MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State men's and women's cross country teams took their first trip to Alabama since 2017 and beat more than half of the field in the Southern Showcase on Friday morning at the John Hunt Cross Country Park in Huntsville, Ala.
Combined, the Eagles finished 45th out of 96 total teams, with the women scoring 627 points to take 21st and the men tallying 711 points to claim 24th. Along the way, MSU's ladies defeated Southern Mississippi (22nd), Western Kentucky (24th), Memphis (28th), Troy (29th) and Austin Peay (30th) in the 49-team field. The men also topped Troy (26th), West Georgia (28th), Alabama A&M (33rd) and Austin Peay (34th) in their 47-school race.
"Our team did really good about packing up as well. I believe the top-five spread was under a minute and that from our second to fifth (finishers) was around 25 seconds," fifth-year team member
Laikin Tarlton said of the MSU women. "One of our goals we set during preseason was to have a small spread like that, so it was great to see that coming together!"
South Alabama scored 603 points to take 20th by 24 points over the Eagles in the women's competition and Western Kentucky scored 699 to edge the MSU men by 12 and claim 23rd. Alabama won both races. The Crimson Tide's men recorded 41 points to top runner-up Belmont (107) and their women notched 52 points to beat out second-place Louisville (68). Alabama also claimed both individual champions. Doris Lemngole won the women's race in 16:03.85, with Victor Kiprop taking the men's event in 23:25.9.
A total of 479 men and 475 women toed the starting line, the largest field the Eagles had faced since the 2021 Louisville Classic.
"I'm happy with how the women attacked the start and competed. (The) men went out fast (and) battled the big field. I thought they did well," MSU head coach
Clay Dixon said. "Twenty-first and 24th out of 50 (sic) teams in the largest meet in the South this weekend is pretty good. In the back of my mind, I thought this was about what we would do here. My good goal was top 25, and my great goal would have been top 20. So, I would say it was successful."
The Eagles only had 16 finishers out of 19 entries.
"We have had quite a few (athletes) the last two weeks come down with some illness and a few of them were still working through that (today)," Dixon added.
Hurricane Francine rolled through the area this week and its impact was noticeable.
"The course was a little softer from the rain but held up well," Dixon said.
Neither the conditions, the size of the field, nor the course caused the Eagles any problems.
"The weather was perfect in my opinion. It was nice and cool, and the breeze wasn't too bad," fifth-year runner
Peyton Fairchild said. "The course suited me well, a few small hills for me to push on, and the flats were smooth and fast. The competition was fast, but I just focused on beating the pack I was in."
"The course was a pretty standard cross country course," Tarlton added. "I tried to get out relatively aggressively to help minimize having to move through too many people since it was such a large field. I didn't find it abnormally difficult to navigate. It felt pretty standard for a larger meet from that aspect."
Running the second 5K of the year, Tarlton placed 120th in 18:31.42, the top overall finish for MSU at the meet. She was just 10 seconds off her "pr" and slightly under nine seconds faster than she was at the season-opening Thundering Herd Invitational.
"I tried to get out relatively aggressively to help minimize having to move through too many people since it was such a large field," she said. "I tried to just get out and focus on holding on throughout the race. I normally struggle a lot mentally in the large-field races, so I feel like this race was a great step in the right direction. I managed to stay engaged for most of the race and really tried to push in the last mile to make up for some uphill (terrain) in the second mile."
Senior
Lucy Singleton was the next Eagle finisher, taking 167th in 18:56.95. Sophomore
Taylor Allen followed in 181st in 19:05.27. Junior
Abby Taylor was 183rd in 19:06.28, with freshman
Meredith Campbell in 204th in 19:23.13. Senior
Megan Bush was 282nd in 20:23.10, with junior
Kaylyn Holman 308th in 20:42.82 and junior
Natalie Curry in 409th in 24:21.04. Redshirt sophomore
Lydia Bauer tied for 462nd after pulling out during the race.
Only Allen did not improve on her time from the Thundering Herd Invitational two weeks ago. Bush had the biggest drop of the group by over a minute and a half.
On the men's side, Fairchild led the team for the first time in his career. He finished the 8K course in 25:50.53, placing 131st. It was his third collegiate sub-26-minute 8K.
"I'm happy for Peyton taking the lead," Dixon said.
"The race went well. I went out about 4:50 (for the first mile) and just decided to hang with that pack that was there, and I let them pull me for about 5K," Fairchild said. "The race started to pick up after that and it started feeling pretty hard, but I just hung on and managed to pass a good amount of (racers) by the end. I kept it simple and didn't focus on how big the race was but just focused on the pack I was in and winning against them."
Last week's team leader, fifth-year runner
Jacob Vogelpohl, claimed 174th and covered the course in 26:18.19. Fifth-year runner
Kyler Stewart was 186th in 26:24.03, followed by freshman
Ryan Richendollar in 223rd in 26:53.95, sophomore
Garrett West in 257th in 27:14.77, sophomore
Keghan Thompson in 293rd in 27:50.94, senior
Austin Montgomery in 303rd in 27:57.14 and freshman
Preston Glassco in 322nd in 28:21.27. Fifth-year runner Jason Bland and freshman
Carter Hurley both pulled out during the race and tied for 466th.
West was the lone Eagle to set a "pr", cutting 22.23 seconds off his previous best mark which he set last year at Marshall.
The remainder of the Morehead State teams that did not run on Friday will compete Saturday morning at Berea's Mike and Mary Kay Johnson Classic.
That group will include sophomore
Lani Baskett, freshman
Natalie Cotton, junior
Hope Harris, sophomore
Emily Spradlin, sophomore
Brady Baker, freshman
Weston Blair, sophomore
Noah Bunting, freshman
Brody Coleman, freshman
Carter Lamb, freshman
Liam Parido and sophomore
Aidan Whitsell.
The Mike and Mary Kay Johnson Classic will not be available to view on video. There also will be no live results. But they will be posted shortly after each race on DirectAthletics.com and TFRRS.com.
After two weeks off, the Eagles will return to the course for the 39th Annual Winthrop Invitational, which will take place on Saturday, Sept. 28 in Rock Hill, S.C.
