Men's Cross Country Season Recap

• The University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's cross country team started the 2022 season with back-to-back individual and team wins, and capped off the season with a 13^th place finish at the NCAA Division II National Championship.
• UCCS opened the year besting all six teams at the UCCS Rust Buster.  A month later, the top runners were back on the course to win the 12-team University of Wisconsin Parkside Lucian Rosa Invitational.
• The Mountain Lions post-season saw UCCS finish fourth at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship meet, and fourth at the 25-team NCAA South Central Regional meet, hosted by MSU Denver on Nov. 19 at Washington Park.  The fourth-place finish earned UCCS an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II National Championship in University Place, Wash., where the Mountain Lions earned a 13^th place finish out of the top 34 teams in Division II.
• "Overall we have a lot to be thankful for," said UCCS head coach Mark Misch. "Each season is always different, so it's tough to compare not just for our teams, but also to the other 280 NCAA II teams that we compete against. I felt like the men did a great job on many levels. With 34 men on the roster and eight coaches (volunteer and part-time coaches) helping in some capacity, then there is a lot more to the story of a team with 42 people, not just a handful of top performers. They are a great group that takes care of business the classroom, trains hard, encourages each other and believes in the vision of the program and how we try to go about things. Team and individual accolades will come and go, but the character and culture of the team is what stands the test of time."

 
Award Winners

• Jack Donze: RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll
• Evan Graff: USTFCCCA All-Region, RMAC All-Academic First Team, All-RMAC First Team
• Sean Graff: RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll
• Marcus Graham: USTFCCCA All-Region, All-RMAC Second Team
• Joseph Hamilton: RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll
• Will Parsons: RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll
• Walker Rudolph: RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll
• Joshua Spinner: RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll
• Will Young: RMAC All-Academic First Team
• Afewerki Zeru: USTFCCCA All-America First Team, USTFCCCA All-Region, RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll, All-RMAC First Team, USTFCCCA Athlete of the Week (Sept. 12), RMAC Runner of the Week (Sept. 14 and Oct. 12)
• Jagger Zlotoff: RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll

 
Hot Takes

• UCCS competed in the national meet for the ninth time in program history (2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2008, 2004) and their fourth straight national meet.  Eight of the nine times UCCS has qualified as a team for the national meet have come under head coach Misch who took over the program in 2007.
• Afewerki Zeru claimed several firsts in program history with his performances this season.  He became the first Mountain Lion to earn USTFCCCA Athlete of the Week honors, and the first student-athlete to be named RMAC Runner of the Week multiple times in a season.  He also became the first four-time All-American.  No other Mountain Lion has garnered more than one All-America honor (Moses Tum-2004, Greg Augspurger-2001, and Trent Briney-1999).
• Zeru also became the first Mountain Lion to claim four USTFCCCA All-South Central Region honors.  Graduate student Evan Graff ran to his second straight all-region accolade, joining Briney, Tim Howley, David Kimaiyo, Matthew Schramm and Mark Simmons who have won at least two all-region distinctions.
• Zeru led the Mountain Lions in all five races he competed in.  He claimed back-to-back individual titles at the season-opening UCCS Rust Buster, and the UWP Lucia Rosa Invite.  Zeru's performances helped the Mountain Lions defend both team titles from last season.
• Graduate student and newcomer Marcus Graham earned his second career USTFCCCA All-Region award, and his first at UCCS.  Graham was named All-Southeast Region for Flagler College in 2019.
• Zeru's fifth place finish at the national championship is the best finish in program history.
• Graham, Graff, Gavin Harden, Zlotoff and Cole each registered personal best 10k times at the national meet.
• UCCS' 13^th place finish is the fifth best finish as a team at a national championship meet.
• UCCS' fourth place at the South Central Regional championship marked the fourth straight year UCCS has finished in the top five at the regional meet.
• Logan Cole, Jack Donze and Jagger Zlotoff each ran in their first NCAA South Central Regional meet and 10k race on Nov. 19.

National Rankings

• The Mountain Lions started the 2022 ranked No. 10 in the USTFCCCA Preseason Poll and never left the top 25.  UCCS spent nine weeks ranked in the top 15 of Division II, including their highest ranking of No. 11 on Nov. 11, before ending the season with a No. 13 ranking in the final poll.

 
USTFCCCA DII NATIONAL RANKINGS

Preseason (Aug. 29)	No. 10
Week 1 (Sept. 14)	No. 14
Week 2 (Sept. 28)	No. 14
Week 3 (Oct. 5)	No. 15
Week 4 (Oct. 12)	No. 14
Week 5 (Oct. 19)	No. 15
Week 6 (Oct. 26)	No. 16
Week 7 (Nov. 8)	No. 14
Week 8 (Nov. 23)	No. 11
Final (Dec. 2)	No. 13

 
 
2023 Season Outlook

• The Mountain Lions will step out of the cross country season and right into the indoor track and field season, and will set the sights on qualifying for their fifth straight national championship meet.
• "The culture of the program is always our focus regardless of who is on the roster," commented Misch. "Generally, if we keep developing leaders, train smart and do the little things well 24-7-365 then we will be a competitive program. Our hope entering each season is to be in the top five percent of the country. So that's kind of the standard. The journey of each year's team is a bit different though, but what it takes to be successful doesn't really change. Our objective is to be the best that we can be individually and collectively as a group with the opportunities we have regardless of the circumstances. The only things that we can control are our effort and attitude. If we do that well then results will take care of themselves."

 
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