Sep. 4—The Missouri Southern men’s and women’s cross country teams open the 2021 season on Saturday at the Southwest Baptist Invite in Bolivar.
The Southern men start the season as the preseason favorite in the MIAA as well as ranked No. 1 in the Central Region and No. 7 nationally in Division II. The Southern women were picked to finish third in the MIAA Preseason Poll and are ranked eighth in the preseason Central Region Poll.
The Southern men have won three of the last four MIAA Championships. The Lions are the two-time defending MIAA and NCAA Regional Champs.
Gidieon Kimutai has won both the MIAA and Regional individual championship the last two seasons. Kimutai went on to finish fifth at the 2019 Division II National Championships.
The men return five runners off that 2019 championship team as well as another runner who picked up experience in both the indoor and outdoor seasons this past season.
The women have four runners returning to the fold in Alice Evans, Kelie Henderson, Ashlee Kuykendall and Danielle Prince. Henderson finished sixth at the 2019 MIAA Championship en route to an All-MIAA performance. Henderson went on to earn All-Region honors, as well in 2019 placing 18th at the event.