LINN — Linn’s cross-country program was recently inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, a reflection of the dedication, hard work, and commitment of the eight head coaches and their athletes.

“As a former Linn runner and now superintendent of schools, I could not be more proud to celebrate the Linn Cross Country Program’s induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame,” said Superintendent Bob James. “This honor is a testament to the dedication, perseverance, and teamwork of the athletes, coaches, and supporters who have built a legacy of excellence. From early morning practices to state championships, the spirit of Wildcat determination has always been second to none. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this incredible achievement — your hard work has truly left a lasting mark on our community!”

Linn’s cross-country programs have a storied history since the sport began in 1978, including 14 top-four finishes. The boys won state titles in 1987, 1989, 1998, 1999, and 2011, claimed five state runner-up finishes (1988, 2000, 2010, 2012, 2013), third-place trophies in 1995 and 1997, and a fourth-place finish in 1996. Kaleb Wilson and Tyler Rush were state champions in 2011 and 2012, respectively. 

The girls enjoyed an outstanding run, with eight top-four finishes from 1998 to 2005. The Lady Wildcats won state championships in 1999 and 2003, placed third in 1998, 2001, 2002, and 2005, and were fourth in 2000 and 2004.

Since its inception, Linn has seen 39 boys and 23 girls earn All-State honors.

But all those top finishes were years away when the program began.

In 1978, a few years after Linn’s JV football program came to an end, a need for something else in the fall served as the impetus to create the Wildcats’ cross-country program.

“We didn’t have anything for the boys to do in the fall,” said Linn’s first XC coach, Lonnie Thompson, who coached boys’ basketball at the time. “The other thing was that we had a really good basketball team coming back, and we wanted to get in shape, and that was probably the best way to get to another level of fitness.

“That’s how it started,” Thompson continued. “And then it kind of morphed into something else. We were naturally competitive. They would compete at whatever they were in, no matter what the sport was. They took it seriously, worked hard at it, and we had some success. We didn’t go to districts our first year. That was one year we didn’t go because we just didn’t think we were ready. After that, we started participating in state events, and it kind of snowballed on us, and we got more kids out.”

Linn welcomed 40-plus runners in each of the first few years, mainly because of the conditioning aspect.

It didn’t take long for the team to compete at the state level, though it wasn’t until 1982 that the Wildcats almost cracked the top 10, finishing 12th under Coach Scott Conner. “He came to Linn straight out of college,” said Thompson. “He was a runner who took my place as cross country coach when I went to head basketball coach, and he took us to the level of competition. So we did this in steps.”

It’s important to note that in the early years of the program, cross country had just two classes, and Linn was in Class A, competing with schools boasting enrollment of 500-600 students. “We had trouble competing against that really high level of enrollment,” said Thompson.

Conner coached from 1981-83, then Dave Phieffer led the program from 1984-85.

“Dave was primarily a baseball coach, but he took the cross country program, and they worked it hard,” said Thompson. “He just didn’t have the background that he probably needed for cross country. He’d never been in a cross-country environment. The teams weren’t quite as competitive as they had been at the state level, but the kids worked their tails off.”

Thompson returned to coach cross country in 1986, and the Wildcats earned sixth place at the state meet. “I knew we could start to challenge for some state honors,” he said. “In 1986, I gave up basketball coaching and went into all the running programs. We had a good bunch coming back in 1986. In fact, I thought we had a chance to finish in the top three, but our number one runner was injured. So, we went from probably an individual state champion to somebody scoring in the 70s back at the fifth spot. So that took us to sixth place.”

That finish provided motivation for Thompson and his athletes, who returned to push for better standing. “We knew the groundwork was there,” he said. “We had a lot of very competitive freshmen out that year who went on to be state champions.”

After winning the state title in 1987, the Wildcats earned second in 1988 and won again in 1989, Thompson’s last year as head coach.

In 1987, Thompson said, Linn competed against defending state champion Viburnum at that school’s home course during districts. “They had everyone back from their championship team,” said Thompson, adding that the third-place team in 1986, Steelville, was also there. “We knew we had to get with it pretty hard, so the kids went to two-a-days, a morning distance workout and an afternoon sprint workout. We got a lot more miles in, did a lot more work on speed, and when we were at the mile marker of the event at Viburnum, I knew we had a really good chance of winning that district, and we did.”

