GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – For the first time in school history, three University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's cross country student-athletes earned All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference First Team honors.  The Mountain Lions finished fourth out of 16 teams with 102 points at the 2019 RMAC Cross Country Championship race, held Saturday at Tiara Rado Golf Course in Grand Junction, Colo.  Afewerki Zeru, Mark Simmons and Matthew Schramm all finished in the top 14 to earn first team accolades.
 
Colorado School of Mines won the team title after scoring 28 points, followed by Adams State University with 73 points and Western State Colorado University with 76 points.  The Orediggers Dylan Ko bested all 129 runners with a time of 23:20.9. 
 
Afewerki Zeru's fourth place finish in 23:47.6 also marked the highest finish for a Mountain Lion at the RMAC Championship meet.  Mark Simmons and Matthew Schramm finished back-to-back in 12^th and 13^th place recording times of 24:25.8 and 24:28.3, respectively.
 
Evan Graff and Rafael Marmolejo-Daher earned points for the Mountain Lions to finish in the top five for UCCS.  Graff placed 35^th overall in 25:16.6 while Marmolejo-Daher was 41^st overall in 25:23.0. 
 
Also competing for the Mountain Lions were Gary Kurtz (49^th place, 25:38.2), Ben Patzer (54^th place, 25:45.6), Joshua Rogerson (79^th place, 26:23.1) and Charlie Kieffer (87^th place, 26:36.8).
 
Zeru, Simmons, Schramm, Graff, Marmolejo-Daher, Kurtz and Patzer each recorded career best 8k times today.

UCCS will compete next at the RMAC South Central Regional Championship on Nov. 9 in Canyon, Texas.