COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – MSU Denver had two top-10 individuals while finishing third as a team in the women's race and fourth in the men's competition at Saturday's UCCS Rust Buster, the season opener for cross country.
Past All-American
Mia Salas finished fifth in the women's race to lead the Roadrunners to third in the women's race, behind only host UCCS and CSU Pueblo, teams that are third and fifth, respectively, in the South Central Region preseason rankings. (MSU Denver is ranked 10
th in the region.)
Noel Lopez finished seventh to lead the men's team to its fourth-place finish.
JJ Ramey, running unattached, placed fifth in the men's race – his result would have improved the Roadrunners' score, but not its standing, in the field, behind regionally-ranked CSU Pueblo (sixth), UCCS (seventh) and New Mexico Highlands (10
th). UCCS won the men's race, with Highlands second and CSU Pueblo third.
"It was a good start, especially with our individuals up front who had a really strong showing today," said
Amanda Rego, MSU Denver's associate head coach. "Noel and Brenden (Sands) got out hard and hung on really well and led us, and once we get JJ back that'll be a really solid top three.
"And we had some surprises after that, on both the men's and the women's side. Our second pack has flip-flopped among different people, and it's exciting that a lot are in the mix. Now the challenge is getting that next group after the top two or three closer."
Salas, a transfer from Augustana (S.D.), completed the 5,000-meter women's race in 18 minutes, 13.94 seconds.
"That was a fun race to watch," Rego said. "You never know what it's going to be like in that first race at altitude, but she handled it like a veteran, and she knew she belonged up there. I'm excited to see what she can do this season."
Abi Read, the Roadrunners' top finisher in every race last season, finished 13
th in 18:32.84, a 20-second improvement on her time in the same race last season.
Audrynn Street was 26
th in 19:42.12, newcomer
Marissa Bruno was 33
rd in 20:07.34, and transfer
Taylor Engram 34
th in 20:09.13.
Tanis Chavez was the team's top non-scoring finisher at 35
th in 20:09.22, a 47-second individual improvement from the same race last season.
Bruno, a walk-on previously attending MSU Denver before asking to join the team, made an impressive debut after multiple seasons without competing as part of a program.
"She is definitely a pleasant surprise," Rego said. "She approached us and wanted to try to walk on to the team, and after seeing some of her training over the summer I told her that she shouldn't want her ultimate goal to just be to make it on the team, but to be a factor. She's already proven she can do that, and who knows what her limits are?"
The Roadrunners' women had 86 points, while UCCS had a winning total of 28 and CSU Pueblo recorded 35.
In the 8K men's race, after Ramey's non-counting time of 25:41.67, Lopez ran 25:48.41. Transfer
Brenden Sands was 12
th in 26:16.44,
Ty Schauer was 23
rd in 26:57.25,
Jonathan Duran was 30
th in 27:24.65 and
Shota Yabuuchi was 35
th in 27:46.00. Leading the non-scorers, beyond Ramey, was Corey Shea at 37
th in 27:52.89.
The Roadrunners had 88 points – UCCS won with 37, Highlands had 54 and CSU Pueblo 55. Had Ramey run as part of the scoring group, the final results would have been: UCCS 38, Highlands 55, CSU Pueblo 56, MSU Denver 63.
"Ty made a nice improvement from last fall for us and our front runners did great," Rego said. "And the fact that we have a lot of different people capable of closing that gap is a good thing."
