DENVER – That is what Amanda Rego has been talking about.
 
For weeks now, Rego – MSU Denver's associate head coach in cross country – has been talking about a breakout season for JJ Ramey from the men's team.
 
Running his first meet of the season at Saturday's Roadrunners Invitational, Ramey clipped more than two minutes off his best 8-kilometer cross country time and finished in sixth place in a field of 131 in 24 minutes, 12.20 seconds.
 
"I didn't know what to expect," Ramey said. "It's my first race this season. I just wanted to test the limits and try to run a good time. I feel like I did the best could. I brought it in pretty hard. It was a good race, on my home course.
 
"It has changed my perspective in that my confidence is huge right now."
 
Ramey's result, plus another strong outing by Noel Lopez, who was 11^th in 24:22.50, helped the MSU Denver men to a fourth-place finish among the 11 teams that fielded full lineups. It matched MSU Denver's best finish at the Roadrunners Invitational since winning it among a field of eight in 2017.
 
"It was an awesome race for our guys," Rego said. "I'm really, really proud of them. I really thought our guys could be up there. We're just going to keep coming and surprising people. Our younger guys, and our older guys, are stepping it up."
 
Said Ramey: "This is a good spot for our team. We're all performing well. We're pretty healthy. The team did great."
 
MSU Denver's young women's team, affected by an early in-race injury, placed eighth among 13 teams.
 
Abi Read, Audrey Orstead and Audrynn Street finished 31^st, 36^th and 40^th, respectively.
 
"Abi, Audrey and Audrynn all ran 10 to 25 seconds faster than their times from last year," Rego said. "So we had improvements from all our returners, and then we had some great races from our freshmen – Caitlin (Hunt) and Kendra (Painter-Hayes) had great days. Seeing our young runners and what they did, I was really proud of that."
 
Hunt finished 51^st, while Painter-Hayes was 73^rd.
 
As a freshman last season, Ramey had finished no better than 27^th in any race, and his average finish was 69^th.
 
"Last year I felt like I wasn't running up to my full potential," Ramey said. "Coach has really helped me with my training, and I've been around these guys all year, so this is really awesome. It's all paying off."
 
It was clear from the start Saturday that he was a contender, as he ran with the lead for the early part of the race at the Washington Park course.
 
"That wasn't the strategy, but when we started, our box was kind of in the middle, so Noel and I ended up in front," Ramey said. "We just took them for a lap. It felt good, man. I've never been in front in one of these races. I could get used to that, for sure."
 
Rego liked Ramey's race tactics.
 
"I didn't want him to get out too quick, but I had told him, 'You belong up there,' and he ran like that," she said. "We didn't talk too much about what place he needed to be in. It was very mature of him to know that he could lead, or he could tuck in and be in the pack and be comfortable. He ran very smart."
 
Ramey was able to stay near the front with some effort, and with the encouragement of the hometown crowd.
 
"I was feeling good the first couple of laps," Ramey said. "The last couple (kilometers), I was dying a little bit. I had to start swinging the arms. But it was good having everyone out here, because I would be dying a little bit and someone would yell 'Get up there,' and that helped me."
 
Lopez dropped back a bit by the middle of the race, but started picking off competitors toward the end.
 
"Noel is sneaky," Rego said. "He always comes up from behind, even before the race, JJ said, 'I know Noel is going to be coming.'"
 
Oticio Herrera placed 28^th, Nick Nowlen was 52^nd and Dylan Lainez was 56^th as the Roadrunners scored 108 points, just two behind third-place Dallas Baptist.
 
Read also finished strongly in the women's race, turning in a 23:29.90 clocking.
 
"Our strategy was to get out to a good position, and then hold on in the middle and see what we could do in the last third," Read said. "I did OK. I struggled in the middle third with mental stuff and side cramps and good things like that. Getting through that was challenging. But I'm really happy that in the end I was able to recover a little and maybe not do exactly what I wanted but I was able to pass some people in the end."
 
Ultimately, the star of the show was Ramey. And he surprised even Rego.
 
"I told him I thought he could get an award, a top-15 finish," Rego said. "Top 10 was better than we expected. But I think the sky is the limit for him. I still don't think we've found it. He's going to be good over the next couple years, and this is definitely a breakout day him."