It's Time to Cut the Mizzou Cross Country Program!

In defense of the guys team, I think they are redshirting quite a bit of guys, I could be wrong on that though.

Haha, they are not doing very well, that is for sure. But the last thing Missouri needs is to cut another college XC program. Missouri State University cut their men's program in 2006. You'd think with that cut, it would make recruiting at Mizzou a little easier, but I guess all the big dawgs from Missouri just cross the border to Arkansas or OSU, or even OU now. Kansas and Kansas St haven't been doing anything lately to make an Missouri kid leave the state. Iowa St might be a good option.

Future staff should be:

Jeff Pigg-Distance

Tom Doyle-Jumps

Tom Lester-Sprints/Hurdles Relays-Men

Vince Bingham-Recruiting Coordinator

Women's Sprints

Bag man

All are from the state of Missouri!

KSU Men's XC by the Numbers (Big 12 meet team results):

2003 - 9th

2004 - 8th

2005 - 8th (234pts)

2006 - 12th (331pts)

2007 - 11th (318pts)

2008 - 11th (355pts)

2009 - 12th (354pts)

2010 - 12th (356pts)

They go to the programs that have a GOOD coaching program, Arkansas just won the SEC with 2 miissouri standouts on their squad.

Does anyone know if the recent coaching change is temporary while they are actively recruiting a top level distance coach? Brett Halter has a world-class throwing program and as the head track coach (who happens to be a former distance runner himself) could compete in the Big XII with a few solid distance performances.

Lots of "really good" high school kids from Missouri have went to MU to run. Almost all of them never improved, with most not even running as fast as they had in high school. Most of the "good" runners from high schools in Missouri go to Division 2 programs in Missouri and get a lot better. Some have even gotten better than the MU guys that were better than them in high school. A different direction needs to be taken for the distance team at MU and I do not think that their new coach is answer, especially after seeing the conference meet.

thinkthatsbad? -

is that kory? or joe?

bump

this team is horrendous. honestly, why would you only run five guys? why would they leave people at home? it's nonsensical to only run five guys (two of them half-milers) when you've got a stable of guys back home to run the meet. they should've brought more guys, that would have made sense.

I am not going to purport to know what the heck is going on over there but I have heard that a lot of guys are injured. So they may have only five guys who are healthy.

It is Year One following the coaching stage. Unfortunately the program is left with the dregs of the Wilmes years. Injuries and stagnation seemed to be the status quo back then and still is bleeding into the program now. It will take more than a year to bring the program back to life.

But there is no denying the hard fact that they were terrible this year. They would have a hard time finishing out of the cellar in the HAAC conference this year!

mizzou was so bad this year. almost as bad as oklahoma was in 2008 when they got dead last in the conference and only ran six guys. i just can't see this team turning it around anytime soon, just like the sooners.

Skip Pickens the OU women's distance guru will take over the Missouri X-C Program in 2011.

they better hope for a new coach, the current one doesnt even realize you can take more than 5 guys to the conference meet. Slight miscalculations such as this can really come back to bite you...

Rumor on the street is that there were quite a few scarioke casualties this year...

My Bad, I always get carried away for scarioke

Who is coaching the men now anyway? Is the women's coach also coaching the men? I don't see any other coaches listed on their website.

You do realize that they held out (for some reason-im assuming injury) their top 7 and STILL BEAT K-STATE! They held out Phil King (All Big 12), Dan Q (All Big 12), Michael P (returning top 7), Merid S (member of the Canadian junior national team), Phil B (returning top 7), Tyler C (returning top 7), and Eric Dillon (member of the Canadian junior national team). And for the kid who you poked fun of for running 30 minutes in the 8k...let me see..oh yeah he is a Big 12 champion in the 800 hmmmmm. I think you would suck if you had to run a race that was 900% of your normal race distance.

Wow - they beat K-state by holding out their top 7! What an amazing feat! Let's face it, even with their full line-up healthy they would have been at best 9th/12.

Being a "returning top 7" guy on a team that sucked for the past decade is no selling point. As for the Canadian runner and the Big 12 800m champ - being a middle distance runner does not necessarily mean "you would suck if you had to run a race that was 900% of your normal race distance". There are a ton of examples of programs (Arkansas, Michigan, Oregon ... Falcon, Ulrey, Sullivan, Webb, Brennan, Lomong) over the years that have middle distance studs finish as XC All-Americans.

That is the problem with Mizzou ... zero interest or knowledge of how to coach/develop distance runners and the ones they do recruit get injured or perform worse then they did in high school.