Joplin, Mo. -- One of the nation's largest and most prestigious cross country events, the Missouri Southern Stampede, will be held Saturday at Hughes Stadium with more than 2,500 collegiate and high school runners expected to compete over the popular MSSU course.

Missouri Southern's nationally ranked men and women will host the Stampede, with competition starting at 9 a.m. with the women's 5-kilometer race. The men's 8-k championship will follow at 9:45. The girls' high school 5-k will follow the men's collegiate race, with the prep boys also scheduled to compete in a 5-k. A 5-k fun run will conclude the day's events.

Approximately 80 collegiate teams in the women's and men's divisions are entered, including the defending champion University of Arkansas men and the Harding University women.

Missouri Southern, currently ranked 18th nationally and second in the NCAA Division II South Central Region, finished fourth in the men's division last year behind Arkansas, Southwest Baptist and Harding. The Southern women, 21st nationally and third in the region, were seventh last year, finishing behind Harding, Missouri State, Southwest Baptist, Oral Roberts University, Pittsburg State and Mid-America Nazarene.

"This is a tough week for us," said Southern men's coach Tom Rutledge. "We've increased our workload, but our guys are motivated and I expect that they will do well. We don't have any great runners, but we do have some who are very good."

Echoed women's coach Patty Vavra: "We've increased the volume of our work this week. We've never had a good (Stampede) meet as a result of the increased workload. We're going to try and pack our runners together."

Sophomore Kimi Shank (Rolla, Mo.) leads the Lions after placing third in a dual meet at the University of Arkansas on Sept. 7, finishing the 4-k in 13 minutes, 52.2 seconds. Catherine White of Arkansas was first in 13:51.3. Five Southern runners finished 12th through 16th: Courtney Waltbillig (Rogersville), Kari Fritchie (Lee's Summit), Ashley Bunch (Loose Creek, Mo.), Taylor Whitacre (Lebanon) and Kara Eckard (Warrensburg).

Southern's men placed sixth through eighth and 9th through 12th in the Arkansas dual. Brennon Benkert, a sophomore from St. Clair, Mo., led the Lions with a time of 20:31.9 in the four-mile run.

In addition to the University of Arkansas, other NCAA Division I schools entered in the Stampede are Missouri-Kansas City, Oral Roberts University and the University of Tulsa.

The field includes six schools, nine squads, nationally ranked in Division II. In addition to Missouri Southern, Harding is ranked third in the women's national poll and ninth in the men's. Southwest Baptist has both squads ranked with the men 22nd and the women 23rd, while Drury is 25th in the men's poll. The University of California-San Diego women are 13th, while Pittsburg State is 14th in the women's rankings.

There are more than 50 schools entering teams in the high school division. Of the top three teams in the boys and girls divisions last year, only Potosi, which won the boys' Division I team title, is not entered. Runner-up Blue Springs and third-place Lee's Summit head the list of boys' entries. In boys' Division II, East Newton, School of the Osage and College Heights Christian of Joplin finished 1-2-3 in 2006.

The top three teams from 2006 returning in the girls divisions are Olathe East (Ks.), Bentonville (Ark.) and Eureka (Mo.) in Division I and College Heights, East Newton and Hermitage (Mo.) in Division II.

"We're expecting some 6,000 athletes, parents and other fans here for the Stampede," Rutledge said.

An army of volunteers will be needed for an assortment of jobs, from serving as course marshals, to calling out split times at the mile marks, to crowd control and corralling the runners as they come through the finish chute.

Coaches Rutledge and Vavra will be busy up to, during and after the Stampede.

"It's an overwhelming job," said Vavra as she opened two boxes of computer chips, which will be attached to each runner's shoes. When a runner hits the finish line, the chip will automatically record the runner's name, time and place. "Some of our volunteers will have to remove those chips so they can be returned to the Atomic Chip System which is providing them for this meet," Vavra said.

"You would think that this would be a great recruiting venue for Tom and myself, but we're so busy working that we don't have time to watch the races. But, the high school athletes will have an opportunity to visit our campus and see our excellent cross country and track facility."

The Stampede is the first of three major meets at Missouri Southern this fall. The NCAA Division II South Central Regional will be held here on Nov. 3. The Division II national championship will be contested over the MSSU course on Nov. 17.

"We will have 25 or 26 men's and women's teams here for the regional and 26 teams in both divisions in the national," Rutledge said. "That will be about a four-day event, with most of the schools coming in early to get in some practice on our course."
Missouri Southern also hosted the national championship in 1999. Western State, led by individual champion Michael Aish, won the men's team title easily over Adams State. The women's team title went to Adams State while Marjo Venalainen of Kennesaw State claimed the individual championship.