2010 Season Outlook The 2010 Cross Country season will build off of a 2009 campaign that featured many newcomers. However, the squad returns seven members, while adding seven additional harriers to the team that finished fifth in the Missouri Valley Championship and twelfth at the NCAA Midwest Regional. Among the group of key returners is junior Terry Phillips. Last season, as a sophomore, Phillips won the 2009 State Farm MVC Championship for cross country and will look to defend that title in 2010. In doing so, Phillips became only the third Bear after Casey Owens (2002, 2004) and Pasca Cheruiyot (2008) to ever win a conference crown. Though Phillips has already had an impressive career, the best is yet to come. Phillips will look to improve upon personal bests she set last season. Her times of 21:24.60 in the 6K at the NCAA Midwest Regional and 17:36.00 in the 5K at the Missouri State Classic rank fourth and eighth, respectively, in MSU’s all-time list. Another key for the Bears in 2010 is sophomore Emily Beaver. In her first season with Missouri State, Beaver proved to be a very reliable athlete for head coach Greg Hipp. In just her third collegiate meet, Beaver broke into the alltime top 20 in the 6K with her time of 22:19.10 at the Chili Pepper Festival. Beaver is poised to rise to the top ranks of the MVC after a breakthrough track season. On the track Beaver took fifth at the MVC outdoor track and field championship in both the 5,00-meter and 10,000-meter races. Beaver was also one of three Bears distance runners to qualify for the USA Junior National Championships. Also returning to the Bears is sophomore Ashton Stubbs. Stubbs finished among the scoring group in each race for Missouri State. She was the second Bear across the finish line at the MVC Championship. Other returners are senior MJ Vance and junior Andrea Marshall. Vance and Marshall are two of three runners on this year’s squad with three or more years under Hipp. Both will assume leadership roles while mentoring the newcomers. Maggie Sutor, whose improvements during the track season should translate well to cross country, and Nicole Thate, who redshirted last season, looks to contribute heavily after an impressive freshman track season where she just missed qualifying for the USA Junior National Championship in the 1,500-meter run. “Our young team’s improvements from the fall to the spring have us excited about our potential.” Hipp said, “While we return virtually the same personnel, everyone can expect to see a team capable of competing on a different level this fall.”
Marshall (left) and Vance (right) will provide experience to a very young cross country squad.
In addition to the returners, Hipp has brought in seven new freshmen that each have a chance to contribute immediately. Among the incoming freshmen are signees Emily Argotsinger (Lee’s Summit, Mo.), Erin Edwards (Kansas City, Mo.) and Lisa Imgrund (Shawnee, Kan.). Each one of these freshmen were considered some of the top track athletes in the Midwest. All of the girls have been named to their respective all-state teams and Argotsinger was even a high school all-American. While there is not a national ranking system for track and field recruiting, coach Hipp thinks that Missouri State’s class may be one of the best in the Missouri Valley Conference. Coach Hipp will look to regain the top spot among the Valley cross country teams in 2010. Missouri State’s fifthplace finish in 2009 is the first time in Hipp’s career that his team has placed outside of the top three and only the second time one of his teams have finished outside the top two. In 2008, the Bears finished second in the MVC Championship. With the talent on this season’s roster, Missouri State may be a force to be reckoned with. “I feel like we are in contention for a conference title,” Hipp said, “We are definitely capable of being in the top three. If this young group continues to develop quickly we may be a threat for the conference title.” The Bears will open up the season at the Southwest Baptist Invitational. Missouri State ran against SBU last season, but this year will be in an invitational setting, rather than a dual meet. The Bears will then head to Edwardsville, Ill. for the SIUE Invitational. Missouri State has never run at SIUE, but they look forward to the challenge of a new course.
Following two road tests, coach Hipp and the Bears will face stiff competition at the Greater Springfield Sports
14-Missouri State Cross Country