Mizzou’s cross country teams will head into the 2026 season with the women ranked fifth in the SEC preseason poll and the men slotted seventh, according to the league’s coaches.
For the women, the No. 5 projection is another step forward in the preseason conversation. It’s the program’s best preseason placement since 2021, after being picked seventh in 2025 and 11th in 2024. The men, meanwhile, were placed seventh after entering last year’s poll at fourth.
The Tigers will open the season on the road at the Iowa State Cyclone Opener on Friday, Sept. 4 in Ames, Iowa. That meet will also serve as a look at the Iowa State course, which is set to host the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship in November.
Missouri’s only home regular-season meet comes a few weeks later with the eighth annual Gans Creek Classic on Friday, Sept. 25. It will be the first race at Gans Creek since Missouri hosted the 2025 NCAA Cross Country National Championship.
The Tigers will return to that same venue later in the fall, when Missouri hosts the 2026 SEC Cross Country Championship on Friday, Oct. 30 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course. It will be the second time the course has hosted the league meet after doing so in 2021.
Missouri brings back 18 individuals from its 2025 roster, led by All-American and All-SEC First Team selection Monica Wanjiku. The women finished 28th at the 2025 NCAA Championship, marking the program’s 13th appearance on the national stage, while the men ended their season seventh at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship.
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The film looks back at why that matchup mattered so much, including the fact that it settled the No. 1 spot in the college football rankings. With former players and the director offering their perspectives, the project taps into a rivalry that still has no clean finish, which is part of what keeps that afternoon in Kansas City lingering in the Missouri fan base. [Read more 🡒]
Mark Mitchells Kentucky Move Just Hit A Serious New Obstacle
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For Kentucky, the timing makes this more than just a routine compliance issue, because Mitchells move now has to fit squarely within a rule the league says it will continue to enforce. Missouri has already seen enough roster churn to know how quickly these situations can become messy, and this one now sits in the middle of a conference-wide stance that could determine whether the transfer is allowed to go forward at all. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou Fans Will Get An Early Read On Kerrick Jackson's Rebuild
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For Mizzou, the intrigue is in what those games can reveal after an active offseason in the transfer portal and the addition of a highly ranked transfer class. Fall exhibitions rarely tell the whole story, but they do provide a useful checkpoint, especially against programs with their own recent momentum and coaching stability questions. [Read more 🡒]