Men's Cross Country Takes Thid in Boulder

A week ago at the Colorado College Invitational, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs cross country coach Graeme Badger had his team practice pack running. It paid off in a big way on Saturday.

The Mountain Lions stayed close together for much of the 8-kilometer course at the University of Colorado Rocky Mountain Shootout Saturday to capture a third-place finish among non-Division I schools.

Brad Winn (10th), Aaron Rubalcaba-Lopez (14th), Gabe Small (20th), Kyle Reno (23rd) and Jason Braun (24th) all finished with 1 minute, 43 seconds of each other to easily outpoint fourth-place New Mexico Highlands 91-152.

While the Mountain Lions topped nine teams, four of which are also members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic conference, Badger still sees much room for improvement before the team competes at the RMAC championships on Oct. 22.

“(The pack is) still not as tight as weâ€^TMd like,” said Badger. “I think we really showed the effects of three meets in three weeks.”

Badger was optimistic, however, about the performance of his teamâ€^TMs freshmen. Kevin Moulton, Tim Hilt and Brian Kearns took 29th, 31st and 32nd respectively, while Alex Tiernan and Carlos Ruibal both were among the top 50.

“Our freshmen really showed up today,” said Badger. “Theyâ€^TMre starting to adjust to collegiate running.”

And that will make UCCS that much stronger in the weeks ahead.