Week 4 Preview: Stampeding Up the Manmaker

2017 Missouri XC Week Previews/Reviews
Kyle Deeken


9/16 Missouri Southern Stampede Joplin, MO

Often heralded as one of the biggest and most popular meets on the western side of the state, the MoSo Stampede is a huge meet this week for a few reasons. For starters, it's held on the nationally renowned Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course which hosts the NCAA Division II National Championship regularly. Second, it's flat as a pancake. The only real thing that tends to slow down competitors is the switchbacks and, sometimes, questionable footing. Otherwise, the Stampede tends to produce the fastest times of the entire season year in and year out. In 2010, Caleb Hoover from College Heights Christian shocked everyone with a 15:00.6. Hannah Long ran 16:51 in 2014. Last year, Callie Logue of Kansas threw down an eye-popping 17:18 and West Plains' Jacob McCrackin put down a 15:16, making him the fastest returner in 2017. Third, with so many college teams in attendance, especially in years in which MoSo hosts the National meet, athletes have a great opportunity to showcase in front of many recruiters and coaches. Typically there are at least 5-10 boys under 16:00 and 5-10 girls under 19:00 which, for an early season meet, is very impressive. This year, we will see West Plains boys and girls and see if McCrackin can use his PR course to regain some of his mojo. Ben Stasney and Ethan Hutchinson will look to break under 16:00 again as well. The biggest name on the boys side will be Webb City's Ryan Riddle as he looks to become the first boy in a very long time to break under 15:00 in Missouri. He will do battle with Fayetteville's Camren Fischer, whose meeting with the other top Missouri boy ended in defeat this past weekend. Unfortunately, we will not be seeing a match-up of Riddle and Stephen Kielhofner as he will be only running Monett this week.