COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –  Colorado School of Mines placed all five of its scoring runners finishing in the Top 10, including two in the Top 3, on its way to winning its first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Women’s Cross Country Championship. The Orediggers scored 28 points, 40 points less than second-place University of Colorado Colorado Springs. 
 

After the first 2k of the race, Colorado School of Mines’ senior Grace Strongman was in second place, but left it all on the course in the remaining 4k to return to Golden, Colorado garnering the women’s gold medal, RMAC Athlete of the Meet honors, and new Monument Valley Park course record with a time of 20:06.7. Strongman’s performance paved the way for the Orediggers’ victory, and, as it currently stands, holds the second best 6k time in Division II cross country. 

Emily LaMena closed the race in third, finishing with a new personal best in the 6k with a time of 20:19.3. Margaux Basart (21:07.6), Callen Nash (21:09.8), and Sierra Wall (21:14.5) finished seventh, eighth, and ninth, respectively. The Orediggers also saw their two displacers, Gabriela Boeckman and Katie Price finish in the top 25 to close the day with an all-around display of excellence. 

UCCS’ Elizabeth McQuitty was the RMAC Freshman of the Meet with a time of 21:01.6 to finish in sixth place and lead all Mountain Lion runners, pacing them to a second-place finish. 

Seventh-place finisher, Margaux Basart, earned the RMAC Women’s Cross Country Summit Award for her 4.00 grade-point average in pursuit of her Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics, completing 119.5 undergraduate credit hours.

Orediggers head coach Chris Siemers was named the league’s Coach of the Year after leading his team to its first women’s team title. 

Attention now turns to the NCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country South Central Regional Championships hosted by Colorado State University Pueblo on November 8, at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo, Colorado.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



About the RMAC
 The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, headquartered in Colorado Springs, is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 institutions located in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah. The RMAC currently competes in 22 NCAA Division II sports and has earned 67 national championships and 53 national runners-up since 1992. Founded in 1909, the RMAC is the most historic athletic conference in the western United States and Division II.