MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State track and field team has had great success over the last two years at the Eastern Kentucky Invitational and looks to make it 3-for-3 as the squad will begin its outdoor campaign at its rival for the third consecutive season. Competition will start at 1 p.m. at the Tom Samuels Track on Friday. Thirteen teams are scheduled to participate.
In 2024, weather was an issue. Last spring, it was not. Coach
Clay Dixon hopes that trend continues.
"The weather is looking decent, so we are hoping to capitalize on it and have some good opening marks," he said. "The team has had a few good weeks of training and are looking fresh after a strong indoor season."
It was a strong indoor season, in fact historically strong. The men's and women's squads put together a number of top-10 school performances and had 14 athletes score 31 points across 10 events at the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships just over three weeks ago. It was the highest combined point total for the Blue and Gold in 18 years.
Last spring at the EKU meet, MSU had top-10 finishes in nine of its 12 events. Two years ago, the teams set nine outdoor season ''pr's", earned 13 podium finishes, collected five more top-10 finishes and won a heat.
In both 2024 and 2025 the meet was scored. It is unclear if it will be on Friday. The men were fourth in each of the last two years, while the women were fifth.
Twenty-four men and 17 women are entered 59 times in 17 events. Several Eagles will be making their first appearance of the year, including junior
Erin Pease and redshirt junior
Christiana Brittian, while junior
Cade Sullivan has been out since mid-January.
Competition will be held on a rolling schedule, with action on the field getting started at 1 p.m. Morehead State will have its first javelin thrower in seven years when
Erin Pease makes her MSU debut. It will follow the completion of the men's shot put, which will start at 1 p.m.
The school record in the javelin is 156'06.25", held by Keri Camarigg who set it in 1977. However, the women's javelin was redesigned in 1999 and no longer travels as far as it did when Camarigg was throwing. Limited information is available, but the longest post-1999 throw is believed to be 125'08" by Debbie Criss in 2002.
The women's long jump will be the team's next event. It will begin sometime after the men finish. The men's event begins at 3 p.m. Three Eagles will be in action. Freshman Kaylnn Pease holds the school record of 19'04". Junior
Ginger Hayden was seventh at the meet last spring with a mark of 4.91m/16'01.50". Her "pr" is 17'11.75". Sophomore
Brooklyn Boyce did not jump in 2025 and has a career long of 17'01.25".
After the women's long jump concludes, the men triple jump begins. The ladies' event will be the last of the group, probably after 6 p.m. Hayden is MSU's lone entrant. She did not compete in the event last year but holds the school record of 36'05.00".
Events on the track begin at 3:15 p.m. with the men's steeplechase. However, the Eagles' first competition will be the 4x100-meter relay. The group will include junior
Derril Carr, freshmen
Luke Kelly and
Kyle Stepteau and sophomore
Mark Whitener. They have not run together in the event and MSU did not compete in it last year at EKU.
The women's 4x100m relay foursome of freshman
Kennedi Alford, sophomore
Maryah Counts, sophomore
Olivia Miles and
Kalynn Pease will also make their debut. Like with the men's relay, Morehead State did not run at EKU in 2025.
A host of Eagles will toe the line at 3:45 p.m. for the men's 1,500-meter run. The group will include freshman
Josh Arnett, sophomore
Weston Blair, sophomore
Brody Coleman, freshman
Lance Garner, sophomore A.J. Hawkins, graduate student Aiden Massey, freshman
Jesus Mendoza-Solis, sophomore
Ryan Richendollar, junior
Keghan Thompson and junior Aiden Whitsell. None of MSU's entrants competed in the event last spring.
Arnett, Blair, Coleman, Garner, Hawkins, Massey, Mendoza-Solis, Richendollar and Whitsell will be running the event for the first time as Eagles. Thompson's "pr" is 4:19.63, which he set at the 2024 EKU Springtime Invitational.
The women's event will begin at 4 p.m. Seniors
Kaylyn Holman,
Casey Skaggs and
Abby Taylor; and freshman
Addison Hill will represent the Blue and Gold. Again, none of the four raced in the event at last year's meet. Holman's "pr" is 4:39.42, Skaggs' "pr" is 5:50.75 and Taylor's "pr" is 5:20.29. It will be Hill's first collegiate 1,500m.
