COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – It has been a historical indoor season for the University of Colorado Colorado Springs track & field teams as the Mountain Lions won their second indoor conference championship on the women's side and won the program's first ever indoor conference championship on the men's side. With two conference titles, the Mountain Lions now add a combined 47 All-RMAC honors and one major award as Ross Fellows is voted RMAC Men's & Women's Coach of the Year, announced Friday by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

The 2019-20 season marks Fellows' fourth season at the helm as he claims his third RMAC Coach of the Year honor. At RMAC Championships, the Mountain Lions won a total of 10 events and had a combined 22 podium finishes between both the men's and women's teams. Under Fellows, the 2019-20 Mountain Lions combined for 29 provisional qualifying marks and qualified 14 for the 2020 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. UCCS made consistent appearances in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) team rankings as the men's team recorded three top-25 national rankings, six top-5 regional rankings (one No. 1 ranking), and four top-5 conference rankings (three No. 1 rankings) with the women's team registering eight top-25 national rankings, six top-5 regional rankings (five No. 1 rankings), and four top-5 conference rankings (four No. 1 rankings). Fellows helped guide the Mountain Lions to an unforgettable season as Fellows notched his third and fourth conference championship in four years.

The major awards were voted on by the conference's head coaches. First Team All-RMAC consists of the top three individual finishers from each event at the RMAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, and the first-place relay teams. Second Team All-RMAC consists of the fourth, fifth and sixth place individual finishers, along with the second-place relay teams.

On the men's side, UCCS earns 23 All-RMAC honors, including 13 All-RMAC First Team honors and five first-place finishes. 2020 RMAC Academic Player of the Year Will Ross led the way with two gold medal finishes as the senior took first in the men's long jump and triple jump with two school record jumps of 7.45m and 15.36m respectively. Fellow senior Deshon Elcock joins Ross with two All-RMAC honors as the sprinter bested the competition in the men's 60m for a gold medal finish (6.80s) and raced to a silver medal finish in the 200m (22.09s). Junior Darrien Wells followed right on the heels of Elcock as he sprinted to a third-place finish in the 200m (22.20s) and his first All-RMAC honor in the black & gold. In the 60m hurdles, the seniors kept topping the conference competition as Charlie Forbes and Matt Hanson earned All-RMAC First Team honors with first (7.95s) and second place finishes (8.23s) respectively. In the mile run, Evan Graff ran his way to first team honors by earning bronze medal in the mile run as the sophomore finished in 4:22.49. At the high jump, junior Tanner Walsh and freshman Skye Ciccarelli cleared 1.99m to tie for second place and notch All-RMAC First Team finishes. On the field events side, Justyn Loper got the momentum going as he recorded the first podium finish for UCCS with a gold medal throw of 18.09m in the shot put. Sophomore multi student-athlete Sam Repsher earns his first career All-RMAC First team honor as Repsher registered a mark of 7.04m for a bronze medal finish in the long jump. Freshman Harrison Huhn followed suit as Huhn vaulted himself to a third-place finish of 4.85m in the pole vault.

For All-RMAC Second Team, the UCCS men's team notched 10 second team honors. Along with his first team honor, Repsher added a second team finish as he set a new school record in the heptathlon by scoring 5,199 points to finish fourth in the event. Three Mountain Lion underclassmen worked their way to All-RMAC Second Team as sophomores Afewerki Zeru and Angel Laca, and freshman Peyton Turnage, as they each bagged second team honors. Zeru and Laca got it done on the track as Zeru competed on the distance side to register a fifth-place finish in the 5000m (14:57.68) and a sixth-place finish in the 3000m (8:48.32) with Laca competing in the 200m and 400m to record fifth (22.30s) and fourth-place (49.81s) finishes respectively. Turnage joined in on the action in his first conference championship by jumping out to two sixth-place finishes in the long jump (6.87m) and triple jump (14.39m). In the shot put, freshman Parker Bays finished as the top Mountain Lion with a fourth-place mark of 14.96m for his first career All-RMAC honor. Senior Willie Moore raced to an All-RMAC Second Team finish in the men's mile as Moore clocked in at a time of 4:24.22 to take sixth in the race. Junior Dawson Hopkinson adds a second team honor to his career resume as he cleared a mark of 4.85m in the pole vault to secure a fourth -place finish.

On the women's side, the Mountain Lion women garnered a total of 24 All-RMAC honors as they made their way to the podium nine times for All-RMAC First Team honors, including five individual RMAC Champions. Before winning her third consecutive Athlete of the Meet award, junior Kaija Crowe made her way to the podium for the third time in her career for the women's pentathlon as Crowe scored 3,639 points for a gold medal. Freshman Faith Novess put on a performance at the high jump as Novess cleared a mark of 1.72m to cement a gold medal finish and her first career All-Rmac First Team honor. At the pits, Hannah Meek kept racking in the podium finishes for the Mountain Lions as the junior walked away with two medals and two first team honors as Meek bested the competition in the long jump (5.85m) and recorded a third-place finish in the triple jump (11.96m). On the track, the women's 400m belonged to Dejah Glover as the junior clocked a first-place time of 57.35s. For sprints, junior Kayla Zink and Brittany Fuchs raced to first team honors as Zink claimed a bronze medal finish in the 60m with a time of 7.65s as Fuchs earned her first career All-RMAC honor with a third place finish in the 200m at a time of 25.23s. The distance side saw two Mountain Lions take the podium as Kayla Wooten and Maia Austin register gold (4:52.74) and silver medal (4:52.76) finishes in the women's mile for a pair of All-RMAC First Team honors in the event.

For All-RMAC Second Team, the UCCS women's team tallied 15 second team honors as 14 different Mountain Lions earned a second team honor. Crowe not only did damage in the pentathlon, but she also recorded second team honors in the high jump (1.58m) and long jump (5.73m) as she recorded a fourth-place finish in each event to total three All-RMAC honors for the indoor season. Track student-athletes Zink and Glover added a second team honor to their resume as well with a sixth (25.81s) and fifth-place (25.50s) finish in the 200m, respectively. After taking gold in the high jump, Novess also added a second team honor as the freshman took sixth-place in the pentathlon by scoring 3,177 points. Sophomores Kayla Waterman and Cameron Tracy kept the points rolling in for the women's team as Waterman notched an All-RMAC second Team award in the 60m with a sixth-place finish (7.73s) and Tracy sprinting into fourth (9.09s) in the 60m hurdles for her first career indoor All-RMAC honor. The distance side saw two more All-RMAC Second Team awards as Layla Almasri secured fourth-place (4:54.79) in the women's mile to fill three of the top-4 spots in the event with black & gold, as Hannah Ellis raced to sixth-place in the 5000m (18:55.15).

UCCS field student-athletes continued to inflate the team points and stacked up on the All-RMAC Second Team honors as the Mountain Lions recorded nine of those honors. Juniors Sierra Suzao and Brenna Kuskie took fourth and fifth and their respective events as Suzao posted a mark of 16.36m in the weight throw as Kuskie cleared 3.65m in the pole vault. Freshman Christine Bailey claimed the third UCCS All-RMAC honor in the women's long jump as she took sixth-place with a mark of 5.56m. At the high jump, senior Aleksandra Anderson tied with Crowe in fourth place with a mark of 1.58m to record her third career All-RMAC Second Team honor. Along with Bailey, freshmen Audrey Bloomquist and Maggie Remsberg registered their first career All-RMAC awards as Bloomquist just missed out on a podium finish with a fourth-place (11.81m) finish in the triple jump while Remsberg held on in the pentathlon to take fifth place (3,186 points).

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