MOREHEAD, Ky. — The Morehead State men's and women's cross country teams return to the course for the Swags Louisville Cross Country Classic on Saturday at the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.
A fixture on the schedule, it will be the 19th time that the Eagles will have competed at the meet since 2005, skipping only 2024, 2020 and 2017.
The meet has had various names over the years and this is the first time Swags appears in the title. There are expected to be over 400 individuals and 30-plus teams entered in each race.
"It always feels like real cross country at Louisville," said MSU head coach
Clay Dixon. "(It's a) good atmosphere and the weather is finally cooling off. We'll see what is in store tomorrow, but the competition looks similar to the Southern Showcase."
Morehead State last ran at the Southern Showcase on September 18, when the men were 22nd and the women were 23rd.
The Swags Louisville Cross Country Classic will be MSU's lone competition held on a Saturday. The meet will be broken into several age groups, running from elementary school through college. The Eagles are entered in the Gold Division, which is an 8K race for the men at 9 a.m. and a 5K competition for the women at 9:45 p.m. Saturday will mark the second straight year both genders will race in the Gold Division, after competing in the Blue Division from 2021 to 2023.
Last year, neither Morehead State squad fared well in the team competition, with the men in 32nd and the women 30th. However, doctoral student
Aidan Massey bucked the trend by finishing 45th overall and 43rd among collegiate competitors, crossing the line in 24:41.0, which placed him 10th on MSU's all-time top performers' list. It was the best individual men's finish since Garrett Watts placed 23rd in 24:49.7 in the 2022 Blue Division race. In 2019, Jarrett Mattingly was 22nd in the gold race in 24:17.3, while Justin Moakler was seventh in that division in 2018 in 23:56.5.
This decade, the men also finished 20th (of 46) in 2023, 24th (of 45) in 2022 and 22nd (of 62) in 2021; while the women placed 12th (of 41) in 2023, 37th (of 47) in 2022 and 14th (of 55) in 2021.
Massey is back for the 2026 edition and will be joined by nine other men and 12 Eagle women.
There are seven Eagle men returning from the 2025 race. Overall, junior
Ryan Richendollar was 171st in 25:47.5, with senior
Aidan Whitsell in 241st in 26:35.9, junior
Brody Coleman in 269th in 26:54.5, junior
Liam Parido in 285th in 27:12.7, senior
Keghan Thompson in 295th in 27:26.5, senior
Brady Baker in 297th in 27:28.7 and sophomore
Lance Garner in 321st in 28:48.4. Among the women, only junior
Meredith Campbell (217th in 19:32.1), senior
Adi Fuller (224th in 19:36.8), sophomore
Peyton Lunsford (255th in 20:11.6), sophomore
Addison Hill (300th in 21:33.9) and sophomore
Josey Corbin (301st in 21:46.9) raced last year.
At the 2025 meet,
Kaylyn Holman led the Blue and Gold ladies by placing 133rd overall in 18:43.5. The women's team's best recent performance was by
Lucy Singleton, who finished 37th overall in the 2023 Blue Division race, covering the course in 18:44.3. The top recent finish in the Gold Division was by Sierra Poppell, who claimed 26th in 17:36.8 in 2018.
Saturday will be the season debut for Fuller. Last year's performance was her collegiate "pr", the same is true for Lunsford. Campbell's "pr" is 18:26.60.
Freshman
Shelby Lamb has led the Eagle women in both races this season, but Saturday will be just the team's second 5K this fall. Lamb has a "pr" of 17:39.07. Sophomore
Isabelle Shearer owns a "pr" of 18:41.27, with freshman
Emma Coakley next at 19:13.34, freshman
Parker Mentzer at 19:47.46, freshman
Audrey Adkins at 20:36.34, Corbin at 20:56.87 and Hill at 21:33.9.
Freshman
Kaitlyn Bradshaw and sophomore
Sydney Filippazzo are also entered. Neither have completed a collegiate 5K.
Freshman
Jake Hagan and Massey have each led the Blue and Gold once this season. However, this will be only the team's second 8K after the Southern Showcase two weeks ago.
Massey's "pr" is a 24:29.1. Richendollar's is 24:42.40. Parido's is 26:44.51 and Coleman's is 26:25.60.
Thompson and Whitsell are the only team members to have competed at the meet more than once. Both ran in the Blue Division race in 2023, with Thompson finishing 347th overall in 28:17.1 and Whitsell taking 408th in 30:08.0. Thompson's "pr" is 26:34.90. Whitsell's is 26:23.84.
Baker set his "pr" at last year's Louisville meet, while Garner set his at the Southern Showcase (26:42.55). Freshmen
Lucas Simpson (26:05.77) and Hagan (26:06.69) will be entered in their second 5K, after also setting collegiate "pr's" two weeks ago.
The meet can be viewed at
https://www.youtube.com/live/z5iLiZsqYXo. Live results are available at the link
Louisville Classic.
Morehead State will take two weeks off before returning for the Eagle/Knight Invitational on Friday, Oct. 16. It will be MSU's first home meet since the 2023 Ohio Valley Conference Championships. Competition will be held at the Eagle Trace Golf Club in Morehead, with Kentucky Christian serving as a co-host. The women's 6K race will begin at 9 a.m., followed by the men's 8K event at 9:50 a.m.
