MVC Release | 2016 Quick Facts
 
ST. LOUIS – After improving two spots as a team last season to finish eighth at the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships, the Missouri State program has been picked to finish in that same position in the Valley's preseason poll of the league's coaches, as announced by the conference office on Tuesday (Aug. 16).
 
"Our two goals each year are to be better than we were the year before and to have our best team effort at the MVC championships in October," commented head coach Jordan Fife. "Everything we do the entire season serves a purpose for achieving those goals and this year will be more of the same. As a team, I'm confident we will be able to put forth a better effort at this year's conference meet even with the loss of last year's number one runner, Cindy Forde.  We are a deeper team and we will rely on that depth to help continue our progression forward."
 
MSU welcomes four newcomers to a team with 13 returnees in 2016. The Bears lost a key component in Cindy Forde, who etched her name into the MSU record book as the second-fastest 5-kilometer runner in program history after clocking in a time of 17:14.91 at the 2015 conference championships. Fife is looking for his upperclassmen to come back stronger and perform better.
 
"We have more experience coming back this year than in year's past and I'm looking forward to how the team performs with more of a pack mentality," said Fife. "I'm looking to Jessica Allen and Alyson Jones, both of whom ran exceptional in their first collegiate 10K's last outdoor track season, as well as senior Savannah Aleckson and sophomore Jade Raynor, to lead that pack for us. We have a talented group of freshmen that are ready to work hard and put themselves in to the mix as well and that should give us a lot more depth than we've had in the past."
 
The Bears will have four meets leading up to the MVC Championships that are set to be held in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Saturday, Oct. 29. The Bears' first meet of the season will be the 4-kilometer Gabby Reuveni Early Bird in St. Louis, Mo. on Friday, Sept. 2 at 6:00 p.m.