THIS WEEK'S ACTION

• The University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's and women's track & field teams will kick off their 2021-2022 indoor season on Friday, Dec. 3 as they make the short trip up north to the Air Force Academy to compete at the Air Force Holiday Open. Field events will begin at 3 p.m. with the women's weight throw and men's pole vault while track events will get started at 5 p.m. with the women's mile.

 
MEET INFORMATION

• AFA Cadet Fieldhouse | USAF Academy, Colo.
• Schedule of Events
• Entry Lists
• Live Results

 
SEASON OUTLOOK

• The 2020-2021 season was a historic one for the Mountain Lions as they achieved a clean sweep of the indoor and outdoor RMAC Championships for the first time in program history. After successfully defending their 2019-2020 indoor titles on both the men's and women's sides, UCCS went on to best the competition at the RMAC outdoor championships with the men's team registering their first outdoor conference title in program history and the women's team being crowned outdoor champions for the second time. At the RMAC indoor championships, the Mountain Lions racked up 11 individual champions as Afewerki Zeru (3000m, 5000m), Dakota Abbott (triple jump), Peter Ackah (long jump), Brian Mosley Jr. (60m), Thorben Hast (heptathlon), Kayla Zink (60m), Layla Almasri (mile), Hannah Meek (long jump, triple jump), and the DMR team of Almasri, Riley McGrath, Ellie Enderle and Michela Hewitt each earned gold medals in their events.
• The Mountain Lions found continued success at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships where Abbott became the second ever men's indoor national champion in the triple jump and both the men's and women's teams posted program-best finishes with the women finishing in eighth place (21 points) and the men tying for 18^th (13 points). In total, head coach Ross Fellows guided nine student-athletes to All-America honors across eight different events. With the 2021-2022 season set to get underway tomorrow afternoon, Fellows and the Mountain Lions will look to build on their recent success and make an even larger leap forward on the national scale.
• "In the previous years it has been a goal of ours to win the conference championships," said Fellows. "Now it has moved to an expectation for our team. We expect to have a lot of depth in every event as well as have a big group at the national championships. As we have developed this team over the past five years, we are starting to push towards being a national contender."

 
INCOMING CLASS

• As the UCCS track & field teams look to defend their RMAC titles and contend at the national level, Fellows will welcome an infusion of talent to the program as 23 newcomers on the men's side and 16 fresh faces on the women's side will join the Mountain Lions for the 2021-2022 season. 
• "We signed almost 40 newcomers for this upcoming season," remarked Fellows. "With almost our entire team returning we are going to be a force in every event. These athletes will add to our depth and after what we have seen in the fall conditioning, we should see some of them at the top of the RMAC charts and on the national list as well. Our mission statement in succeeding is doing very simple things but doing them extraordinarily well; we plan to execute and perfect this over the course of the season."

 
AWARD WINNERS

• The 2020-2021 indoor season was a highly decorated one for the UCCS men's and women's track & field teams as they combined to earn 58 RMAC All-Conference awards and 35 RMAC All-Academic honorees.
• UCCS also earned five RMAC major awards for their efforts during the indoor season, with Peter Ackah and Hannah Meek taking home the men's and women's Field Athlete of the Year, respectively, Layla Almasri claiming the women's Track Athlete of the Year award, and head coach Ross Fellows earning Coach of the Year on both sides for the second consecutive season. 
• The Mountain Lions were also well-represented on the USTFCCCA All-Region list with 27 student-athletes earning all-region status after placing in the top-five in the region individually in their event for the indoor season.  

 
UCCS UNDER HEAD COACH ROSS FELLOWS

• Head Coach Ross Fellows enters his fourth season as the head coach of the UCCS track & field program after serving as the co-head coach for two seasons. Under Fellows' leadership, the Mountain Lions have experienced unprecedented success as both the men's and women's teams have broken through for their first indoor and outdoor conference championships in program history. 
• Throughout his tenure at UCCS, Fellows has coached five individual national champions, three RMAC Freshman of the Year, six RMAC Track Athletes of the Year and four RMAC Field Athletes of the Year. 

 
UPCOMING MEET

• UCCS will return to action next weekend as they host the Colorado Running Company Pre-Holiday Invite & Multi at the Mountain Lion Fieldhouse on Friday, Dec. 11 and Saturday Dec. 12.

 
SOCIAL
Twitter - @GoMountainLions
Instagram - @gomountainlions 
Facebook – Go Mountain Lions
 
As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 16 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.