The following year, Thompson said Linn had “probably as good a team as we ever had, but we had some bad luck with some guys having a bad day and ended up second.”

Linn lost only one runner to graduation and returned several All-State athletes for the 1989 season, which ended with the school’s second state title.

One of Thompson’s favorite memories was winning the 1989 Clayton Invitational, which consisted of all big schools in the St Louis area. “Before the meet, I was walking around a little bit. I look up, and the boys are chasing squirrels all over the park. I mean, they were chasing them, had sticks in their hand, trying to kill them, and this old lady came up and chewed me out. She asked if they were my boys, and I said, ‘Yeah, they’re my boys.’ And she said, ‘Well, they’re trying to kill our squirrels.’ I said,’  They’re just warming up.’ She stomped off. I didn’t tell them to quit.”

The Lady Wildcats, meanwhile, began to see success in 1988 with a 10th-place finish at state.

“It was just a process, really,” said Thompson. “It was just one step at a time, getting better each year and getting more kids out. When we started winning cross country, the track program got a lot stronger.”

In 1990, Tim Bower assumed control of the program for one year, which finished with the Wildcats earning 10th place and the Lady Wildcats finishing 15th.

Former superintendent Brian Kirk, a collegiate runner, led the cross country program in 1991, with the boys’ team earning seventh.

Brett Phillips, who was inducted this year not only as part of Linn’s cross-country program but also the Jefferson City XC program, took the helm in 1992 for the Wildcats.

He wasn’t specifically looking to coach cross country. “I just was trying to find jobs,” said Phillips, who was certified to teach English. “I was more interested in coaching basketball at that time. I wasn’t going about it to try to be a running sports coach at the beginning, but to take the teaching job, I had to coach cross country. You gotta do what you can with what you have. That’s just life in a small school.”

Phillips admits that when he began coaching cross country, he had no clue what he was doing. “I was not knowledgeable and did a poor job,” he said. “I did not run a step of cross country ever. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing at all. I had to learn as a coach that I was behind those guys who were great runners in high school and college. I never came beating the war drums, saying I was a running coach.

“I was dissatisfied with how that came about and became pretty driven to try to at least get the program to ascend to the success it had previously before me,” Phillips added. “You don’t want to do worse than the guy before you ever in coaching.”

He reflected on the success teams coached by Thompson, Conner, and Bower had done and shared his goals with his athletes. “The kids became driven to succeed, too,” said Phillips. “I didn’t see the late 90s kind of run, per se; no one really makes that up. You don’t say you’re going to get close 7, 8, 9 years in a row and win it three times. I don’t take myself nearly that seriously. But we were certainly driven to match the success the program has had before, and I was driven to build up the girls’ side, which just had random teams over the years. During that stretch, we were able to build up the girls’ team; they won two titles themselves, and they became a small school state power, just like the boys.”

In 1993, the Wildcats earned eighth at state, followed by a string of top finishes as the team placed 10th in 1994, third in 1995, fourth in 1996, and third again in 1997.

During the 1997 campaign, the Lady Wildcats placed ninth, and then the dream occurred.

In 1998, the boys won the state title, and the Lady Cats earned third.

The Wildcats entered the 1999 season with hopes of repeating as state champs, and the girls wanted a higher step on the podium.

Both dreams came true as Linn won the state championship on both sides, which was the only time that’s happened in school history.

“You can’t do cross country by yourself,” said Phillips. “My assistant, Jeff Wilkins, deserves a shout-out from me. He was my assistant for the state titles. His daughter and his son both ran for me. When we won with the boys and the girls in 1999, Jeff did a great job.”

Phillips said he could always count on his athletes to work hard. “You’ve got to model work ethic and set clear expectations that have everything to do with character development and striving for success,” he added. “You get a bunch of talented kids, and away you go. That was what it was like. We were successful because I had a bunch of talented people run for me who worked their asses off and made a lot of sacrifices. You’re going to achieve potential when you do that. Everyone made sacrifices and worked hard, and everyone pretty much achieved their potential. High standards are important, going into practice every day thinking that you want to be better than all those teams around you. That became part of our DNA. That  was always attractive to me.”

In 2000, the Wildcats finished second, and the Lady Cats were fourth. While the girls’ team went on to place third in 2001 in Phillips’s final season, the boys earned sixth.

Tim Bower took over the program again in 2002, and he knew he had big shoes to fill.

