First and Ben

 By Ben Anderson      Sun Belt Conference Tournament seedings are on the line Friday night when Marshall men’s basketball welcomes the Appalachian State Mountaineers.      The Herd currently is on a three-game winning streak and sits fifth in the conference and one game behind starting the fourth round of the tournament. The Mountaineers are sixth and trail the Herd by one game.      Marshall enters at 18-12 (11-6), coming off an 83-66 victory against Old Dominion. Appalachian State is 17-12 (10-7) after a 61-59 loss against Georgia Southern.      The matchup marks the second time this month that the two teams will square off. Marshall won in Boone on Saturday, 69-59.      Marshall leads the all-time series against Appalachian State 35-20, with the Thundering Herd leading in Huntington 19-5.      Leading the way for the Herd is Obinna Anochilli-Killen, who ranks second in the nation in total b...

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall Track & Field aims to bring home gold for the third consecutive conference championship meet when it travels to Birmingham Alabama Monday for the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships.       Leading the way for the women’s team entering the meet is graduate senior cross country runner Kylee Mastin, who broke the women’s school 1k record with a time of 9:21.31 in the David Henry Valentine Invitational in Boston over the weekend.       Marshall cross country head coach Caleb Bowen said that taking Mastin to Boston was to bring her a challenge that she will have to face at the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships.      “The David Henry Valentine Invitational is literally the biggest and most competitive meet in indoor track,” Bowen said during an interview with First and Ben. “When we sat down right before and right after Liberty (Open) we knew that she needed some extra hel...

 By Ben Anderson      Early turnovers haunted Marshall Women’s Basketball as it fell to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 66-57.      The Chanticleers quickly jumped to 8-0 in the first two minutes following back-to-back steals.       “We could have not started the game worse,” Marshall head coach Juli Fulks said during the postgame news conference. “It was a really tough start. We didn’t have the intensity we needed so they jumped us on a couple of turnovers for layups right away.”      The Thundering Herd would find itself down by eleven at the end of the first quarter as the Chanticleers led 20-9.      Marshall jump started its offense in the second quarter, outscoring Coastal Carolina 17-14. The Herd got as close as it would to tying the Chanticleers getting within two in the second quarter off a bucket by Aislynn Hayes with 4:16 left in the half to make it 25-23.      The Chanticleer...

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall football Wednesday welcomed its first signing class under head coach Tony Gibson at national signing day.      The Thundering Herd is coming off a season where it finished 10-3 and won the Sun Belt Conference Championship. After the season ended, the Herd was forced to withdraw from its bowl game after over 30 players entered the transfer portal after former coach Charles Huff left to take the job at Southern Miss.      The Herd under coach Gibson introduced 62 new players to the team including 48 transfers and 14 high school signees.       Coach Gibson says that recruiting in the state was a big emphasis during the process.      “One of the eleven full-time coaching staff members have a tie from the state of West Virginia or Marshall University,” Marshall head football coach Tony Gibson said. “Our first time we were allowed on the road because of the dead period was a few...