A veteran and two newcomers represented the Montgomery County Wildcats at the awards stand at the Eastern Missouri Conference meet on Saturday at Bowling Green.

Junior Emma Rodgers and freshmen Jaidyn Milligan and Caleb Waters earned all-EMO honors for the Wildcats at the league meet, which was held at the Pike County Fairgrounds. Rodgers and Mlliigan placed sixth and eighth, respectively, in the girls race and Waters came in 15th in the boys race. The top 15 finishers at the EMO meet are awarded all-conference.

Rodgers finished with a time of 21 minutes, 13 seconds and picked up her second all-EMO medal in her two-year high school cross country career. She was fourth at the conference meet in her freshman year.

Rodgers is back on the team this fall after a year hiatus. She competed in three meets and earned medals in all of them.

“I really had no intention of running cross country this year, so it’s kind of cool to still do that and get to run with the team this year,” Rodgers said. “That’s all I really wanted to do.”

Two years ago, Rodgers enjoyed an outstanding freshman year, finishing with six medals and qualifying for the Class 3 state meet.

Now, Milligan is having a strong freshman season. On Saturday, she earned her fifth medal of the year, more than any runner on the MCHS team. She placed first at the South Callaway Invitational, had top-10 finishes at Palmyra and Camdenton and came in 24th at the Gans Creek Classic.

“I love it,” said Milligan, who ran a 21:43 at the EMO meet. “It’s so much fun. I love (Chasity) Rodgers as our coach. I love my teammates. We’re all amazing.”

A year ago, Milligan was one of the top runners on the Montgomery County Middle School team, placing in the top 10 in four meets, including a first-place finish at the New Haven Invitational.

Waters was also a solid performer with the MCMS cross country team in 2025, He placed in the top 20 four times, including a fourth-place finish at the Wellsville-Middletown Invitational.

On Saturday, Waters beat North Callaway’s Hunter Jansen by one second for 15th place. He finished with a season-best time of 18:53 and picked up his second medal of the year. He had a fifth-place finish at South Callaway.

Waters said he enjoys competing in cross country at the high school level after a month.

“I love running distance,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do.”

Also, the MCHS girls placed second in the team standings with 51 points. Bowling Green won the team title with 28 points.

Sophomore Anna Johnson placed 18th with a 23:09, coming up three places short of finishing with her second all-EMO honor. Seniors Aubrey Janes (24th, 24:22) and Kaylee Daume (39th, 31:15) and freshman Avery Finke (30th, 25:15) also competed for the Wildcats in the girls meet.

“I’m really proud of what we did today even though we didn’t necessarily come in where we wanted to be in the team standings,” Milligan said. “We still had a great time and I think we’re all pretty happy. Next year, we want to come back and maybe do a little bit better.”

Four other runners participated in the boys meet for MCHS. They were juniors Mason Pace (29th, 21:14) and Braydin Finch (37th, 22:45) and freshmen Ashton Hampton (42nd, 24:19) and Dylan Finke (45th, 25:34).

Wellsville-Middletown had four runners – all boys – compete at the EMO meet. Silas Jones was the Tigers’ top finisher, placing 34th with a 21:56.

Both MCHS and W-M will return to Bowling Green on Friday to compete in the Bowling Green Invitational, the final regular season meet for both schools.