CSM's Baker and CMU's Thompson Tabbed 2021 RMAC Outdoor T&F Summit Award Winners
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) named Colorado Mesa University’s Justin Thompson and Colorado School of Mines’ Zoe Baker the 2021 Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Summit Award winners on Thursday.
The award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average (GPA) participating at the final sites for each of the RMAC championships.
All GPAs are based on a straight grading scale to ensure consistency among institutions. Any tie is broken by the number of credits completed.
To be eligible for the award, student-athletes must be a sophomore or above, who participated in their sport for at least two years with their school. They must be an active member of the team, traveling and competing at the championship. Graduate students are not eligible.
Thompson is a redshirt freshman with a 4.000 GPA majoring in Exercise Science. After winning the 2021 RMAC indoor title and earning All-America honors with a sixth-place finish in the high jump at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships, Thompson has recorded two high jump and three overall event wins in three outdoor meets this season. He also earned First Team RMAC All-Academic honors at the end of the indoor season. The Carbondale, Colorado native is set to compete in both the high and long jump events at the 2021 RMAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships and ranks second in school history with his season-best clearance of 2.11 meters (6-11) in the high jump, an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
Baker holds a 4.000 GPA majoring in Computer Science. The redshirt freshman entered her very first collegiate outdoor track & field season touting numerous accolades in 2020-21 alone including a sweep of the RMAC Cross Country Runner of the Year, Academic Runner of the Year and Summit Award along with RMAC Academic Athlete of the Year and NCAA Elite 90 award winner for indoor track & field. Baker started the 2021 outdoor campaign less than four weeks after claiming two USTFCCCA First-Team All-America awards at indoor nationals. In the outdoor season, the Longmont, Colo., native has run two races and now ranks 29
th in the nation in the 1,500-meter run and eighth in the nation in the 10K. She also broke the Stermole Track record in the 10K on her first attempt as an attached collegiate runner. Catch Baker in action tomorrow competing in the women's 10k at the RMAC Championships.
Thompson and Baker will be recognized at the awards ceremony following the last event at the 2021 RMAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Pueblo, Colo. To purchase tickets for the event and for more information visit
www.rmacsports.org/OTF2021.