MOREHEAD, Ky. — On Friday, Morehead State will send six runners to Nashville for a two-day indoor track & field meet, the Vanderbilt Invitational. It will be the Eagles' first-ever trip to the competition, which will be held at the David Williams II Recreation & Wellness Center at Vanderbilt University.
It is a major event with multiple high-profile opponents, giving the Eagle competitors a chance to challenge themselves against an elite field.
In addition to MSU and host Vanderbilt, the 38-team meet will include Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Arkansas State, Austin Peay, Belmont, Campbellsville (Ky.), Centre (Ky.), Cleveland (Tenn.) High School, Cumberland (Tenn.), Cumberlands (Ky.), Furman, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, Kentucky, Lee (Tenn.), Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.), Lipscomb, Marshall, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi State, Murray State, the New York Athletic Club, Oakland (Mich.), Mississippi, the Refuge Training Center, Rhodes (Tenn.), SCAD Atlanta (Ga.), SCAD Savannah (Ga.), Southern Mississippi, Tennessee, the Tennessee Running Club, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin, Tulane, Tusculum (Tenn.) and Louisiana-Monroe.
The event comes on the heels of MSU's strong performance at the Marshall Alumni Classic this past Saturday, when the two teams combined to notch 13 top-eight finishes and 27 seasons' bests.
"(We're) looking to run fast and see what we can get done early in the indoor season," coach
Clay Dixon said. "This is a highly-competitive meet, so the competition will be there; it's a matter of how we handle it."
The meet begins at 10:20 a.m. ET Friday with the pentathlon. Other field events will start at noon ET, with the track races slated for 6:30 p.m. ET.
Morehead State will have four athletes in action on Friday, all in the 5,000-meter run, which is slated to be held at 6:30 p.m. ET (women) and 7:30 p.m. ET (men), respectively.
Junior
Abby Taylor, sophomore
Taylor Allen and freshman
Meredith Campbell will toe the line in the first race. Redshirt senior
Jacob Vogelpohl will suit up for the second race.
Action resumes on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. ET with the final three events of the heptathlon. The remaining field events get started at 11 a.m. ET, with the track races beginning at 12:45 p.m. ET.
The Eagles will compete in one event on Saturday, the mile. Senior
Lucy Singleton and redshirt senior
Wes Grogan will be the Eagle entries. The women's race is slated for 2:35 p.m. ET, with the men hitting the track at 3:10 p.m. ET.
It will be the second meet of the season for Allen, Campbell, Grogan, Taylor and Vogelpohl; and the first for Singleton.
Only Grogan, who was 10th last Saturday in 4:25.75, will run an event for a second time this winter. The other four all competed in the 3,000-meter run at the Marshall Alumni Classic.
Both days will be broadcast on SEC Network+. Friday's action will be available at the link:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/e6c8d3b7-44f9-4f54-9b8d-5826f3957ede?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults, while Saturday's competition can be found at the link:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/2ea540be-f118-4b24-bc6e-638f6d8a1b58?om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults.
Live results are also available at the link:
https://live.pttiming.com/?mid=7611.
MSU will participate for the third straight weekend when the entire team travels to the
PNC Bank Bellarmine Classic in Louisville on Friday, Jan. 24.
