Nick Adcock Makes Mizzou Hall of Fame

On September 8th, Nick Adcock will be inducted into the Mizzou Track & Field Hall of Fame. He is the son of Sue (Ruckman) Adcock. 

In 2007, Nick claimed the title of “America’s Greatest Athlete Under 20.” He was Mizzou’s first ever track and field athlete to qualify for the USAFT Junior Decathlon Championship and won it with a score of 7,293 points. He beat out a field of 145 athletes, and his performance was the seventh best in the 58 year history of that event. For that, he qualified for the US Junior National Team and competed in the Pan Am Junior games in Sao Paulo (Brazil), where he placed second.

He was a five time All-American, and won the Big 12 Championship in 2008 and 2010 in the Heptathlon, and also won it in the Decathlon in 2010.

Nick holds the school record in the Heptathlon with 5,938 points and the Heptathlon 60 Meter Hurdles with a time of 7.92. In 2009, he placed fourth nationally in the Indoor Heptathlon and did so again in 2010. He holds the Big 12 Conference Meet Record for the Heptathlon and was the 2010 USFFCCA Midwest Athlete of the Year.

Nick also excelled in the classroom as well as the track, winning multiple Big 12 academic awards.

He represented the USA once in Toluca (Mexico), once in Sao Paulo (Brazil), twice at the Thorpe Cup in Marburg (Germany) and once in the USA.

In 2011, he won the 2011 Indoor USATF National Championship.

Nick grew up in Kansas City and graduated from Oak Park High School in 2006. His Kindergarten teacher at Fox Hill Elementary started drilling into his head when he graduated that he should go to college at the University of Missouri. He started doing track in middle school, doing High Jump and some relays. In high school, he started doing hurdles as well, which became his favorite event.

In 2009, he met his wife Liz Roehrig, who was competing for the University of Minnesota, where she was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2021. They married in 2014 and reside in Columbia (MO), where he is an accounting manager at Storage Mart and she is a PE teacher and assistant track and field coach at Battle High School. They have two daughters, Teagan (6) and Braylee (8 months).

Editorial -- The Mizzou Student Protest and North Nodaway

Two recent situations were handled as differently as night and day. On Monday, University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe was forced to resign over allegations that the administration had been unresponsive to racism on campus. Things had come to a head; there were massive sit-ins and protests, a hunger strike, and at least 30 Black Mizzou football players had threatened not to participate in any more football activities unless the situation was dealt with.

The problem is that the administration had let these incidents go on for too long. Racism and bullying are not a matter of boys being boys. Had the situation been allowed to escalate further, someone could have been killed. These behaviors should have no place in any sort of public gathering. We have a theory that the reason the Mizzou basketball team has struggled the last two years and the football team has struggled this year, in part, was due to the environment that was created, making it difficult for the coaches to recruit good players. Creating safe campuses for kids from all walks of life is a must in this day and age. Failure to do so is a dealbreaker for many people.

We here in rural Missouri need to avoid anything which might be perceived as racist; there are plenty of parents out there who won't move to a certain community if they perceive it as racist b/c they don't want their children exposed to that. The board needs to hire a President who has had experience in an academic setting who knows how to deal with a diverse student population. As the Bible says, God is no respecter of persons, and His saved will come from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

By contrast, the North Nodaway administration acted promptly when a student brought a gun to school two weeks ago. They realized that in this day and age, there is no place for making threats of violence against people, even in jest. They took quick action to protect the students and teachers, and everyone is safe as a result. The individual who reported the incident did the right thing -- the only way we can prevent violence in schools is for people in a position to do so to discuss their concerns with someone they trust whenever they think someone might engage in actions that put themselves or others at risk.

We do not know what precipitated that particular incident or who instigated the conflict that led that particular student to act the way he did. There are always two sides to any story. But what we do know is that our schools can and should use this as an opportunity to create an environment in which bullying and racism are not tolerated and conflicts can be resolved before they progress to the point where one party or the other feels the need to resort to violence.

For this to happen, all students have to be valued for who they are. Schools cannot create environments in which, say, the athletes are the most important thing and all the rest of the students are second class citizens. People here in small towns tend to be skeptical of outsiders, but students need to be treated with respect whether they have just moved in or whether their families have been lifers in the community since its founding shortly after the Civil War. Right now, our small towns are in a state of economic decline that has been in progress for the last several decades. The only way that will be reversed as for us, as communities, to treat everyone with respect regardless of who they are. When that happens, people will want to move in and be a part of a place which creates a welcoming environment which creates a safe place for all of us to live in and work.

Sierra Michaelis Perfect Compliment for Mizzou Women

Mercer guard Sierra Michaelis, who wowed everyone at the Worth County District Basketball tournament, is not necessarily done with her playing days after she is done at Mercer. She has signed on to play for Missouri, giving the womens basketball team a local flavor. Sophomore point guard Kyley Simmons, who earned a starting job for the Tigers last year as a freshman, is the niece of Todd and Whitney Simmons of Parnell.

