These four-state champion teammates have created a Maize South-to-WSU pipeline
In 2016, Maize South won its first state championship in school history with the help of four boys who went on to become Division I athletes at Wichita State.
The Mavericks’ boys cross country team was made up of star Ethan Cossover, Bryce Merriman, Britte Magnuson and Trey Rios, a promising freshman. The boys shared their championship with the girls team, which featured another future Shocker, Destini Eskridge, pushing the total to five in four years.
April 30, Rios announced his signing with WSU in a walk-on opportunity, a similar path other Mavericks had taken.
“Each one of them have paved the way for the next,” WSU coach Kirk Hunter. “They stayed in our ears, kept bugging us and kept bugging us, and eventually they started proving it to us.
“They are guys who probably pursued us more than we pursued them, which means they really want to be here, and that’s a really important part to any program. And if Trey is anything like these other three, we’re really excited to have him.”
That kind of tenacity carried Rios and the other Mavericks to go on to Division I running. In 2016, Rios worked under coach Jason Parr, who now serves at Friends University. That was the only state championship season he experienced, but it showed him the work necessary.
But Parr was only in command because of tragedy. Just before the start of Rios’ freshman season, then-coach Alan Birdsell died unexpectedly. He was 66. Birdsell was at Maize South since the school opened and at Maize High before that.
As a sophomore, Rios ran under the direction of coach Mike Pope. The Mavericks rose to Class 5A and finished sixth as a young team.
A year later, Rios earned his first top 20 finish at state. And in his senior season, Rios finished fifth in Class 5A. He and his coach, Amber McVicar, earned All-Metro honors. It was Rios’ fourth coach in four years.
“Cross country is one of those sports where your coaches can only do so much for you,” Rios said. “It’s really your teammates who help push you forward. I don’t know what it is, whether it’s the water we drink over here at Maize South, but it always seems like every year there’s someone new that steps up.”
But Rios wasn’t alone on that turbulent but successful path to WSU. Merriman and Magnuson showed that same fight to reach the Division I level, Hunter said, and when they became Shockers, they put that fight to action.
“When we brought Ethan in, he immediately showed signs of improvement,” Hunter said. “We were really impressed with his competitiveness and how he was as a person. I think him being here is more the reason for everybody else.
“Bryce came in and saw the team and the workouts and said, ‘I have to be a part of this,’ and he has really started to come on, and he will be a big contributor for us. And Britte kept performing better and better. He showed us he was the real deal, and he earned his spot by the way he trained and had a sensational freshman year.”
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rios won’t get that early opportunity to show he belongs on the Shockers’ roster — at least not in person. Rios said he has been improving his times steadily with the help of some former and future teammates.
Rios competed in a few indoor meets where he posted “decent times,” that sparked a “little bit” of interest from WSU. But about a month ago, he ran 3,200-meter personal record by about 20 seconds, he said.
And about a few weeks ago, Kossover and Merriman offered to set a pace for Rios to follow in another time trial. He ran 3,200 meters in 9:32.00, which would have won the state title in all but two classifications at last year’s state track meet and would have broken Kossover’s Maize South record.
So when the four are reunited next season, Rios said he hopes to put the pieces back together like they did at Maize South in 2016.
“I always knew I wanted to go to Wichita State and get an education there,” Rios said. “As you fall more in love with running, you think, ‘Maybe I’ll take this to the next level.’ Then getting to hear what three other guys say they love about the program, and you can see the results, that just makes you want to be a part of it even more.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 10:12 AM.