Lady Roadrunners eye fourth straight Region 16 title

Sedalia, Mo. – The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Lady Roadrunners' cross country team has been busy preparing for the upcoming season. Co-Head Coach Kellin Loch likes what he has seen from the team so far in the preseason.

SFCC is coming off three consecutive Region 16 championships and enters the fall with a roster composed of one returning sophomore and eight incoming freshmen.

"Practices are pretty good so far," said Loch. "During the time trial we saw a freshman and a sophomore stand out and do really well. Maryn Clausing is a freshman from Peculiar, Missouri and Alexis Riddle is a sophomore from Independence, Missouri. They were able to run together and push the pace and come up with a decent time. Our women's team is also dealing with a lot of new stressors and stimuli. The practices have been light early in the preseason. We have also seen some standout performances in the weight room from Maryn along with Libbey Baadsgaard, a freshman from Springfield, Missouri. Those two were pretty impressive in the weight room."

Loch expects Riddle to be a leader by example for her teammates.

"More than a few of our freshmen were leaders on their teams in high school," said Loch. "It will be interesting to see who steps up here. I'm thinking that Libbey Baadsgaard will step up and be a leader for us. I also think that Vyla Brown of Clinton, Missouri will also be a leader once she gets more comfortable with her teammates and what we are doing."

SFCC will face a challenging competition schedule designed to prepare the team for the postseason. The Lady Roadrunners will open the season on Friday, Sept. 5, at the SBU Bearcat Invitational. They will return to action on Friday, Sept. 12, at the Columbia College Larry Young Invitational. On Saturday, Oct. 4, the team will travel to the Chile Pepper Festival in Arkansas. The following week, SFCC will compete in the Simpson Invitational, hosted by the University of Central Missouri in Columbia. The Region 16 Championships are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 24.

Coach Loch has clear goals in mind for the season.

"We want to win another Region 16 Championship," said Loch. "I think we have an opportunity to break into the top 20 at Nationals this year. We have some girls who ran some fast times in high school. Some of them are expecting to beat personal records from their senior year in high school. Others are expecting to get back to personal records if they haven't seen them since their sophomore or junior year in high school. If we achieve those individual goals based on what we saw at the national meet last year, we should be in a pretty good position to be somewhere around 18th. It is a lofty goal."

Loch identified several keys to success for the young team.

"We have to stay healthy," said Loch. "We have to communicate well. I have to build a good relationship with the athletes so I know that I'm doing everything I can to support them. We have to make sure that we're hitting our mileage, as well as our goal times and peaking toward the postseason. I'm looking forward to watching them race. It is a young team. We get the fun opportunity to build a culture for the team this year. I'm excited to see what comes of that."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics