On Saturday, thousands of high school and collegiate runners descended upon Missouri Southern’s Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course for the 33rd annual Southern Stampede.
An individual school record, top 10 finishes, and many season-best performances highlighted the day for high school runners from Joplin, Webb City, Carthage, Carl Junction, Neosho, McAuley Catholic, and Thomas Jefferson.
Joplin boys, girls both finish in top 10
The Joplin boys finished 10th overall in the 40-team Green Division with 340 points, their day highlighted by three runners among the top 18 individual finishers.
“We ran OK,” Joplin coach Dustin Dixon said. “We had some kids run well. We had some kids not run well. The university makes it very difficult to be successful here because we run so late in the afternoon. I told the kids that you’re not racing against the other kids, you’re racing against the heat.”
Hobbs Campbell broke his own school record on Saturday (15 minutes, 39 seconds) with a time of 15:24 that placed the Joplin senior third behind Kickapoo’s Tyler Harris (15:18) and Liberty North’s Sage Wilde (14:55).
Ian Horton, a junior, approached Campbell’s former school record and finished sixth overall at 15:42, not far behind Kickapoo’s Grant Musick (15:39) and Webb City’s Evan Stevens (15:38) in one of the first waves of runners.
Chance Tindall finished 18th in 16:08, Parker Durham 117th in 17:45, Aidan Koch 231st in 19:09, Brady Honeycutt 284th in 20:11, and Grey Edwards 335th in 22:28.
“The wheels fell off for us after that (our top three),” Dixon said. “Our No. 4 collapsed a couple hundred meters before the finish line. Our No. 5 had a good race today and he PR’d today. Then, the freshman at the back, he did his best.
“We had a kid obviously run poorly, because of the heat. It’s not his fault. He ran poorly, but it’s way too hot to give kids a good chance to run well out here.”
The Joplin girls competed Saturday in the Gold Division and placed fifth in the overall team standings at 201 points.
Allie Keizer placed fourth in 20:18, Averi Burks 23rd in 21:38, Mairi Beranek 62nd in 23:14, Cylee Gilreath 73rd in 23:39, Meridyth Mai 86th in 24:28, Isabella Cruse 92nd in 24:42, and Masyn Briggs 94th in 24:48.
“On the girls side, Allie Keizer ran pretty well today,” Dixon said. “To even out the races, the university asked some large schools if they were willing to run in the small schools division. I took them up on that opportunity to give us a little more space, because the race, as crowded as it was. … You saw the boys race start four times today and it started four times because they put too many people in the race. Kids trip over each other.
“I told the kids that we don’t make a big deal about the Southern Stampede because we know that some kids are going to run well, but there’s also so many challenges here because there’s too many kids in the race and it’s way too hot to run.”
Joplin returns to the course Saturday, Sept. 24, in the Gans Creek Classic in Columbia. Gans Creek hosts the MSHSAA Cross Country Championships in early November.
“I feel very confident in our team and our ability,” Dixon said. “Our boys have been very intent on defending our Central Ozark Conference championship that we won last year. I’m sure Nixa beat us today, but we are well on our way to defending that title. I’m proud of the way that we ran today.
“Goodness, in the race today, we had three kids run top 10 times in Joplin High School history. The fastest kid in Joplin school history, the second-fastest kid in Joplin school history, and maybe the seven-fastest kid in Joplin school history…they’re all on this team so it’s a darn good team.”
WC’s Stevens, Street place in top 5
The Webb City boys finished 22nd overall and girls 26th overall in their respective Green Division races Saturday.
Evan Stevens placed fourth in the boys race in 15:38 and Abi Street third in the girls race in 18:39. Both runners posted their best times of the season.
“I’m real proud of Evan and Abi,” Webb City coach Dustin Miller said. “They’ve put in consistent training all summer and all fall so far. They’re dedicated, they do all the little things right, and to watch them go out and compete in an elite race, it’s a lot of fun. I look forward to next week at Gans to see even more huge schools and to see how we progress.”
Blue Springs’ Abigail Brackenbury (18:27) and Cor Jesu Academy’s Adrienne Luna (18:30) were the only girls to finish ahead of Street.
“She’s run completely alone in her first two races,” Miller said of Street. “She’s raced some quality girls, but she’s just on another level this year. It was good to have girls in front of her and realize that she had more in her tank.”
