DENVER – Every year a slew of nationally-ranked teams shows up to compete at the RMAC Cross Country Championships.
 
And every year, it seems, unranked MSU Denver teams knock off a couple of them in impressive finishes.
 
This year the Roadrunners' men finished seventh and the women placed eighth as they hosted the RMAC Championships at Washington Park.
 
"There's a lot of really big confidence boosters that we can take away from today," said Amanda Rego, MSU Denver's associate head coach. "It still wasn't perfect. We've got to do better in certain areas.
 
"But the whole team should look at those who had those massive jumps today and think, 'Why not me?' I've seen it in workouts and I saw it today. It's just more proof to add to the pile. We're a team that should be nationally-ranked, and we can get to the national championships. We're building something."
 
JJ Ramey finished 14^th for the men's team that placed ahead of two nationally-ranked teams while totaling 197 points, while Mia Salas was 25^th for the women, who beat one ranked team and finished just five points out of seventh with 223.
 
"Our team looked sharp," Ramey said. "I think this is the best team we've had since I've been here, and it's really exciting. We've got some good guys and we're super motivated."
 
Ramey, who was 19^th at last year's NCAA Division II South Central Regionals, had his best finish at the RMAC meet, crossing the finish line at the end of 8,000 meters in 24 minutes, 53.1 seconds. He and Noel Lopez started slow and started picking off runners as the race progressed.
 
"We went out pretty slow," Ramey said. "There were a lot of guys ahead of us. Running here all the time, we know that a couple laps around this course is definitely going to tire you out. I just wanted to have a lot left going into that last lap. Patience paid off."
 
Said Rego: "JJ ran a beautiful race. It was kind of like watching regionals last year on this course. He timed it well, moved up a lot of places today."
 
Lopez, who was 16^th at the RMAC race last year, placed a solid 32^nd in 25:24.1.
 
Jordan Duran finished 49^th in 25:50.2, Brenden Sands was 55^th in 26:06.6 and Jonathan Duran was 58^th in 26:10.6.
 
"JJ ran awesome, Noel hung in there tough, and then Jordan, Brenden and Jonathan – that's where we made leaps today," Rego said. "Huge race for Jordan. None of those three had run at the RMAC Championships before. Last year our fifth and sixth runners were in the 80s."
 
Salas, a 2021 All-American in cross country at Augustana (S.D.) of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, ran 6K in 22:13.6 in her first RMAC Championships.
 
"It was a really competitive environment today," Salas said. "It's a lot different than the NSIC. There were a lot of girls up front getting out hard from the gun. It was a tough race. I definitely want more from myself, but team-wise we did a great job.
 
"I wanted to go out and give myself the opportunity to at least be within the top 30. I would have liked to be top-20, but I got further back than I wanted. But I think I did a good job of working my way up and moving up during the race, and I'm happy with that."
 
Abi Read was 31^st in 22:32.0, Taylor Engram was 58^th in 23:34.0, Tanis Chavez placed 60^th in 23:44.7 and Marissa Bruno finished 69^th in 24:04.1.
 
"There were a few people who really stepped up big-time, and a few who had an off day," Rego said. "I think if we can flip that and have everybody have their best day at regionals, we can be an even better team. But there were some big standout performances."