Crowder
College is heading into its second season for cross country and is
loading up with recruits from throughout the state.
Eleven of the 12 Roughriders signees are from the Show-Me State, the exception is Samantha Kiprono from Iten, Kenya.
The women's program added a number of athletes from Southwest Missouri -- an area coach Jake Holt knows well from his time as the East Newton head cross country and track and field coach.
One of his recruits he knows well as he inked was Gracie Johnson from East Newton, who ran for him at his previous job.
Johnson is a three-time state qualifier and took ninth place at the Big 8 Conference championships.
Dadeville's Libby Lakey was an MSHSAA Class 1 XC all-stater this year, taking 15th. She was also a state qualifier in 2021 and 2019.
Madelyn 'Maddie' Coffelt ran her best race at Crocker when she was 47th in the MSHSAA Class 2 XC race. Destiny Jaramillo, from Aurora , was a state qualifier in the Class 3 State XC Championship.
Dakotah Medows from Ste. Genevieve ran her best race at the MSHSAA Class 3 Championships and took 36th place. She was also a state qualifier in 2020.
The men's program added a Class 4 all-state runner in Julio Cruz, who had seven top-two finishes this year for Monett. Cruz was 16th at the MSHSAA State 4 State XC Championships this fall. He was the Big 8 Cross Country runner-up and won two meets. Cruz was a three-time state qualifier.
Christian Church was a Class 1 all-state runner this fall for Crane. He was 16th and was the SWCL Conference runner-up. This was his only year running cross country with the Pirates.
Holt also added Webb City's Daunte Smiles and Blake Vaughan and West Plains' Ridge Smith - all Class 4 runners and Ozark's Aiden McCracken, a Class 5 runner.
Smith has run at the state cross country meet for the past three years for the Zizzers. McCracken ran his personal best at the COC XC Championships this year.
Vaughan and Smiles are 2022 graduates that are returning to the sport. Vaughan ran at the state meet his senior season, while Smiles was an 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter runner and also ran cross country.
The Roughriders are also adding Galena's Cameron Sartin as a walk-on. He was a state qualifier for Galena all four years of high school.