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Home » News » 2025 » June

News Brief

June 11, 2025 |  By: Gavin McGough

Missouri Western State University has new support for their Track and Field program

Missouri Western University Website

The news came suddenly to Missouri Western State University students. 

"I was just shocked at that point. I was sitting with my family, watching TV and then I just got this massive news that I no longer have a track team to go to at Missouri Western and with it being so late in the recruiting process, I really didn't know what I was going to do.", Carson Sterling said.

Carson is a thrower who graduated in the spring from Maryville High School. He had secured a spot and scholarship money to enroll at Missouri Western this fall and compete on their track and field team.

Athletes both enrolled and recruited were expecting another year of competition in the program, which had just sent four student atheltes to national championships and returned a number of top results. 

Then on an evening call, coaches shared news that the athletic department was pulling support for the program effective immediately.

Lucas Trotter, a captain on the team who threw shotput, explained the abrupt announcement left him and his teammates with few options as other schools had recruited their athletes and distributed their scholarship funds for the coming year. He and a few other top athletes entered the transfer portal immediately and found last minute arrangements, but they are the exception.

"For my teammates who have not had the chances to succeed like we have, they are not getting anything.", Trotter said.

Athletes felt robbed at their chance of an affordable education, according to Trotter.

"You're a good athlete, you put so much time into your event and everything all for the fact that you have to pay as little for college as possible and it's all kind of taken away from you."

Missouri Western State University does not have their own track, forcing the team to practice at various locations offsite.

Andy Carter said the program was initially cut as the university felt it wasn't providing a good enough student experience, but at a press conference this week Carter said the program was returning thanks to an unnamed source of support.

"Quite honestly, we got new information that we have support and now we're gonna do what is best to help our student athletes have the experience we wanted them to have in the first place," Carter said.

The universities reversal, roughly ten days after the initial announcement was still too late for Trotter and Sterling. They both have called on connections and secured offers elsewhere, but Trotter said he will miss his team at Missouri Western.

"I really do wish the best for my teammates and coaches," Trotter said. "I know that my head coach fought tooth and nail to get his team back. He sacrificed a lot."

Trotter added that if the program is ever cut again, he hopes the athletic department wil give athletes more warning as they navigate their futures.