Michaelis is a perfect fit for the team-first approach of Missouri’s athletics program; Athletic Director Mike Alden, in a recent visit to Worth County, talked about the importance of his school’s programs playing as a team. She is gifted with outstanding court vision, meaning that if other teams try to double her, she can spot open players that most other players can’t see. That forces teams to play honest defense on her and that allows her to assault the state high school scoring record, which she will likely come really close to breaking if she continues scoring at her present pace.

And Sierra is not necessarily the only scoring option for Mercer anymore. Courtney Owens, who is playing for Central Methodist next year, set a building record for the Worth County gym with 44 points in Wednesday’s lopsided semifinal win over Cainsville. That eclipsed the total set by Linda (Schmitz) Mattson in her senior year at Northeast Nodaway back in 1987; Linda hung 38 on Benton JV in the first round of the Worth County Tournament that year. The other three players are also capable of scoring if the need arises and know how to play the game, a benefit of having played with Sierra and Courtney for four years.

Michaelis has the gift of making everyone around her better, a must at the college level, where she will join a team that’s on the rise. Mizzou is in a transition period as this is their first year in the SEC and both the men’s and women’s teams along with the football team have experienced growing pains. But the women have improved on last year’s record and sit at 15-13 before a senior night game Thursday night. Like the men, the women have made Mizzou Arena one of the most inhospitable places to play in their new conference; they are 13-4 at home. And they are open to Missouri talent even at the class 1 level; Montrose standout Morgan Eye leads the team with over 100 three-pointers this year and has had as many as 33 points in a game this year. Montrose derailed Jefferson’s bid for a state title three years ago.

After three unsuccessful attempts to get past Jefferson the last three years, Mercer finally got the monkey off their backs Saturday night, winning 59-39 over their long-time nemesis. When asked what it meant to her to finally get the monkey off their backs, an ecstatic Sierra said, “I can’t describe it!” Sierra and her teammates have captured everyone’s hearts and minds because they have discovered the ability to enjoy every moment and play every game like it might be their last. This is what made other teams in the area successful, including the Northwest Women’s final four team of two years ago, the Northeast Nodaway girls teams of 2008-2011, and the Tiger girls teams from 1998-2005.

Mizzou Athletic Director Returns for Second Visit of Worth County

Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden made his second visit to Worth County Wednesday morning and met with Mizzou Tiger fans and spoke his mind on issues from the SEC, the basketball teams, and the athletic department's partnership with University Extension. He first visited Worth County in 2006, when he spoke to a Worth County student assembly. On Wednesday, he came to the Courthouse as part of a swing through Northwest Missouri. He also stopped at Gallatin and a student assembly in Tarkio before meeting with NWMSU coaches for a talk with them.

Alden showed himself to be a long-term thinker, saying that the university's membership in the SEC doubled the school's visibility from 45 million TV sets to almost 90 million. "We're getting applications from students from all over the south, something we've never had before," he said. He said that it was a good challenge for Missouri to compete in the SEC. "We can't stay stagnant," he said. "People who never would have known about us before now look at us and our logo quizzically, and then they come and check us out and see what we're all about." For Alden, it all starts with branding, saying that it was a challenge when Columbia was farther away than, say, Ames or Lincoln. But Mizzou sports is now a regular topic of conversation in the area; about 15-20 years ago, that was not necessarily the case. The next step is to put the university's best foot forward; under his leadership, the university has invested over $150 million in its athletic facilities since he took over. The result is a recruiting tool that draws top athletes and students from all over the country.

Regarding the basketball teams, he said that everyone was excited about this year's men's team following their 30-win season; over 7,000 people showed up for an exhibition game with Northwest Missouri State. The women, including Kyley Simmons, niece of Worth County's own Todd Simmons, are in a rebuilding year, but Alden said that they would be ahead of where they were last year. Alden had nothing but good things to say about Simmons, who started as a point guard last year as a freshman. "She's got the best work ethic of anyone on the team," said Alden. He said that the success of both the teams would depend on how well they played as a team and shared the ball.

Touring the small towns of Missouri is nothing new for Alden; he has visited every county of the state in his 14 year tenure at one time or another. Reaching out to Tiger fans around the state is one of his core philosophies, one that he started doing when he became athletic director in 1998. He talked about other small towns during his visit, such as Bethany, which produced the Madison brothers, Ty Luellen, and Larry Linthacum, or Brookfield, which has also produced a pipeline of Missouri athletes. He himself was born and raised in small town Missouri; he grew up in Williamsburg, MO, a small town 35 miles east of Columbia.

When he first became athletic director, Alden said part of his goal was to change the culture; in the past, "we never got out and about," he said. "This is a matter of us reaching out and thanking loyal Tiger fans across the state for their support of Mizzou athletics." Along the way, he has formed many partnerships, such as with the University of Missouri Extension, which serves all 114 counties in the state. The Extension is part of the University of Missouri system and both Alden and the Extension share the goal of academic excellence.