NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Morehead State men’s and women’s cross country teams both competed at the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic at Percy Warner Park. The men placed second behind Lipscomb in a strong field of 18 with an overall time of 2:18:20.82. The women had a solid performance finishing in eighth place with an overall time of 1:43:30.62. Both teams did well despite having to deal with heavy conditions as the course was extremely wet due to large amounts of rain that have fallen in the area in the past few days.
“Both the men’s and women’s teams did a tremendous job today, considering the conditions weren’t the greatest.” said coach
Tommy Barksdale. “They knew they had a job to do, and they went out and did it, the focus of the team was great. The gap between our first and fifth runners is starting to close; if they continue to work hard our teams will continue to be successful.”
The men edged all other OVC schools and were just two minutes behind Lipscomb's 2:16:12.04. MSU was led by
James Bowens who crossed the line in eighth place with a time of 26:58.32.
Josh Wakeman and
Matt Dotson also did well as they finished in 14th place and 27th place respectively. Wakeman finished with a time of 27:12.00 and Dotson finished with a time of 27:34.96.
Michael Settles finished with a time of 27:52.22 and
Brian Knight crossed the line with a time of 28:43.32. Jeffery Covington,
Patrick Fouch, and
Jack Shrader rounded it out for the Eagles finishing with times of 29:52.91, 30:40.19, and 30:45.26 respectively.
The women were led by
Alexis King who finished in 33rd place with a time of 20:05.69.
Ruth Millard finished in a time of 20:24.12 and
Holly Mandzak crossed the line in a time of 20:47.16. Finishing with times of 21:05.86 and 21:07.79 were
Natalie Norman and Elizabeth Braunwart. Finishing it out for the Eagles was
Kate Bomar and Jamie Howard who clocked in with times of 21:44.70 and 29:08.45 respectively.
In the men’s meet the top three team finishers were Lipscomb, Morehead State, and Vanderbilt. On the women’s side the top three team finishers were Vanderbilt, Eastern Kentucky, and Murray State.
Up next for the MSU Eagle runners will be the Greater Louisville Classic on Oct. 3 in Louisville, Ky.