Sunday Sit-down with Mizzou cross country coach Kyle Levermore

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones brought on Mizzou cross country coach Kyle Levermore, ahead of the first-ever Division I National Championship in Columbia on Saturday, in this week's edition of Sunday Sit-down.

On Saturday, college cross country teams from around the nation will descend upon the Gans Creek Cross Country course, in Columbia, with hardware on the brain. That will include the Mizzou women's team, as they as a team for the first time in nine years after a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional, on Friday.

It's an event that Coach Levermore's team has used as a north star and a point to build towards for years now. It's also an opportunity to show the nation what makes Columbia so special.

"I think, you know, obviously circled on our calendar for a long time and, in terms of our program, been a big source of motivation over the last few years. But, over the last few weeks, having a bunch of teams here and having had the Gans Creek Classic and the Pre-National, I think it's motivated us. I think it also has kept our standard really high to want to continue to make the course a little bit better each time people are out here. Our hope is that this is a starting point for this course becoming a premier destination. I think it has become that, but we're excited about what the rest of the country has gotten to see in the last few weeks," Levermore said.

You can watch their full conversation on ABC 17 SportsZone at 10:30 on KMIZ.

You can also find a full transcription of the interview below.

Nathalie Jones: Welcome back, everyone. As you can see, it is a very special edition of Sunday sit-down. We're here at the gans creek cross country course, joined by coach Kyle Levermore. Kyle, thanks for welcoming us out to the course. I mean, gorgeous day out here. 

Kyle Levermore: Yeah, thanks for being out here.

Nathalie:  Yeah, you know, obviously exciting times coming to Columbia, a national championship, a Division I national championship is going to be coming to CoMo, how exciting is it for this program to kind of have this buzz around it right now?

Kyle: Yeah, no, it's, it's been, I think, you know, obviously, circled on our calendar for a long time, and in terms of our program, been a big source of motivation over the last few years. But over, you know, the last few weeks, having a bunch of teams here, and having had the Gans Creek Classic in the Pre-Nationals, I think you know it's motivated us. I think it also has kept our standard really high to want to continue to make the course a little bit better each time people are out here. And, you know, our hope is that this is a starting point for, you know, this course becoming a premier destination, and i think it has become that, but we're excited about what the rest of the country has gotten to see in the last few weeks. And, yeah, it's been, it's been a really fun couple of months.

Nathalie:  What is it about this course that makes it so great for this board?

Kyle: I think the big thing is the spectator experience. You know, you're sitting out here and you've got the ability to see most of the course while you're kind of staying in one place. You know, you guys were here for practice this morning and probably saw a lot of the workout without going too far. I think it's the same experience for the spectators when they come here. It's very easy to get around, it's very easy to watch the race. I think that's something that in cross country is not always the common so that's part one, and i think the other part is the way that this course is maintained. It's maintained at a really high level, and the operations around it make for an incredibly professional competitor experience. And, yeah, something we're really proud of. And I give a lot of credit to the city of Columbia as much as you know, it's become our home for, you know, the Tigers. This is the city's baby, as well.

Nathalie: What does this say about this program, the fact that you guys are hosting event like this...what does that do for recruiting? It has to be great for this program to kind of have something like this and put you guys really in that spotlight.

Kyle: Yeah, it's been, it's been the thing that I've been able to talk about in recruiting that's been a motivating factor for us to get really high level talent to have a reason to come here. I've always thought that, you know, Columbia is a great town to train in, but a great town, with great trails isn't going to sell something it in recruiting. So, it's definitely been something that we've been able to talk about and, you know, circle on our calendar as a big goal. It's not that it's the be-all and end-all for us, but it is something that has been on our mind and allowed us to have a little bit of a blueprint that, you know, we've had to make progress each season to get to the point where it was realistic for us to be on the line in a couple of weeks. And, yeah, it's definitely been a big, a big part of our recruiting pitch. 

Nathalie: Yeah. I mean, how far do you feel like this program has come in that journey to where you want to be to, you know, qualifying for national championship, right?

