Chasity Rodgers remembers the first time she met Lyric Ford, Carie Schroer and Destiny Shaw.

“These girls have been with me since youth cross country,” the MCHS cross country coach said. “Lyric and Carie did youth cross country and Destiny a few of those meets.”

Now, Ford, Schroer and Shaw are seniors this fall and are looking to help the MCHS girls cross country team turn in another successful season.

Last fall, the Wildcats won two meets, including their first Eastern Missouri Conference championship in program history. They also had two all-state medalists in Ford and junior Malia Rodgers.

“Obviously, the girls want to try to win conference again,” said Chasity Rodgers, who is in her 11th season as MCHS coach. “We would like to take a girls' team to state. That will be awesome. It’s a lot of hard work, but we would like to do that.”

Ford, Schroer and Shaw have competed with the MCHS program since they were freshmen. Ford earned a medal in all three state meets she competed in, Shaw was a state qualifier in her sophomore year, and Schroer had three top-25 finishes at the EMO meet during her career.

“I had these girls for a really long time,” Rodgers said. “I think with these girls running for so long, it has really added to the efficiency and the success of the program.”

Malia Rodgers, the coach’s daughter, is back for her third season with the Wildcats. She won an individual championship at the EMO meet and placed 16th at the state meet for her second straight all-state medal.

Sophomore Madison West is in her first year with the team.
“She ran track last year and she just wanted to try something different,” Rodgers said. “She’s doing a pretty good job. I’m trying to get her to break 27 minutes. She never ran any long distance.”

Rodgers has high hopes for freshman Taylor River, who competed with the Montgomery County Middle School cross country team last fall.

“I think Taylor is going to be a really nice addition,” Rodgers said. “She runs a pretty good mile and a pretty good 800 (meters). Transitioning from mid-distance to distance will be an adjustment, but she’s really doing a good job.”

Juniors Olivia Shaw and Claire Cobb – both volleyball players – also will see some action this year for the MCHS girls this year.

The MCHS boys lost their top runner, Dawson McCown, to graduation, but returned sophomores Jadrian Thurmon, Cothren Beckham and Brendan Craven.

Thurmon was the Wildcats’ No. 2 runner for most of the 2021 season. He earned an all-conference award after placing sixth in the EMO meet. Thurmon is coming off a solid track season that included an all-state medal in the 800-meter relay.

“Jadrian is coming back from a stress fracture,” Rodgers said. “He broke his ankle during track season and ran 53 seconds in the 400 on a broken ankle.”

Freshman Cooper Sellenriek and sophomore Zachary Welker are also on the boys team.

The Wildcats start their season at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 3 at the New Haven Invitational. Last year, Ford, Thurmon and Malia Rodgers earned medals at the New Haven meet.

“It’s one of our smaller meets,” Chasity Rodgers said. “I’d like for us to place well in it as a team because the other teams are so big. To place as a team, it’s going to be really hard.”

MCHS added a couple of new meets to its schedule – the Forest Park Cross Country Festival on Sept. 10 in St. Louis and the Capital City Binderpark meet on Oct. 8 in Jefferson City.

“Forest Park has over 40 teams with pretty big schools there and a lot of different divisions,” Rodgers said. “It’s about as big as Gans Creek (in Columbia).”