RICHMOND, Ky. – The Morehead State men's and women's cross country teams opened their 2025 campaign with a set of early Friday morning races at the Eastern Kentucky Invitational at the University Club at Arlington in Richmond, Ky., and the men came away with a second-place team finish.
In the three previous trips to the meet since the spring of 2021, MSU had never beaten an opponent in the two or three-team race. On Friday, it nipped Northern Kentucky by one point to claim second place overall.
Host Eastern Kentucky captured the men's team title with 15 points, with the six-member Eagle squad garnering 57 points to 58 for Northern Kentucky. The Eagles finished ahead of the No. 1, 3, 5 and 6 Norse runners to give the Blue and Gold the edge. Morehead State's total team time was 28 seconds faster than NKU's and its average was 5.6 seconds quicker.
Leading the way for the MSU men was sophomore
Ryan Richendollar, who finished seventh in 19:24 over the 6K course, which compares favorably to previous Eagles' top times at the meet. The team's last 6K came at the spring 2021 Eastern Kentucky Dual, when the leading performance was a 19:31.
The second Eagle across the line was sophomore
Preston Glassco, who finished 10th in 20:06. Sophomore
Liam Parido was 11th in 20:15, with junior
Brady Baker in 14th in 20:33, sophomore
Brody Coleman placed 15th in 20:43, with sophomore
Carter Lamb taking 17th in 21:15. Nineteen men toed the starting line.
Eastern Kentucky claimed the top six individual spots, with freshman James Ndayishimiye leading the field and crossing the line in 18:09.
The Morehead State women also had some success. Eastern Kentucky again led the way with its five runners taking the top five individual spots for a perfect score of 15. Northern Kentucky placed second with 49 points, followed by MSU with 58.
Junior transfer
Adi Fuller placed sixth overall in her first race as an Eagle, covering the 4K course in 15:49, four seconds out of fifth place. MSU last ran in a 4K meet in 2022.
Freshman
Peyton Lunsford was the second Eagle over the line, finishing eighth in 16:09. Junior
Lani Baskett claimed 13th in 16:28, with senior
Casey Skaggs placing 15th in 16:42, freshman
Josey Corbin in 16th in 16:54, junior
Emily Spradlin in 17th in 17:08, freshman
Addison Hill in 18th in 17:14, redshirt junior
Bella Almodovar in 19th in 17:23 and freshman
Sydney Filippazzo in 20 after she withdrew with an injury early in the race. There were 20 total runners in the field.
EKU sophomore Khadija Ennasri won the meet in 14:43.
Friday morning's competition featured two unique elements. It was both the earliest start time (8:25 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.) for a race and earliest start date (August 29) in known school history.
Morehead State, which held out 18 team members for various reasons, will return to action with two full teams next Friday at the EIU Walt Crawford Open in Charleston, Ill. That meet is presently scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. ET.
