The Missouri State cross county squad has been tabbed for a second-place Missouri Valley Conference finish in 2007 in a preseason poll of the league’s coaches released Tuesday. The Bears, guided by fourth-year head coach Greg Hipp, received a total of 90 points, including one first-place vote, to finish behind conference favorite Wichita State, which garnered 99 points and nine first-place votes.
Wichita State will be seeking its third consecutive Missouri Valley Conference title in 2007, and returns six of the conference’s top 40 finishers at last year’s MVC meet, including all-conference performers Chelsie Baldwin, Mica Land and Kimber Lemon. Northern Iowa was picked to finish third with 80 points, with Illinois State (62), Southern Illinois (58), Bradley (52), Indiana State (44), Drake (33), Creighton (20) and Evansville (12) rounding out the poll.
Missouri State will be seeking its fifth Valley title in the last seven seasons, as four of the conference’s top 15 returners will be running in MSU maroon and white this fall. Returning from the Bears’ 2006 scoring group are Kristin Wolkey (Overland Park, Kan.), Jamie Vest (Lebanon, Mo.), Carrie Vestal (Springfield, Mo.) and Chloe Key (Springfield, Mo.) Wolkey, a junior, broke former MSU All-American Casey Owens’ 5K school record when she ran 17:23 at the Memphis Twilight last October. After earning All-Missouri Valley Conference honors in cross country, Wolkey earned all-league recognition in both indoor and outdoor track and field after finishing second in both the indoor mile (4:57) and the outdoor 1,500 meters (4:32) at the Valley Championships.
Fellow junior Vest will be looking to build upon her spring track season where she was a NCAA regional qualifier in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:40). Vest was 12th at the 2006 MVC Cross Country Championships, but after a conference runner-up finish on the track in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, she will be looking to breakthrough to the front of the MVC pack this fall.
Vestal, an all-conference cross country selection in 2005, took first in the outdoor track and field 10,000 meters in 2006 and was runner-up in 2007. Owning personal track bests of 17:13 for 5,000 meters and 35:29 for 10,000 meters, Vestal is the team’s lone returning senior and one of the Valley’s top returners.
Key, a junior, will look to build upon her 24th place MVC cross country finish in 2006 after a breakout track season. After improving her personal best in the 3,000 meters from 11:06 to 10:08 during the spring semester, Key can now be looked upon as one of the Valley’s top performers.
The 2007 Missouri State cross country season will get underway this Saturday, Sept. 1, with the Bears competing in the Washington University Early Bird Meet in St. Louis, Mo. The season will be highlighted by the Bears’ first home cross country meet in six years, the MSU Cross Country Classic, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 22, at the new Missouri State cross country facility, located just east of the US-65 and Division Street intersection in Springfield. The Bears will compete in two more regular season meets, the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree (Sept. 29) in Stillwater, Okla., and NCAA Pre-National meet in Terre Haute, Ind. (Oct. 13) before turning their attention toward the 2007 Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Cedar Falls, Iowa (Oct. 27).
The Bears will also be looking to continue a long streak of top finishes at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships, which will take place Nov. 10, in Peoria, Ill. With six straight top 10 regional finishes to the Bears’ credit, only two teams in the midwest can boast of a longer streak than Missouri State’s.
