MOREHEAD, Ky. – Morehead State head coach
Clay Dixon has announced his 2026 cross country schedule and topping the slate will be the team's first home meet in three years.
In addition, just as in three of the last four campaigns, the schedule will include six meets, beginning Friday, Sept. 4 and continuing through Friday, Nov. 13.
Five of the six will be repeats from the last two years. Four were also contested last fall.
"I think we have a pretty balanced schedule of smaller meets and large meets," Dixon said. "EKU and our home meet will be smaller in size. I think our home meet should be around six to 10 teams. The Southern Showcase and Louisville will be big 30-plus teams in our races, so that will give everyone a good experience that fits our needs."
For the second consecutive year and the fifth time since the spring of 2021, the Eagles will open their season at archrival Eastern Kentucky. This time the event will be the EKU Invitational and begin at 9 a.m. on September 4. It will be a 5K for both men and women, with the ladies running first. It will be contested on the course at Elmwood Mansion, where the event was held in both 2022 and 2021. The 2025 men's race was a 6K and the women ran a 4K in the University Club at Arlington.
Last year, MSU's men finished second with junior
Ryan Richendollar leading the way. He placed seventh. The Eagle women placed third. Senior
Adi Fuller was the team's top finisher. She was sixth. The two squads also ran at the meet in 2022 and 2021, as well as the 2021 spring campaign, which was the defacto 2020 season. In 2022, both teams finished third. In the fall of 2021, Morehead State was second in both races.
MSU will take two weeks off before running in the Southern Showcase on Friday, Sept. 18, with the gun for the initial race going off at 8:30 a.m. ET with the men the first on the line. The races will be held at the John Hunt Park cross country course. It will be the second time the Eagles will have competed at the Huntsville, Ala., meet. They also did so in 2024, when the women claimed 21st and the men 24th.
It will be the first of the 8K races for the Morehead State guys, who will compete at that distance through the conference championship meet, while the Eagle ladies will again run a 5K. Jacksonville State will serve as the host.
A familiar meet is on the slate again in 2026 as the Eagles will run in the Louisville Classic at E.P. "Tom Sawyer State Park. The event has had many names over the years but has been a staple on the MSU schedule, appearing 16 times since 2008. Last year, the women placed 30th and the men were 32nd in the Gold Division. The Eagles did not run there in 2024, but previously the men 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.
The 2026 event will be the women's final 5K race of the season. The start time for the first event will be 9 a.m. MSU will likely compete in the Gold Division, although some athletes may run in the Blue Division. Once again this year, it is the lone Saturday meet on the schedule.
Morehead State will co-host the Eagle/Knight Invite with Kentucky Christian, as the competition will entertain between six and 10 teams on Friday, Oct. 16 at the Eagle Trace Golf Club. The women will run a 6K, with the men an 8K. The last time MSU hosted a meet, it was the 2023 OVC Championships, which was also run at Eagle Trace. At that event, the women were sixth and the men were ninth. The first race is slated to begin at 9 a.m.
The OVC Championships return to Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Southeast Missouri State for the first time since 2018. Due to the departure of Little Rock and Tennessee Tech, the league now has only nine schools. It will be the smallest conference championship meet since 1998, when both genders featured just nine teams. The men also had nine squads between 1999-2002.
The races will be run at the Osage Center, on Friday, Oct. 30, with the start time at 10 a.m. ET for the women and 11 a.m. ET for the men. The women will run 6K and the men 8K. Last year, MSU's men were seventh and the women were ninth. The top Eagle performers in that race were doctoral student
Aidan Massey (fifth) and 2026 graduate
Kaylyn Holman (24th). In the 2018 meet, which was also held at SEMO, the women were fourth and the men were fifth.
The NCAA Southeast Regional returns to Spartanburg, S.C., after a two-year absence. It will be the third time in the last four years the meet will be held in the Palmetto State. The 2024 event was in Rock Hill, S.C. Last year's race was in Charlottesville, Va. The 2026 competition will be on Friday, Nov. 13 and return to the Roger Milliken Research Park with USC Upstate as the host. The women will race a 6K, while the men will run a 10K. Start time is expected to be at noon.
Last fall, the Eagle men finished 31st, with the women in 36th. In the 2023 race at Roger Milliken Research Park, the men were 28th and the women 30th.
If either MSU squad has qualifiers for the national meet, they will run on Saturday, Nov. 21 on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind.
