After two months, the Montgomery County cross country team is enjoying a strong season, having an individual champion and a total of 10 runners earning at least one medal.

Now, the Wildcats are hoping for more success at the Eastern Missouri Conference championship meet, which is scheduled for Oct. 14 at North Callaway High School. The girls race starts at 9 a.m., followed by the boys race at 9:40 a.m. MCHS is the two-time defending champion in the girls division.

Last year, the Wildcats placed first in the girls race with 26 points and had seven runners earn all-conference honors at the EMO meet in North Callaway.

Junior Jadrian Thurmon was one of those all-conference award winners from 2022. So far this fall, he is having an outstanding season that included four medals. One of them was a first-place finish in the boys division at the Mexico Invitational on Sept. 1.

Thurmon, a state qualifier from last year, edged Centralia’s Rohan Holiman by six-tenths of a second to win his first high school cross country race. He finished with a time of 17:00.34.

Two weeks later, Thurmon placed 75th with a personal-best time of 16:40.9 at the Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin. He also finished second in the Laker Invitational in Camdenton, third in the Gans Creek Classic and fifth in the season-opening COMO Kick-Off in Columbia on Aug. 26.

Senior Malia Rodgers has been the Wildcats’ top runner in the girls division. She earned two medals, finishing fourth in the Laker Invitational and seventh in the Gans Creek Classic.

Last year, Rodgers – a two-time all-state performer – earned five medals before missing the final weeks of the season due to a groin injury. After missing the first two weeks of the 2023 season due to a stress fracture, Rodgers returned to action on Sept. 16 at the Missouri Southern Stampede.

Senior Olivia Shaw, juniors Beckham Cothren and Brendan Craven, sophomores Cooper Sellenriek and Katlyn Kolling and freshmen Austyn Robinson, Olivia Spurgeon and Jacob Roesner also earned medals for the Wildcats this year.

Roesner, Sellenriek, Craven, Cothren, Spurgeon and Kolling picked up their first cross country medals at the Wellsville-Middletown Invitational on Sept. 18. Spurgeon and Kolling finished fifth and 11th, respectively, in the girls race and helped their team place second in the team standings. In the boys race, Roesner finished seventh, Sellenriek came in eighth, Craven was 10th and Cothren finished 12th.

Robinson finished 11th with a 24:08 at the Mexico Invitational for her first cross country medal. She ran a season-best time of 22:36 in her 190th-place finish at the Missouri Southern Stampede.

Shaw, who also plays volleyball for the Wildcats, earned a 19th-place medal at the Mexico meet. She ran a 24:47.