COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – No. 25 University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's cross country team won the six team season opener Saturday morning, claiming first place with 37 points at the 16^th Annual UCCS Rust Buster, held at Monument Valley Park.
 
INSIDE THE UCCS RUST BUSTER

• Course | Location: Monument Valley Park | Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Course Length: 8K
• Elevation: 6,109'

 
AROUND THE COURSE

• Three of the Mountain Lions' five scorers finished in the top 10 Saturday morning.
• Gavin Harden paced the Mountain Lions with a second-place finish behind a career best 25:0.9.  Twenty-five seconds behind Harden in third place was Jagger Zlotoff who crossed the finish line in 25:34.57.
• Jack Donze secured eighth place with his fastest 8k time ever with a 25:50.85. 
• Running in his first career race for UCCS, Brett Davis led a trio of Mountain Lions to finish 13^th overall in 26:20.95, followed in succession by Tim Chambers (26:24.68) and Michael Burke Jr. (26:24.70).

                       
RACE LEADERS

• Andrew Amor of New Mexico Highlands University led all 84 runners with a time of 24:56.46.
• UCCS scored a meet best 37 points, taking a 17-point advantage over New Mexico Highlands (17).  Placing just one point behind NMHU was Colorado State University Pueblo, followed by MSU Denver in fourth place (88 points), Colorado College (144 points), and Regis University (167 points).

 
BEYOND THE FINISH LINE

• Burke, Koy Cunningham, Davis, Joseph Impellitteri and Turner Schad all ran their first career race in a Mountain Lions uniform this morning.
• Burke, Chambers, Cunningham, Davis, Donze, Harden, Impellitterri, Schad and Zlotoff all posted career best marks.
• Today's team win marks the fourth straight year the Mountain Lions have won the Rust Buster.

 
UP NEXT

• The Mountain Lions return to action Sept. 16 at the MSU Denver Roadrunners Invite, held at Washington Park in Denver, Colo.

 
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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 14 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.