“There was a little bit of pressure to follow in the footsteps of Lonnie, who had two state championships, and Brett, who had three and some successful runs with a couple of other coaches,” he said. “Brett had done a tremendous job. In my opinion, he brought the program to an elite level. Lonnie got us there, and Scott got us on the map, but Brett was very consistent and did really well, so we obviously wanted to continue that.

“You always want to be a good steward of the program and leave it better than how you got it,” Tim added. “A little peer pressure isn’t a bad thing.”

Like Phillips, Tim Bower taught in the middle school. “We had first pickings because we’d rattle the bushes and shake the trees,” Bower said. “We took any kid that could walk, even if they had two left feet.”

Middle school success led to high school achievement as the runners stuck with it. “They eventually became great senior leaders,” Tim said.

Tim’s wife, Suann, who eventually became the head coach in 2017, was a big part of the program’s success.

“I can’t say enough about her support,” Tim said. “She was there every step of the way, doing whatever needed to be done to make the program successful.”

Tim ran on Conner’s 12-place team in 1982, an experience he used later as a coach. “Success breeds success, and we had some good kids who were motivated and wanted to build on what the previous groups had done,” he said. “I was just honored and proud to be a part of it.”

When Tim took over in 2002, the Lady Wildcats ran to a third-place finish, and the boys earned fifth at state.

“When I came back for the third time in 2002, I was quite content to be Brett’s assistant, and I was for about a month,” Tim said. “That’s when he got the job at Jeff City and moved on.”

The next year, the Linn girls won another state championship as the boys’ team finished 13th.

Over the next few years, the Lad Cats continued to excel, earning spots on the podium in 2004 (4th) and 2005 (3rd) while finishing eighth in 2006.

In 2007, the Linn boys finished sixth and claimed seventh in 2008 before returning to the podium for five straight seasons. After a fourth-place finish in 2009, the Wildcats placed second in 2010, won the title in 2011, and placed second in each of the next two years.

On the girls’ side, Linn was 13th in 2010 and 10th in 2016, the final year Tim Bower led the team. The boys were seventh in 2014.

Suann Bower was a little nervous about taking the helm when Tim was hired as the high school principal and couldn’t coach the team. “Expectations were high, but he supported me 100%,” she said. “He helped me with all the workouts, getting the course ready, and running the meets, so it was truly a team effort.”

One of the efforts Suann made was to be more inclusive, and Tim praised her decision to bring in Chris Kmiec. “It’s hard to explain, but even with the championships and the top-four finishes, when you see a kid that you know just wants to get out there and be with others and and feel like he’s a part of the team, you have to take a lot of pride in that,” he said. “Suann was a big part of getting Chris to come out and run and after his seventh-grade year in track, he was hooked. He ran all the way to his senior year, and that inclusiveness made our program so much better.”

Suann explained that Kmiec, a special-needs student, had expressed an interest in trying some events. “I think the more kids are involved, the better; I want to get them out there with other kids,” she added. “It was just like a magnet. He really took to the kids, and I was so proud of how the other kids took him under their wings, showed him how to do things, watched out for him, and helped him throughout everything he did. They cheered for him, and Chris made friends throughout the whole county.”

Kmiec made friends wherever he went, with athletes and coaches from other schools taking the time to get to know him. “They were very supportive,” Suann said. “Just a few kind words make a huge difference. Cross country is like a family. I truly believe that because it takes everybody. A  person has to have the will to run hard like that. But, you’ve got a lot of people behind the scenes doing everything possible to make it a success for the kids.”

One of the changes to the program implemented by Tim and continued by Suann was the annual summer camp at Lake Nehi. Kmiec was nervous during his first foray but quickly settled in and enjoyed himself.

Tim said there was some apprehension about Kmiec coming out for track and cross country, but he’s pleased Suann welcomed him.

She added, “He ran by the same rules as everybody else and kind of brought our program full circle.”

One of Suann’s favorite memories was from when she was in high school. She recalled that when Tim was running cross country during his junior year, it was so cold, he had icicles on his face. “I thought he was nuts to be running in that kind of weather,” she said. “You always start out in the heat, but when you finish up in November, those kids are running in frigid weather, and I couldn’t believe that he had ice on his face.”

