The Missouri State Cross Country squad, led by sophomore Terry Phillips (Kansas City, Mo.), finished fourth in the Missouri State Classic.  Phillips finished fifth among all runners and first among the Bears with her time of 17:36.0.  The Bears also had three freshmen finish in their top five.  Emily Beaver finished with 18:46.1 (Joplin, Mo.), Ashton Stubbs with 18:58.9 (Platte City, Mo.) and Abby Schlater had a time of 19:16.5 (Council Bluffs, Iowa) finished second, fourth and fifth for the Bears, respectively.

    "We performed as well as I had hoped," said head coach Greg Hipp.  "The outcome is not what we had hoped for, but it will be."

    All of the Missouri State athletes who competed in the Classic last year improved on their previous time.  The largest improvement came from Terry Phillips, who improved her 2008 time by 48.7 seconds.  Junior Mari-Jean Vance also made a large step forward, besting her previous time by 45.9 seconds.

    "We ran really tough," said Phillips. "A lot of these teams have a few races this season, but this is our first race.  For a lot of us, it was the first college race ever.  I feel good that we raced so tough."

    Beverly Ramos of Kansas State finished first in the field of 79 with a time of 17:15.9.  Kansas State also finished the Classic with the best overall team score of 27.

    Missouri State will run again on October 3, in Chicago, Ill. where they will compete in the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational at Loyola University.