck senior
Toby Cook missed qualifying for the 800-meter run finals by 34-hundredths of a second.
That's a COMBINED TOTAL from the 2022, 2023 and 2024 OVC Championships!
On Friday, he crossed the line in 1:53.65 for ninth place.
It was the third straight year he finished one spot out of a bid to the finals. This time he was short of qualifying by 24-hundredths of a second. It comes after having missed the 2023 finals by two-hundredths of a second and the 2022 championship race by eight-hundredths of a second, placing ninth in each race.
Southeast Missouri senior Terrico Garrett won the prelims in 1:50.04. Tennessee State sophomore Robert Hooper was eighth in 1:53.41. Cook and Hooper ran in the same heat, with Hooper taking third and Cook fourth. Despite finishing short of the finals, Cook did run a 'pr".
"Toby ran a great race. All (of MSU's runners in the) 800s did," said Dixon. "Toby ran a one-second personal best. (It is) tough to miss finals again, but at least he did his best and left it all out there."
Both of Morehead State's other entrants in the field, freshmen
Armando Montes and
Garrett West, dropped significant time off their previous "pr's". Montes was fifth in his heat and 13th overall in 1:55.13. His previous top time was 1:56.46. West was sixth in his heat and 17th overall with a time of 1:57.70. Entering the meet, his "pr" was 1:59.22.
Cook sliced 1.13 seconds off his "pr". He entered the meet ranked 15th, while Montes was 21st and West was 29th.
Sophomore
Kaylyn Holman set a new "pr" in the women's 800m, one day after placing 17th in the 1,500-meter run. She finished 14th in 2:24.95, a drop of 2.10 seconds off her previous best. In her final race, redshirt junior
Jennifer Ramirez was 18th in 2:33.41, slicing 32-hundredths of a second off her "pr".
All five Eagle 800m runners notched personal bests.
"Our middle-distance training is peaking very well. It's unheard of to have that many people running their best at one meet," Dixon said.
Redshirt junior
Micah Gray was 19th in the 400-meter dash in 52.50, with freshmen
Derril Carr and
Cade Sullivan taking 20th (11.30) and 21st (11.43), respectively, in the 100-meter dash. All three narrowly missed setting new personal bests.
Southeast Missouri has overtaken Day 1 leader Western Illinois in the women's team standings. The Redhawks have 71 points. Little Rock has moved into third with 58.5 points, followed by WIU (52), Eastern Illinois (43), Lindenwood (20), Tennessee Tech (18.5), SIUE (16), Tennessee State and Southern Indiana (12), Morehead State (5) and UT Martin (4).
Host Eastern Illinois remains atop the leaderboard on the men's side with 82.5 points. Much of the rest of the standings remain unchanged with Southeast Missouri second (66.5), Little Rock third (64), Western Illinois fourth (34), Tennessee State fifth (26), SIUE and UT Martin tied for sixth (15), Lindenwood eighth (7) and Southern Indiana ninth (2). Morehead State has yet to score.
Saturday's action features all finals, so points are on the line in every event. It is the final day of competition with the first three events starting at noon: the women's shot put, the women's triple jump and the men's javelin.
The Eagles' big event of the day is the women's 1,500m, where junior
Lucy Singleton enters with the fastest time from Thursday's prelims at 4:41.53. A total of 12 racers will be in the competition, which starts at 1:40 p.m. ET.
The men's event is at 1:50 p.m. ET and will also feature an Eagle finalist in senior
Kyle Embry, who qualified in 11th to the 12-person race with a time of 4:01.86. He entered Thursday's prelims with the 30th-ranked time and posted a 78-hundredths-of-a-second personal best, so he is already ahead of where he started. It will be Embry's first finals in the event, after sitting out last year's meet with an injury and placing 13th (4:03.24) in 2022 and 14th (4:02.72) in 2021 in his two previous attempts. Little Rock senior Andrew Payton had the top time in the prelims at 3:57.86.
Next up is the 5,000-meter run. The women's competition will begin at 4 p.m. ET, with the men at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Freshman
Taylor Allen, redshirt sophomore
Megan Bush, Singleton and senior
Laikin Tarlton are all entered in the women's race. Allen's top time is the fastest at 18:26.01 and is 25th in the OVC. Bush is next at 18:52.80 (32nd in the OVC), with Tarlton at 19:08.35 (35th in the OVC). However, Tarlton broke 18 minutes (17:59.50) at last year's conference championship to take seventh. She competed in the 10,000-meter run on Thursday and was 14th in 39:33.38.
Tarlton and Bush have competed in the 5,000m at previous OVC meets. In addition to placing seventh last spring, two years ago Tarlton was 17th in 19:07.15, and in 2021, she was 26th in 19:08.19. Injured during the 2023 spring campaign, Bush has never run the distance at the OVC Outdoor Championships, but she did run it at the 2022 indoor meet, where she finished 20th in 19:14.93.
Singleton has never run a competitive collegiate 5,000m on the track. However, that distance is used in several cross country races and she has excelled in those.
Senior
Kyler Stewart, Fairchild, redshirt junior
Jacob Vogelpohl and Embry will toe the line for the men's race. None of them have marks that rank inside the top 30 this season, but all have the capability to run faster than their top performances this year. Stewart's time of 15:18.25 is 30th in the OVC, Fairchild's 15:24.04 is 33rd, Vogelpohl's 15:24.18 is 34th, with Embry's 15:35.99 sitting 41st. Both Vogelpohl (15:06.33) and Embry (15:07.96) have posted much faster times in their careers.
Last year,
Garrett Watts was the team's top finisher in the event, placing 10th in 15:12.51. Stewart recorded a 15:37.58 to claim 14th.
It will be the third 5,000m for Embry at the outdoor OVCs. In 2002, he was ninth in 15:09.63 and in 2021 he was 12th in 15:04.03. He missed the end of last season with an injury.
For the fourth straight year, coach Dixon will be sending a men's 4x400-meter relay team to the meet. It will run at 5:05 p.m. ET. However, just like in 2023, there will be no MSU women's representative.
Two weeks ago, the foursome of Gray, Montes, Carr and Cook posted Morehead State's fastest 4x400m relay time since the 2019 OVC Outdoor Championships; and in so doing, grabbed what is believed to be the first relay title during coach Dixon's five years at the helm of the program. Their mark of 3:26.16 in that race is the eighth best in the league this year. Sullivan and West will serve as alternates.
Last spring, the Eagle foursome of Gray, senior
Wes Grogan, junior
Sam Lucas and Cook was ninth in 3:31.34. The year prior, MSU placed seventh in 3:33.80 and three years ago it was eighth in 3:30.77.
After the women's 4x400m relay is completed, the OVC will host a graduation recognition at approximately 5:15 p.m. ET, followed by the awards ceremony at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Saturday's finals will be broadcast on ESPN+, which can be viewed at:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/13e2b078-b607-46d6-a9d4-df4bb25eb30a#bucketId=1. Fans also can follow the live results at:
http://www.cfpitiming.com/2024_Outdoor_Season/OVC_OTF_2024/OVC_OTF_2024.html.
