Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference announced its 2024 Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Major Award winners and all-conference rosters on Wednesday. Highlighting the latest RMAC postseason distinctions are Adams State’s Romain Legendre as the league’s Track Athlete of the Year and Colorado Mesa’s Zace Buckhold as the Field Athlete of the Year. Colorado Mesa’s Miller Jones was voted the league’s Freshman of the Year, while Brad Gamble took home the RMAC Men’s Coach of the Year honor.

Legendre is the 2024 RMAC Men’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year after shattering records during his junior season. At the Bryan Clay Invitational (April 12), The Carpentras, France, native set a NCAA Division II record in the 5000-meter event with a time of 13:16.53, obliterating the previous record by nearly six seconds. His time placed him atop the NCAA DII performance list and third on the All-Collegiate list. Additionally, his performance qualified him for the 2024 NCAA DII Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Emporia, Kan., as well as the European Athletics Championships in Rome, Italy.

Buckhold claims the RMAC Men’s Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year Award after a dominant performance at the 2024 RMAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Buckhold took home a first-place finish in the men’s high jump with a mark of 2.04m and a pair of second-place finishes in the long jump and triple jump competitions at the conference championships. Altogether, the redshirt junior earned 24 total points for the Mavericks during the RMAC meet and was named the Dr. Randy Rhine Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Performer of the Meet. On the season, Buckhold ranks no lower than fourth on the RMAC performance list in all three aforementioned field events
.
Jones earns the RMAC Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Freshman of the Year award following an impressive debut season with the Mavericks. Of all RMAC freshmen, Jones recorded the best mark in the long jump (7.53m) and triple jump (15.84m) throughout the 2024 campaign. Nationally, these marks stand as the fourth and first-best performances by a freshman in NCAA DII this season.

Colorado Mesa head coach Brad Gamble nabs his first RMAC Coach of the Year Award after guiding his men’s program to a second-place finish at the RMAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. With 166.5 total points, Gamble led the Mavericks to the most points in program history, beating out the previous program record by 41 points.

RMAC Outdoor Track and Field Major Awards are voted on by the league’s head coaches. Coaches are not permitted to vote for themselves or their student-athletes. The league’s all-conference teams are determined by finishes at the RMAC Indoor Championships. The top three finishers in each race are named first-team selections, while the fourth, fifth and sixth-place finishers are tabbed second-team selections. For relay events, the first-place team is recognized as first team all-conference, while the second-place team is named to the second team.