At 4:20 p.m., the men's 400-meter dash will begin. Freshmen
Jayce Stewart and
Kyler Witt are both entered. Stewart's "pr" is 52.15, while Witt's "pr" is 50.51.
The women's race follows at 4:30 p.m., Counts and Miles will both toe the starting line. Neither ran the distance at the 2025 meet. Counts' "pr" is 57.46. Miles' "pr" is 59.78.
Seven Morehead State men will run the 100-meter dash, which will begin at 5 p.m. They include freshmen
Sam Afari,
Luke Kelly and
Kyle Stepteau; sophomores
Tate Glass and
Mark Whitener; and juniors Carr and Sullivan.
In last year's race, Whitener ran MSU's fastest 100m in 16 years, when he crossed the line in 11.00 to place fifth. He since has dropped his "pr" to 10.88. He was the only one of the group to compete at that meet. Glass' "pr" is 11.41, Sullivan's "pr" is 11.06 and Carr's "pr" is 11.27.
The women's competition will begin at 5:15. Alford, Boyce and
Kalynn Pease are entered for MSU. None of the three ran at last year's meet and none have run the distance collegiately.
Freshman
Lauren Jones will return from a long layoff to participate in the 800-meter run at 5:45 p.m. She competed at the Marshall Opener in December and did not run the rest of the indoor campaign. Her top time is 2:34.77.
Nine Eagles will run in the men's 200-meter dash at 6:40 p.m. Carr is the only returner from last year's meet entered on Friday. In 2025, he finished seventh in 23.79. His "pr" is 22.75. Afari, Glass, Kelly, Stepteau, Stewart, Sullivan, Whitener and Witt are also entered. Afari's "pr" is 21.69, Glass' "pr" is 22.90, Kelly's "pr" is 22.88, Stepteau's "pr" is 21.29, Sullivan's "pr" is 22.66, Whitener's "pr" is 22.58 and Witt's "pr" is 23.23. Stewart has never run the distance collegiately.
The women's race will start at 6:50 p.m. and include Alford, Counts and Miles. Only Miles ran in last year's race, where she finished 13th in 27.46. Her "pr" is 26.68. Alford's "pr" is 24.79. Counts' "pr" is 26.36.
The 3,000-meter run will begin at 7 p.m. and include Arnett, junior
Brady Baker, sophomore
Preston Glassco, sophomore
Carter Lamb, sophomore
Liam Parido and junior
Garrett West.
Parido is the top returning runner from last year's event, when he placed seventh in 9:12.05. His "pr" is 9:09.81. Arnett, Baker, Glassco, Lamb and West have never run the distance collegiately.
Arnett is entered in both the 1,500m and 3,000m, but is expected to only run one of them.
The women's version will begin at 7:20 p.m. Junior
Lani Baskett, Brittian, sophomore
Meredith Campbell, freshman
Sydney Filippazzo and junior
Adi Fuller are entered for MSU. Campbell and Brittian ran at last year's meet and finished second (10:34.57) and fourth (10:56.39), respectively. Baskett's "pr" is 11:36.74. Brittian's "pr" is 10:56.39. Campbell's "pr" is 10:09.23 and Fuller's "pr" is 11:11.50. Filippazzo has not run the distance at MSU.
The final event will be the 4x400-meter relay. The Eagles are only entered in the men's race at 7:40 p.m. The lineup has not been confirmed but will include some combination of Afari, Carr, Glass, Stewart, Sullivan and Witt.
The men had two 4x400m relay entries last spring. However, only one finished. The combination of Baker,
Carter Hurley, Parido and Blair was third in 3:41.81. Two years ago, MSU's combination of West, Micah Gray, Carr and Sam Lucas was third in 3:40.06.
Morehead State will split squads and head to two meets next weekend, the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State from Thursday through Saturday and the Jim Vargo Invitational at Bellarmine on Saturday.