Stevens continues to impress, Miller noted.
“He doesn’t believe how good he is yet,” Miller said. “I think now he sees, holy smoke, I was right there with the elite of the elite in the state of Missouri. He’s right there in the top 10 of the state with anybody else.”
Mason Hedger placed 56th in 16:49, Dakota Grove 153rd in 18:08, Spencer Kendall 163rd in 18:16, Andrew Dawson 242nd in 19:20, Noah Lankard 268th in 19:51, and Atticus Luzadder 274th in 20:00.
For the Webb City girls, Brooke Hedger finished 126th in 21:24, Kristina Bundy 157th in 22:10, Rachel Miller 158th in 22:11, and Hally Philpot 234th in 23:33.
“We look forward to this, certainly,” Miller said. “We run here, we train here twice a week in the summer, and we consider this our home course. I got to run here in college, and so it holds a special place to us. They look forward to it, because it’s the first time I really let the top kids loose every year. It’s a good challenge, a wonderful course, and an excellent event.”
The rest of the local varsity finishers
The Carthage boys finished 21st and the girls 37th in the Green Division.
Eddy Fuentes ran 86th in 17:17, Devin Smith 105th in 17:38, Miguel Solano 108th in 17:39, Michael Lanyon 122nd in 17:48, Caleb Fewin 158th in 18:11, Javen Boyd 237th in 19:17, Skuylor Honeycutt 252nd in 19:34, Colt Pugh 298th in 20:30, Xander Vasquez 311th in 20:58, and Indiana Gray 329th in 21:37.
Maggie Boyd finished 109th in 21:13, Katy Witherspoon 202nd in 22:46, Jennifer Rodas-Gomez 229th in 23:26, Jenna Wilson 273rd in 24:42, Sonia Lopez-Gramajo 284th in 24:55, Elsi Hernandez De Leon 293rd in 25:16, Sharon Velasquez-Mejia 299th in 25:46, Julissa Hernandez 300th in 25:53, Joanna Garcia 305th in 26:09, and Diana Pichardo 307th in 26:14.
Carl Junction’s boys were 40th and the girls 36th in the Green Division.
Jack Lawson finished 154th in 18:08, Alexander Allison 191st in 18:34, Isaac Willoughby 261st in 19:45, Colby Westhoff 296th in 20:23, Gavin Hall 302nd in 20:42, Jacob Garrett 314th in 21:07, and Luke Battagler 328th in 21:36.
For the Carl Junction girls, Alexis Carpenter was 136th, Klohe Burk was 166th, Sadie Burchett 198th, Bailey Feken 231st and Audrey Fletcher 241st.
Neosho sophomore Chloe Wood highlighted the Wildcats’ day with a 56th place finish in 20:22 in the Green Division.
Riley Kemna ran 115th in 21:17, Lakyn Prough 221st in 23:12, Makenna Davis 258th in 24:06, and Isabella Mabrey 315th in 27:37.
On the boys side, Neosho’s Gabriel Mabrey finished 214th in 18:51, Corbin Ables 239th in 19:18, Brandon Cargile 270th in 19:55, Christian Lindsay 277th in 20:01, Adam Farrell 286th in 20:13, Christian Williams 303rd in 20:57, Cannin Keena 310th in 20:57, Corbin Goins 324th in 21:27, Steven Knapp 339th in 23:13, and Zaine Powers 346th in 25:15.
Thomas Jefferson’s Kip Atteberry finished 11th in the Gold Division race in 17:11.
On the girls side, Sarah Mueller placed 84th in 24:20 for the Cavaliers.
McAuley Catholic’s boys finished 19th in the Gold Division with Joe Staton 81st in 19:26, Drew Zeb 89th in 19:38, Trae Veer 125th in 20:34, Alex Bohachick 152nd in 21:24, Connor Taffner 176th in 22:29, Cliff Nolan 179th in 22:33, and Grant Horinek 203rd in 25:38.
McAuley’s Kendall Ramsey placed 53rd in the girls race in 22:56.
FULL RESULTS: Missouri Southern Stampede 2022 – Meet Results (milesplit.com)
Joplin’s Ian Horton is pictured during Saturday’s Southern Stampede. All photos by Shawn Fowler/SoMo Sports.