Kyle: Yeah, when I was offered the job in 2023 I knew what that timeline looked like and we were, gosh, you might have to fact check me here, but i think we were ninth in the SEC and 13th in the region, my first year with the men, and maybe ninth in the SEC and 14th or 15th in the region with the women. That requires a lot of progress, you know, over a short period of time. I think, more than anything, it gave us a starting point, and this gave us kind of like an end point. That has allowed me, as a coach, to have a plan each season, to kind of need, you know, need to have, like, certain things that we're getting all checked off. I think we've done a lot of those things in the last two years to the point we're coming into this fall and it hasn't felt like a big task. It's just felt like the next realistic step for us. I think we've failed on the big stage, we've had a lot of success in big moments and you need both of those things to be able to get to, you know, a level where you can consistently be in the national conversation. I think it's the same thing, you know, once you're consistently in the national conversation. You're not gonna make it out of a prelim sometimes, you're gonna, you know, favorites falter too. So, it's all part of the process of being at this level and I think if we can get to this point in two years, like, I am just excited for what the future is without, like, obviously, there's going to be more championships here. But, you know, I think it's kind of like a nice progression to like, this is, like, really the next step in the program's development is to consistently be at this level. I feel like if we can do it in this amount of time, we can do a lot more with now, a lot more with no timeline. 

Nathalie: Right? Well, what do you feel like has been really the most key ingredient for you, you know, to find the success and kind of get to where you guys are now, what has been that kind of key for you you feel like?

Kyle:  The support from the university and from Coach Halter. They've allowed this distance program to be, you know, a focal point of of our entire track program. When you're in a place where your event area is prioritized and you have the resources to do what you need to do in recruiting to get that level of talent here, that's half the battle. I think the other piece is just bringing in like-minded people. We had to turn over a culture and redefine, you know, what our culture is within the within the distance program. I think those two pieces of like having the resources to do it and then finding like-minded people to bring into the fold is half the battle. I think, honestly, when you have really talented people, most of your job is to keep those people healthy and that their talent will do a lot of the a lot of the rest of the work.

Nathalie: Well, tell me about this year's group. What's kind of impressed you about the way they've kind of attacked this season?

Kyle: I think it's different for both groups. I think for the women, it's the first time that we've had cohesion, like within the classes. Like, we haven't always had an even split of ages and so my first year, we were like two freshmen and seven seniors and then last year we didn't really have any juniors on the team. So, I think just like having true freshman class, having a true sophomore class, having juniors, having seniors, like all of those pieces...But what's impressed me is that I feel like they kind of skipped a little bit of, like, the learning phase, where they've kind of just taken what we've said and just done it. That's a hard thing to do, but I think its also is a credit to them and lot of what their why is behind, you know, their purpose as a team.

Nathalie: Yeah. I mean, how critical is this experience? You know, having a national championship experience for the for this younger group as they grow up? I mean, obviously it's something you guys have talked about for a while, to have this experience so early on in their time here?

Kyle: It's critical. It's really, really important. I think one of the beauty, the beautiful parts of the SEC, the beauty of this conference and in the NCAA, is that you're going to rise to the level of people around you. And when you're young in the SEC, that can mean taking your lumps, but when you take your lumps in the SEC, you're taking them at the national level. So when you do finally, kind of arrive on the national stage, you've seen it, you know, maybe you haven't been to the meet, but you've seen it at the SEC championship, you've seen it in those in that environment and I think it allows some of those younger guys to grow up quicker. And so, it is really important, you know, we host an SEC Championship next year here, we host an NCAA Regional in two years and we'll hope to get another national meet here, like that's part of the identity of this program moving forward. I think that, if anything, those guys are going to see who aren't on the course, who are young, are going to see what it looks like and hopefully it motivates them for years to come, knowing that this is not the last championship that will be here. 

Nathalie: Kyle, I appreciate you making the time. We're looking forward to it. 

Kyle: Yeah, thank you.

Nathalie: For the rest of you guys, we'll be right back after the break.