With predominantly the same team from a year ago, the Joplin boys cross country team has a chance for a special season if the pieces fall in the right place.
“We feel pretty good about where we are up front, and we have some depth at the back end to kind of close the door,” Joplin coach Dustin Dixon said. “This is probably the strongest team we have had in about five years or so. We feel really good about it.”
Senior Micah Bruggeman is expected to lead the Joplin boys team this season. Bruggeman finished last season as the lone state qualifier for the boys team after finishing 14th in the sectional race.
“He is easily one of the best middle distance runners in the state of Missouri,” Dixon said. “He should have a significant chance to win a state title in the spring.”
The Eagles will have several young runners who figure to fill out the pack behind Bruggeman, with sophomore Hobbs Campbell leading the way after a freshman year filled with plenty of success. Campbell finished 22nd in districts and 49th at sectionals in his freshman season.
“He had a great middle school cross country career, but he didn’t know if he wanted to run cross country in high school,” Dixon said of Campbell. “He didn’t really run at all in the summer before his freshman year. He had a great freshman season for us, but he (is in much better shape) now because he has trained all summer.
“It has been a few years since we have had front runners, but I think with Micah and Hobbs, especially, that we can see some Joplin teammates at the front of races.”
Sophomore Zaben Barnes, junior Nicholas Horton, junior Evan Matlock are three runners expected to score plenty of varsity points this year for Joplin.
Seniors Patrick Beranek and Ryan Byers will also help the Eagles fill out the pack this season.
“My six, seven, eight, nine and 10 guys are all so closely jumbled together that I don’t know how the season will play out with those slots,” Dixon said. “We have some depth that we have not had in the past, and we feel really good about this year’s team.
“We feel like we will be able to put our seventh runner in front of a lot of teams’ No. 5 runner,” Dixon said. “Even though those six and seven kids don’t score points for the team, we think they can make the four and five kids have better scores.”
Coach Dixon is ready to see this boys team elevate to another level in 2020. After several seasons with strong individual finishes or competitive finishes as a team, he is ready to see the Eagles build towards winning races as a team.
“We have a lot of experience being good and being competitive,” Dixon said. “We don’t have a lot of experience trying to win. Cross country isn’t like football or basketball, where you play against one team and it’s win or lose. You are at a meet with 30 teams, where we have a lot of experience in those meets finishing seventh. We ran well, but weren’t in the running to win the whole thing. Getting the boys to believe that not only can they win, but there may be races they should win. And we are really setting our sights on trying to win a conference championship, which is something that has never happened for this program.”
JOPLIN GIRLS WANT TO COMPETE AS TEAM
The Joplin girls cross country team is ready for a transition in strong finishes as a team in 2020, and the Eagles will be led by junior Jennalee Dunn.
Dunn is coming off a strong sophomore season in which she finished 11th at districts before setting a PR with a time of 19 minutes, 47.1 seconds at the sectional meet to qualify for state, where she took 77th.
“We have always had good individual finishes and have been competitive,” Dixon said. “It feels like this may be a year where we can compete for a conference championship.”
Behind Dunn, Joplin will be relying on freshmen Alex Carson and Allie Keizer, as well as a group of sophomores — Mairi Beranek, Sage Mitchell and Jackie Triplett — to fill out the pack.
“Honestly, our top seven girls might not have a senior,” Dixon said. “I think that girls team is going to be really good.”
With so much youth on the girls’ squad, the goal for the start of the season is to get them used to the 5,000-meter run in order for them to peak at the end of the season as the postseason approaches.
“The race can feel really long in your mind,” Dixon said. “But the whole thing is over in 20 minutes, so it really isn’t a difficult run. It can be difficult for freshmen to know what the first mile should feel like and how fast should it be. … It takes some time to learn that. So, it may be the start of October before our freshmen feel comfortable running that distance.”
While the boys team is looking to make the jump mentally, Dixon said the girls team is in a similar place. For them to compete at the team level, it all starts with believing they can accomplish great things as a unit.
“For the girls, it’s mostly about them believing they can do it,” Dixon said. “We are trying to make that switch in getting them to believe we can do some really great things with this team. Teaching them that and getting our girls at the back end to buy in and try to create a positive culture is really the goal.”
One thing is clear, the excitement level for Joplin cross country is at an all-time high. With several young runners anchored by experienced upperclassmen on both teams, Coach Dixon is ready for both programs to make a leap in 2020.
“We have had a lot of years being runner-up (at the conference meet), but we’ve never won,” Dixon said. “And we have never had a team qualify for the state cross country championships. I think the boys have a shot this year, and maybe even the girls. But, every single girl on this year’s team will be back next year, so we have the opportunity to do something special if they really buy in.”
