Two words was all that coach Clay Dixon needed to summarize the Morehead State cross country teams' day at Saturday's Live in Lou Classic at the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville.
"Mixed results," he said.
Most of the Eagles competed in the Blue Division races, where the men finished 24th out of 45 teams, while the women were 37th of 47.
But the performances by a trio of individuals was where the team stood out. Sophomore Garrett Watts and junior Kyle Embry crossed the line back-to-back in the 8K men's in 23rd (24:49.7) and 24th (24:50.3), respectively, while sophomore Lucy Singleton was 65th in 18:51.5 in the 5K women's race. Last year, she was 53rd in 19:18.8. In 2021, Embry covered the course in 26:20.9 to place 103rd.
Only three Ohio Valley Conference runners finished ahead of the MSU male pair. It was the first time Watts was the team's top performer since he was sixth at the 2021 eastern Kentucky Dual. Embry led the Blue and Gold in both previous Morehead State races. In contrast, Singleton is 3-for-3 pacing the Eagles in this season's women's meets.
"Kyle and Garrett avoided the traffic and did very well. Both "'pr'd," Dixon said. "Lucy had a solid race. (She) ran under 19 minutes for the first time ever."
Sophomore Jacob Vogelpohl was third among the Eagle men placing 159th in 26:08.3, followed by sophomore Kyler Stewart in 166th in 26:10.9, graduate student Josh Grogan in 241st in 26:44.4, sophomore Justin Bland in 253rd in 26:51.6, sophomore Peyton Fairchild in 254th in 26:51.8, junior Jarrett Forrest in 285th in 27:11.5, sophomore Toby Cook in 324th in 27:40.5, sophomore Ethan Vance in 336th in 27:57.3, junior Justin Chavez in 347th in 28:10.1, freshman Gavin Brock in 363rd in 28:36.2, sophomore Austin Montgomery in 372nd in 28:51.1, freshman Liam Dale in 382nd in 29:18.5 and sophomore Micah Gray, who did not finish.
Cumberland (Tenn.)'s Jason Bowers won the race by a wide margin. Bowers covered the course in 23:51.7, with UTM's Will Cahill second in 24:17.4.
Sophomore Laikin Tarlton was the second MSU woman to cross the line, claiming 201st in 19:59.5. Sophomore Isabella Copher was 209th in 20:03.7, with freshman Abby Taylor 218th in 20:07.9, freshman Christiana Brittian 238th in 20:16.0, freshman Kaylyn Holman 254th in 20:22.1, sophomore Cloe Copas 274th in 20:31.8, junior Riliegh Owens 290th in 20:38.0, sophomore Hannah Hostetler 313th in 20:50.9, freshman Casey Skaggs 317th in 20:51.9, sophomore Megan Bush 328th in 21:01.0, freshman Jennifer Ramirez 329th in 21:04.2, freshman Hope Harris 405th in 23:02.8 and freshman Natalie Curry 415th in 24:41.6. All of MSU's female entries ran in the Blue Division.
Huntington's Addy Wiley was the winner by eight and a half seconds over Taylor's Noel VanderWall. Wiley recorded a time of 17:26.1.
There were 426 runners in the men's Blue race and 422 in the women's Blue competition, and that was the problem as Dixon saw it.
"Jacob and Kyler 'pr'd' and were (the Nos.) three and four guys, but they were stuck in the traffic of the 400-plus person race. Overall, we had eight of 17 guys 'pr'. I think they all looked good. They just were stuck behind so many people it made it hard to pass," Dixon said. "All the other girls were just stuck too far back and couldn't make up the ground with all that traffic."
Two Eagle men competed in the 419-entry Silver Division race. Sophomores Sam Lucas and Alex Murray were 285th (29:24.4) and 286th (29:25.1), respectively.
Lawrence Tech's Conner Uppleger won the event in 24:59.2, besting runner-up Noah Scott of the Running Club at IU by 6.6 seconds.
"It was great weather. (There were) just so many people. Last year we went out hard and some people paid for it. This year we went for a more conservative approach and we made up ground on the men's side but ran out of real estate," Dixon added. "The men's team was in 32nd place at 2K and finished the 8K in 24th place. Some people passed anywhere from 50 to 100 runners. Jacob passed over 100 and probably could have done more if the race was longer."
Division II power Grand Valley State, whose men won the last meet MSU entered, the Spartan Invitational, captured the Blue Division title. The Lakers tallied 190 points to edge UT-Martin (196). North Alabama was third with 207 points, followed by Tennessee Tech (263), Purdue Fort Wayne (276), Grace (277), Xavier (Ohio) (324), Kennesaw State (342), Catawba (355) and Montreat (363) to round out the top 10. Among the rest of the Division I teams in the field, Marshall was 12th with 407 points, Samford was 19th with 508 points, Chattanooga was 20th with 557 points, Northern Kentucky tied for 22nd with 572 points, Western Carolina was 28th with 700 points, Southern Indiana was 38th with 1,043 points and Western Kentucky was 39th with 1,059 points. Morehead State tallied 587 points.
On the women's side, Taylor claimed the Blue Division crown. The NAIA school out of Indiana collected 67 points. Xavier (Ohio) was second with 111 points, followed by Grand Valley State (121), Mississippi State (179), Tampa (221), St. Francis (Ill.) (262), Catawba (345), Tennessee Tech (362), Ball State (419) and Cornerstone (427) among the top 10. Rounding out the Division I entries, Purdue Fort Wayne was 14th with 543 points, Mercer was 16th with 554 points, Northern Kentucky was 17th with 556 points, UT-Martin was 22nd with 613 points, South Carolina was 23rd with 622 points, Western Kentucky was 28th with 735 points, Wright State was 29th with 738 points, Northern Illinois was 35th with 876 points, Longwood was 39th with 933 points, UNC Asheville was 43rd with 1,118 points and Southern Indiana was 47th with 1,319 points. The Eagles accumulated 883 points.
Morehead State will return to action in two weeks on Friday, Oct. 14 at Bowling Green's Falcon Invitational in Bowling Green, Ohio.
By Brad Laux, MSU Athletic Media Relations