COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The No. 5 ranked team in the nation blazed into the 2022 season winning the 15^th annual Rust Buster.  The University of Colorado Colorado Springs women's cross country team scored 17 points to win the six-team race.
 
INSIDE THE UCCS RUST BUSTER

• Course | Location: Monument Valley Park | Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Course Length: 5K

 
AROUND THE COURSE

• All seven Mountain Lion scorers finished in the top seven as UCCS nearly recorded a perfect score.
• Layla Almasri picked up where she left off last season, setting a new course record Saturday morning to win the UCCS Rust Buster in 17:26.74.  Placing second and third overall were Anna Fauske and Kate Hedlund in 17:57.09 and 18:03.13, respectively.
• Claire Pauley of Colorado State University Pueblo broke up the Mountain Lion pack to place fourth before Molly Breuer came in fifth in a time of 18:04.64.  Two runners later was Rachel Richtman to cross the line in 18:15.32.

                        
RACE LEADERS

• Almasri won the race in 31 seconds while earning back-to-back UCCS Rust Buster titles.
• As a team, the Mountain Lions captured the team title by 25 points.   CSU Pueblo finished runner-up with 42 points, followed by MSU Denver (86 points), Colorado College (119 points), New Mexico Highlands (135 points) and Regis (176 points).

 
BEYOND THE FINISH LINE

• Molly Breuer and Brooke Moss ran their first career race in a Mountain Lion uniform.
• UCCS has won the individual title three straight years.
• Almasri is the first Mountain Lion to repeat as the Rust Buster champion since Heather Bates won the 4k race in 2014 and 2015.

 
UP NEXT

• The Mountain Lions return to action Sept. 17 at the MSU Denver Roadrunners Invite.

 
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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.