Suann noted that she is not a distance runner at all. “I’ve run one 5k in my life, and that’s enough, but I think we’ve had some really highs and lows,” she added. “When the kids fall and get hurt or collapse, it’s scary, but you know they’ve given it their all. They’re very resilient, tough kids. If they can go through cross country, they can go through just about anything in life.”

Suann led the cross country team from 2017-19 and turned over the program in 2020 to current coach Robyn Baker, who was Suann’s assistant in 2017.

“It was a pretty easy transition because we worked together pretty well, and I told her I’d be there for her, and Tim was out there for her also,” Suann said. “Robyn is a hard worker. She puts a lot of work behind the scenes. And I think she just had to do her best. We gave her all the same workouts we had used over the years, and she tweaked and added things that she thought were important. I wasn’t nervous that she had it. With the grandkids arriving, there was a different focus in our lives.”

Baker’s most significant challenge upon assuming control of the program was COVID-19. “That was daunting as we had to rethink how a cross country meet would be run and how to adhere to the new rules MSHSAA put in place,” said Baker of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. “I was also taking this on with a new AD (Clay Crouch), but we worked together well, and of course, I had wonderful support from the Bowers and all of my athletes’ parents. My assistant coach was Hannah Wilbers, and she was also new to the sport of running, but she listened to me a lot and was very much a calming force for me and the runners. I learned a lot that year, and I am so glad to have been given the opportunity.”

Though she had no seniors on the team, those running cross country for Baker exhibited great leadership.

Baker strived to make the program her own without changing the dynamics put in place by her predecessors.

“The program was already great, so changing too much didn’t make sense, but I do feel like I have put my own spin on things,” she said. “We started the Farm/Cow Run at the beginning of each season. The team meets at my house, and we run a meet through Baker Farm, with cows and all things that go with cows. We have also, in the last year, started a summer camp for elementary students to promote our running program.”

Baker noted that Tasha Haslag, who joined as her assistant coach in 2023, has been an asset to the program. “I feel like we are pushing our athletes more and will continue to see great results moving forward,” Baker added.

None of the coaches expected the program to be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

“Tim, Brett, and Superintendent Bobby James did a great job organizing that whole thing and making it work,” said Thompson of the HOF ceremony. “They need to be commended for that. A lot of people don’t go out of their way to do that kind of stuff. Tim gave a great presentation, and I think, overall, it was about as positive as I’ve ever seen. I think Linn should be proud of what’s happened in the past. Maybe they can get it going again. Maybe not, but they can’t take what we’ve done away; we’ll always be state champions.”

Thompson was pleased to see so many alumni in attendance, with 39 runners there for the presentation.

The Bowers were equally impressed. “We had four generations there,” Suann said, noting that their daughter, Melanie, and her two sons, Weston and Colt, and brother, Michael, joined Suann’s mom. “That was a very pleasing part of the day.”

“We had a good contingent there, and I was very proud of that,” Tim added. “We had a lot of parents and supporters there.”

In addition to Tim’s strict three-minute presentation, alumni runners Tyler Rush and Ashley (Bunch) Wickman provided an interview via Zoom.

“It’s still one big family,” Suann said. “They’re still coming and supporting, and thankfully, we didn’t have to have them do anything on the course.”

Tim agrees. “It’s been a tremendous ride,” he said. “We’ve surrounded ourselves with a lot of great people. Good things happen when you do that, and even better things happen when you stay out of their way and let them, let them achieve their success.”

Phillips said he didn’t necessarily think about the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame until the Jefferson City cross-country program was inducted. “I knew that Linn had better numbers because I’ve been in both places,” he said. “Linn won a state championship in four different decades. I think that’s pretty significant. That’s not something a lot of programs can say. I think that speaks to the long-term success  of a program owned by a community.”

Baker agrees. “The Linn cross-country program has an amazing tradition and has experienced a lot of success through the years,” she said. “I am just honored to be a part of it and happy to help to continue the tradition. It was quite an experience to be a part of the induction ceremony and see all the individuals who have been a part of this wonderful team.”

Looking back on the success of the program, Tim Bower noted that an often unsung element is life after graduation. “We sent a lot of kids to run in college after high school, but a lot of our kids also went into the armed forces, and I couldn’t be more proud of that fact,” said Bower, a veteran Army pilot. “A lot of former athletes serve in the military and serve their country, and it’s just a proud feeling to know they were not only successful on the cross-country course and in the classroom, but they’ve become very successful adults.”