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SPRINGFIELD -- Missouri State's women's cross country team will return to action Saturday morning when the Bears join a 21-team field at the Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin for a five-kilometer competition.
 
The race at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course on the Missouri Southern State University campus looks to provide a solid test for the Bears who enter their second competition of the 2016 season hungry for a good performance.
 
"Our first meet of the season in St. Louis wasn't quite what we expected, but we have shown a lot of improvement with our workouts since then, and I like the way we look going into the weekend," said third-year MSU head coach Jordan Fife. "I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do on a fast and familiar course."
 
Missouri State opened the season on Sept. 2 at the Gabby Reuveni Early Bird Meet at Forest Park in St. Louis. The Bears landed three individual runners in the top 15 of the 123- runner field, but fell short of team expectations in the debut performance.
 
This week, MSU joins Arkansas as the only other Division I participant at the Missouri Southern Stampede, while the field also includes Arkansas Tech, Bacone, Texas A&M-Commerce, Dallas Baptist, Drury, East Central (Okla.), Arkansas-Fort Smith, Missouri Southern, Oklahoma Christian, Pittsburg State, Rockhurst, Rogers State, Missouri S&T, Southwest Baptist, St. Edwards, Central Missouri, Central Oklahoma, West Texas A&M and William Jewell. Host Missouri Southern is a perennial Division II power and is picked to win the MIAA women's title this season.
 
Last year in Joplin, Missouri State landed three runners in the top 50 places of the 250-runner field, including returnees Jade Raynor (18:41.6) who was 39^th and Jessica Allen (18:49.5) who finished 44^th. Of the 12 Bears competing Saturday, nine ran the course last season and have valuable experience on the five-kilometer loop.