MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State men's and women's cross country teams' scheduled Saturday competition, the 39th Annual Winthrop Invitational, has been canceled due to concerns about the effects of Hurricane Helene, Winthrop's coach Ben Paxton announced on Thursday evening. Sixteen teams were scheduled to compete.
"After inspecting the course and consulting with meteorologists, the flooding and subsequent wind damage has rendered the course unusable," Paxton said in an emailed statement. "According to (the meteorologists), it's a 1-in-100-year occurrence."
Winthrop is located in Rock Hill, S.C., approximately 25 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., and 70 miles north of Columbia, S.C. The storm is expected to make landfall in the panhandle of Florida and then head north through Georgia and into South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.
It is the second time in the last four years that Morehead State did not participate in a meet due to weather. The Eagles bypassed the PNC Bank Bellarmine Classic indoor track and field competition on February 4, 2022, because of snow. Other than that, the last time a cancelation impacted the schedule was in the fall of 2020 due to Covid-19.
Saturday's event was scheduled to be MSU's fourth competition of the year and the third for each of its 24 entrants. Two weeks ago, half of the team ran at the Southern Showcase in Huntsville, Ala., while the others ran at the Mike and Mary Kay Johnson Classic at Berea, Ky.
According to MSU head coach
Clay Dixon, the Eagle teams will take the weekend off from competition.
"(We are) working on finding a replacement meet," he said. "We won't be racing this weekend."
Originally, 12 Eagle men and 12 Eagle women were expected to make the trip, including sophomore
Taylor Allen, redshirt sophomore
Lydia Bauer, senior
Megan Bush, freshman
Meredith Campbell, junior
Natalie Curry, junior
Kaylyn Holman, senior
Lucy Singleton, fifth-year runner
Laikin Tarlton, junior
Abby Taylor, freshman
Natalie Cotton, sophomore
Emily Spradlin, sophomore
Lani Baskett, fifth-year runner
Justin Bland, fifth-year runner
Peyton Fairchild, freshman
Preston Glassco, freshman
Carter Hurley, senior
Austin Montgomery, freshman
Ryan Richendollar, fifth-year runner
Kyler Stewart, sophomore
Keghan Thompson, fifth-year runner
Jacob Vogelpohl, sophomore
Garrett West, freshman
Weston Blair and freshman
Brody Coleman.
Dixon had some goals for the team this week's meet. Now he will have to reshuffle the schedule as it prepares for the home stretch and the postseason.
"They had a pretty tough week last week of training. I'd like to see what the course looks like to see if there (are) any surprises we need to prep for during our October training," he said. "I'd like to see our women have another top-half finish in the field, same for our men. I'm also looking forward to seeing some of the freshmen race on the same course and for some of the freshmen ladies to take on the 6K."
Although the event is canceled for this weekend, the Winthrop coaching staff is considering hosting the meet on Friday, Oct. 18 as the NCAA Preview, since the teams will reconvene at the Winthrop course at the end of the year for the Southeast Regional on Friday, Nov. 15.
"We last ran here in 2018 when they last hosted regionals," Dixon said. "It is the same course as this year's regionals. It has had some changes from the 2018 course. It runs on (a) soccer and lacrosse field, then on to the disc golf course. The flattest portion will be the soccer/lacrosse field, but the disc golf section has some slight incline but nothing major."
Unless Dixon adds a meet next weekend, the clubs will have been off for a month since their last races. The next scheduled competition is the Golden Eagle Invitational at Tennessee Tech on Friday, Oct. 18.
