EAST LANSING — Graduate student Morgan Beadlescomb’s late addition to the Bryan Clay Invitational highlights a busy weekend for the Michigan State track and field team. Beadlescomb will run in heat one of the men’s 5000m in Azusa, California, late Thursday night, while the rest of the team heads to the Louisville Invitational on April 15 and 16. 

Beadlescomb is set to compete against nine of the top 20 10,000m runners from this outdoor season. The fastest among them is Alabama’s Victor Kiprop, whose 28:15.72 time from the Stanford Invitational on April 1 places him third in the nation.

Washington’s Brian Fay and Kieran Lumb will compete against Beadlescomb. The two have run the 11th and 17th fastest outdoor 10,000m times thus far, both of which were set at the Raleigh Relays on March 24, in which MSU competed. 

Beadlescomb was one of the few Spartans who didn’t make his outdoor debut in Raleigh, though. Instead, his first race since the NCAA Indoor National Championships was at the Spartan Invite on April 1 and 2. He won the men’s 1500m, running a time of 3:42.81 that weekend.

His most recent 5000m race came at this year’s Big Ten Indoor Championships. He took third, running a time of 13:56.61. Beadlescomb will look to overtake his PR of 13:21.40, which he set at last year’s NCAA Outdoor National Championships in Eugene, Oregon. 

Beadlescomb finished eighth in that race, defeating the likes of Kiprop, BYU’s Casey Clinger and Washington’s Isaac Green, all of whom he’s matched up against on Thursday.

The Bryan Clay Invite acts as the next stop in Beadlescomb’s recent series of competitive solo races. Earlier this year, he ran the 3000m at the 144th Millrose Games, where he got the better of a handful of pro and elite collegiate runners to finish seventh. The following meet, he ran the fourth-fastest indoor collegiate mile time while competing against two of the best young pros in Cole Hocker and Cooper Teare at the Windy City Invite. 

The rest of the team will look to build off the momentum gained at the Spartan Invite. Only graduate student Quiara Wheeler, sophomore Ryan Talbot and junior Heath Baldwin have competed since then. 

Talbot and Baldwin are coming off a very successful weekend at the Jim Click Shootout. Talbot won the decathlon in his first time competing in the event, racking up a total of 7677 points. Baldwin was not far behind, finishing second with 7604 points. 

Wheeler was competing at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Florida. She captured two top-five finishes, taking second in women’s hammer throw with a best effort of 61.44m, and fourth in women’s discus with a top throw of 49.00m. 

Beadlescomb is set to race on Thursday at 11:57 p.m. ET . The hammer and javelin throw will kick off Friday’s action at the Louisville Invitational, while the rest of the events will begin at 11:55 a.m. on Saturday.