COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Following Saturday's performances at the 2020 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship meet, held at Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs, Colo., both University of Colorado Colorado Springs cross country teams qualified for the inaugural Division II National Invitational Meet.
The National Invitational will be held on Saturday, Nov. 14 in Lubbock, Texas at the Lubbock Christian University Chaparral Cross Country Course. The men's 10K race will begin at 8:30 a.m. (MT) followed by the women's 6K race at 9:15 a.m. (MT).
To qualify for the National Invitational, a team must finish in the top 40 percent of the teams who are eligible to compete at their conference championship meet, along with the top individuals not on a qualifying team. The top six teams from Saturday's RMAC championship races qualified for the national invitational, along with the top six individuals in each race not on a qualifying team.
The Mountain Lions women's team earned a fifth-place finish with 98 points on Saturday behind four all-conference performances.
Layla Almasri finished eighth overall in 21:58.3, one spot ahead of
Hannah Ellis' ninth place finish in 22:04.0.
Riley McGrath and
Molly Weir recorded 21
st and 26
th place finishes to earn All-RMAC Second Team accolades.
The Mountain Lions men's team scored 151 points and notched a sixth-place finish to snag the final spot from the RMAC into the National Invitational. UCCS was led by
Matthew Schramm's All-RMAC Second Team performance. Schramm crossed the finish line in 25:41.1. Just outside of earning all-conference accolades were
Luke Rodriguez and
Mark Simmons who finished 29
th and 30
th overall, respectively.
The top 25 finishers in each championship race will be recognized as the 2020 D2 XC All-National Invitational Team and the top 4 teams will receive a team award.
Each conference will be granted one individual equal to how many teams are invited from their conference. Below is the number of teams for each gender in each conference who are eligible to be invited.
| CONFERENCE |
MEN |
WOMEN |
| Lone Star |
6 |
6 |
| GMAC |
4 |
5 |
| GLVC |
6 |
6 |
| RMAC |
6 |
6 |
| GSC |
4 |
5 |
| Peach Belt |
4 |
4 |
| MIAA |
4 |
5 |
| SAC |
1 |
1 |
