Montgomery County cross country coach Chasity Rodgers enjoyed watching her runners while they were taking a lap around the track during practice at 6 a.m. on Aug. 9.

“This is a good group,” Rodgers said.

The Wildcats lost three runners to graduation but brought back eight members from last year’s team. They are seniors Malia Rodgers and Olivia Shaw, juniors Jadrian Thurmon, Madison West, Beckham Cothren and Brendan Craven and sophomores Taylor River and Cooper Sellenriek. This year’s team will look to get another runner on the state awards podium for the fifth year in a row.

The Wildcats start their season on Aug. 26 at the COMO Kickoff at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, the site of the Missouri state cross country meet. They also added the Mexico Invitational on Sept. 1 and the Laker Invitational in Camdenton on Sept. 29 to their schedule.

In the past, MCHS began its season at the New Haven Invitational, but it will not compete in that meet this year. Chasity Rodgers said she wanted to strengthen the schedule so it could help prepare her runners for the postseason in late October.

“I picked it,” Rodgers said. “I like it.”

Rodgers also likes that her team is having early morning practices. The runners start practice at 5:30 a.m. every day at the track.

“Most of the time, it’s hot in the afternoon,” Rodgers said. “So we practice at 5:30 to get it done and over it. They have to go at 5:30 when school starts. They have to be here (at the school) by 7:50. So we’re just getting in the habit of doing it now. A lot of them still have jobs that they have to get to, so they can’t go later in the day.”

MCHS lost three runners to graduation. One of them is four-time all-state medalist Lyric Ford, who is now running at Maryville University. The others are Carie Schroer and Destiny Shaw.

“They’re a young crew,” Rodgers said. “It’s almost like starting over again. I lost some pretty good leaders in Lyric, Carie and Destiny.”

Malia Rodgers will look to return to the state meet for the third time after missing the final three weeks of the 2022 season due to a groin injury. The senior earned medals in five meets before being sidelined.

Olivia Shaw and Morgan Koch round out the senior class. Both also are playing volleyball this fall. Shaw competed in four meets last fall, including the Eastern Missouri Conference meet, where she finished eighth to earn all-league honors.

Thurmon is the Wildcats’ lone returning state qualifier. He earned medals in five meets, including the District 3 meet in Fulton, where he finished 29th to clinch his first state berth.

“Jadrian had a fantastic practice on Aug. 8, so I’m excited to see what we can do,” Chasity Rodgers said.

Besides Shaw and Malia Rodgers, West and River are the other returning runners from last year’s MCHS girls team that won the EMO championship for the second year in a row.

“I think we have a lot of good people,” West said. “I think we have a really good shot of winning the conference again this year.”

New runners on the team include freshmen Austyn Robinson, Olivia Spurgeon, Jacob Roesner and Kendrick Lewis and sophomore Kaitlyn Kolling.

The Wildcats will also compete in the Missouri Southern Stampede on Sept. 16, the Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 23 in Columbia, the Eastern Missouri Conference meet on Oct. 14 at North Callaway and the Bowling Green Invitational on Oct. 21.

MCHS runners have to run a certain time to compete in the Missouri Southern meet. Girls have to run 24 minutes, while the boys have to run 20 to make the trip to Joplin.

“Missouri Southern has a lot of competition,” said Rodgers., who is in her 12th season as MCHS coach. “There’s a college race right before the high school race. So we get to see some college races right before we run. It should be an incentive for those kids because we go down on Friday and we stay the night there. We don’t get to do that for any other meet, not even state. Then, they get up in the morning and watch some college races. Then, they run.”