KEARNEY, Neb. -- Mark Misch's "depth charge" sent the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs men's cross country team to nationals for only the second time in school history.

The Mountain Lions' coach knew coming into Saturday's NCAA Division II Central Regional Championship that, in order to be one of the six teams to qualify for nationals, his team would have to leapfrog past New Mexico Highlands, which beat UCCS at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships.

On paper, that would look to be a difficult task. Highlands has two runners from Burundi, Laurent Ngirakamaro and Niciase Kazingo, that rank among the best in the nation. So to beat the Cowboys, UCCS would need to do it with depth.

"We knew we were good enough if everyone fired," said Misch. "If we could put seven guys ahead of Highlands' (fourth-best finisher), we figured we could overcome their top runners."

So that's exactly what they did. UCCS' Dan Pinter took 24th overall, followed by Gabe Small (30th), Carlos Ruibal (43rd), Casey Weaver (51st), Alex Tiernan (57th), Joel Kienitz (68th) and Mason Frank (72nd).

Highlands' No. 3 finisher was John Ronoh at 46th, followed by Gabriel Vidal (73rd) and Joshua Garcia (72nd).

The math, then, is such: since Pinter, Small and Ruibal all finished ahead of all three of the aforementioned Cowboys, UCCS gained nine points in the exchange. Additionally, Weaver, Tiernan, Keinitz and Frank each finished ahead of two Highlands scoring runners, the Mountain Lions pushed the Cowboys back another eight points.

UCCS beat Highlands by just 16 points.

"This was a tremendous day for our men," said Misch. "This team has no superstars, just a bunch of blue-collar guys. That's why we always say the sum of the whole is greater then then parts

"From a tactical standpoint, they ran a perfect race. They earned it."

Ironically, the last UCCS men's cross country team to qualify for nationals looked a lot like this year's Highlands squad. The 2004 Mountain Lions, who finished 11th nationally, relied heavily on stars Moses Tum and Levi Brathall.

Also going to nationals from the Central Region will be Adams State, Western State, Minnesota State, Colorado School of Mines and Metro State. Adams State's Aaron Braun and Brian Medigovich were the top two individuals.

This season's UCCS team is a decidedly no-frills group. Pinter's 24th the lowest best finish by an individual for any of the top seven teams. Conversely, Frank, UCCS' lowest finisher, would have been a scoring runner (top five) on 13 teams.

"People didn't pay much attention to them all season," said Misch. "We weren't even ranked in the top 10 (regionally) coming into this race."

"Our results were fairly solid during the season, but we were never able to run our top seven guys in the same race all season. We've believed all year that we were good enough.

"(The Mountain Lions) trained hard and did everything they needed to do. They believed."

And now, it would seem, the rest of the region does as well.