Hackett, Spoofhounds win MEC titles

By Phil Cobb | October 20, 2026 |

ANTHONY CRANE/THE FORUM
Ryker Hackett runs the cross country trail at Missouri Western State University Tuesday evening. Hackett took first in the meet.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The cross country season is nearing the final turn. The Maryville Spoofhounds took part in their final meet before districts Tuesday evening at Missouri Western for the MEC Conference Meet.

The Spoofhounds made the most of the meet with a conference championship for the boys’ team and two top-five finishes.

“Across the board, I think we all ran really well,” Maryville coach Rodney Bade. “Like I talked about a couple weeks ago, we put a lot of stock in the conference championship — it’s a big priority of ours. We spend time looking at the data and looking at the other kids and other race results trying to figure out who we need to beat.”

The boys race to a championship came behind a first-place finish and three personal bests. The Spoofhounds finished with 35 points, 14 points ahead of second place Savannah.

Leading the boys once again was junior Ryker Hackett. Hackett finished well ahead of the back with a time of 17:05.

“I was a little contested at the beginning, but my lead grew pretty quickly,” Hackett said. “The pace car was really close to me, so it helped me a little bit.”

For Hackett, Tuesday was his second-straight win and the second-best time he’s run this season with his personal best coming in Columbia where he ran a 16:49. Now with momentum going into districts, Hackett hopes to have a successful end to the season.

“We have districts up next and I just want to run a good race,” Hackett said. “Hopefully I stick where I’m seeded and then can go on to state and PR.”

Having his best day of the season so far was fellow junior Tucker McCollough. McCollough finished third in the conference meet with a personal best 17:53.

It was the first time this season that McCollough broke the 18-minute mark with his previous best being 18:10.

“I’m super excited, third place is a great spot to be at,” McCollough said. “Obviously you go into every race wanting to PR but today was just about getting ahead of the other team’s No. 2 and I was able to do that. I feel like I’m in a really good place right now and I just want to go into districts and throw down the best time that I can.”

Sophomore Bentley McDowell captured a third top-10 finish for Maryville, taking ninth with a time of 18:37. Junior James Coston took 11th, finishing the race in 19 minutes. Junior Draven Rader took 15th with a time of 19:10.

“We can’t control their performance, but we can put forth that effort, and we started to target more on beating individual runners this time of year and I think our boys did a great job with that,” Bade said.

The girls were led by a pair of upperclassmen in the second race of the day. Senior Audrey Deering finished fourth with a time of 20:46.

“I felt controlled and steady,” Deering said. “I’ve been working on my mindset and how much it can affect you and it feels good to feel good and just trust in my training.”

Deering has finished in the top 10 in four times this season and top five in her last two races. Tuesday, the senior had her second-best time of the season, just missing her personal best of 20:21.

Finishing just behind her was junior Arryonna Bartlett. The junior took fifth with a time of 22:08.

“I felt great out there, a lot better than I ran at my last meet,” Bartlett said. “I was more controlled, more focused on knowing what’s going on.”

Maryville’s next meet comes Oct. 31 in Kearney at the Class 3 District 4 Championships. Bade said his hope is that the boys can qualify as a team in what will be strong competition.

“It’s kind of wide open, there is about six schools that could win it or get top four,” Bade said. “We saw today that our five had a big race and our four had a PR and that’s going to be a big difference in a couple weeks. The goal is for the boys to qualify, then the second goal is to try to see how the race unfolds and try to win a championship.

“On the girls’ side, it’s a very strong district, so we’re going to look and see who we can maybe beat. Their goals are going to be a little bit different, it’s more individual.”

ANTHONY CRANE/THE FORUM
Ryker Hackett runs the cross country trail at Missouri Western State University Tuesday evening. Hackett took first in the meet.