Rams run at Mountain West Championships on Friday

This Week
Colorado State Rams at Mountain West Cross Country Championships
Friday, Oct. 26, 2018
Morley Field at Balboa Park | San Diego
Hosted by San Diego State
Women's 6k – 9 a.m. PT/10 a.m. MT
Men's 8k – 9:45 a.m. PT/10:45 a.m. MT
Coverage: FloTrack (subscription required) | Live Results
Colorado State Cross Country Information: Twitter | Roster | Schedule

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The Colorado State cross country team heads to San Diego this Friday for the 2018 Mountain West Cross Country Championships.

This year's Mountain West meet is hosted by San Diego State from Morley Field at Balboa Park. The women's 6k is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. PT/10 a.m. MT, with the men's 8k to follow at 9:45 a.m. PT/10:45 a.m. MT. Each race was originally scheduled an hour later, but each one was moved an hour earlier following a unanimous vote of the league's head coaches.

"The team had a great last two weeks of training since Pre-Nationals," Colorado State cross country head coach Art Siemers said. "As a team, we're starting to hit our stride right when we want to. That being said, this is arguably the second-best conference in cross country in the nation. Our men are defending champs and are going to go in there with their heads held high and try to prove once again that we're the best team in the conference."

On the men's side, 17th-ranked Colorado State looks to defend its 2017 Mountain West title, the Rams' first in program history. Should the Rams win their second consecutive conference title, they would be the first men's team to repeat since New Mexico in 2013-14 and the third school all-time (BYU). CSU is the nation's No. 10 team in terms of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) Cross Country Rating Index (CCRI), which is comparable to the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) used in other collegiate sports.

Other Mountain West schools highly ranked on the men's side in terms of CCRI include Boise State (fifth), Air Force (15th), Wyoming (17th) and Utah State (23rd). On the women's side, Colorado State is 52nd in CCRI. Boise State (second), New Mexico (third), Utah State (32nd) and Air Force (34th) are among the upper-tier teams in CCRI from MW schools.

"On the women's side, we want to improve upon a finish that we were disappointed in from last year, but our conference is deep," Siemers said. "Our ladies know that they're going to have to bring their 'A' game in order to move up."

Friday's Mountain West Championships will be streamed live by FloTrack, and will be available to each of the website's premium subscribers. Additionally, the meet may be followed by those interested through live results. Links to each are above and on the cross country schedule page on CSURams.com. Final results and a full recap of the action at both meets will be posted to CSURams.com at the conclusion of Friday's competition.

Rams Well-Represented in USTFCCCA Rankings After Program-Best No. 9 Preseason Ranking

Following the men's team's best preseason ranking (No. 9) in program history, Colorado State cross country has continues to be well-represented in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) national rankings throughout the regular season.
Each team has been in the national top 30 in at least one week this season. CSU's men's team has been ranked 10th or better in four different polls.
On the women's side, Colorado State entered the USTFCCCA's national rankings for the first time since the week one poll in 2008.
Additionally, this season's week one poll marked the first time since week one of the 2005 season that Colorado State's women's and men's cross country teams have been ranked concurrently.
The Colorado State men's cross country team entered the 2018 season with its highest preseason ranking in program history, as the Rams were tabbed the No. 9 team in the USTFCCCA Preseason DI National Coaches' Poll. The organization released its preseason rankings on Tuesday, Aug. 28.
Before this year's preseason poll, Colorado State men's cross country had previously been slotted as high as at No. 16 in any preseason ranking (2002). With this year's poll, has now been ranked in the preseason in five consecutive years, dating back to a No. 30 preseason ranking in 2014. The Rams were ranked preseason No. 18 prior to last year's ninth-place national finish.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Cross Country National Coaches' Poll
Preseason (Aug. 28): Women's – RV | Men's – No. 9
Week One (Sept. 11): Women's – No. 30 | Men's – No. 10
Week Two (Sept. 18): Women's – RV | Men's – No. 11
Week Three (Sept. 25): Women's – RV | Men's – No. 10
Week Four (Oct. 2): Women's – NR | Men's – No. 9
Week Five (Oc. 16): Women's – NR | Men's – No. 17

Rams' Men Match Program's Highest USTFCCCA Regional Ranking

In addition to its strides in the national rankings, Colorado State has also stacked up well in the highly competitive Mountain Region.
On the men's side, Colorado State has ranked fourth in each of the first four Mountain Region rankings this season. That matched its highest regional ranking from the organization in program history before the Rams climbed to No. 3 in week four.
On the women's side, the Rams ranked within the region's top five in multiple weeks to start their 2018 campaign. That marks the first time the women's team is in the region's top five in consecutive weeks for the first time since 2011.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Cross Country Regional Rankings – Mountain Region
Preseason (Aug. 27): Women's – No. 5 | Men's – No. 4
Week One (Sept. 10): Women's – No. 5 | Men's – No. 4
Week Two (Sept. 17): Women's – No. 5 | Men's – No. 4
Week Three (Sept. 24): Women's – No. 6 | Men's – No. 4
Week Four (Oct. 1): Women's – No. 10 | Men's – No. 3
Week Five (Oct. 15): Women's – No. 9 | Men's – No. 5

Cole Rockhold Named Mountain West Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week on Oct. 2

Following his performance at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, Colorado State's Cole Rockhold was named the men's Mountain West Cross Country Athlete of the Week on Tuesday, Oct. 2.
This marks the fourth weekly accolade Rockhold has earned in his career, and his second in cross country. Rockhold, a 2017 All-American in cross country, is the first Ram to receive weekly recognition from the Mountain West in 2018.
Rockhold led Colorado State to its highest-ever finish at the loaded Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, as the Rams placed sixth of 33 teams and ahead of 11 ranked teams. The senior finished in ninth place of 224 runners, marking the highest finish by any individual Ram in the meet's 10-year history. No Ram had previously finished in the top 10 at the Nuttycombe, as former CSU All-American Jerrell Mock's 16th-place finish in 2017 was the former top performance by a CSU athlete at the meet.

Rams Register Top Team Performance, Individual Performance at Nuttycombe in Program History

The Colorado State men's cross country team placed sixth of 33 teams to match its highest all-time team finish at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, while CSU's women finished 21st in a field of the same size. The 21st place for the Rams' women was an eight-place improvement from last season.
The Rams were paced by senior Cole Rockhold (23:29.3), who turned in a ninth-place finish (of 224 runners), the highest by any Ram individually in the men's 8k in the 10-year history of the meet. Fellow senior Eric Hamer clocked a time of 23:42.5 to place 22nd, the third-highest all-time by any Ram at the meet.
CSU's men finished ahead of 11 ranked teams, and bested its projected finish in terms of USTFCCCA ranking. The Rams entered as the coaches' association's seventh-highest ranked team competing at this meet.
In the women's championship 6k, then-No. 27 Georgetown, Texas (receiving votes) and five other power conference programs were among the teams defeated by CSU. Leading the Rams in that field, which featured 15 ranked teams overall, was senior Bailey Ness (20:58.8), who was 73rd of 227 runners. Senior Ali Kallner joined Ness in the top 100, stopping the clock in 21:10.4 to take 94th place.

Rams Projected to Win Men's Mountain West Title in Preseason

The Colorado State men's cross country team has been voted by conference head coaches as the favorite to win the Mountain West title for the upcoming 2018 season. The conference released the results of the 2018 MW Cross Country Preseason Coaches' Poll on Thursday, Aug. 23.
Colorado State men's cross country received four first-place votes and 46 points overall, matching its preseason tally prior to its 2017 campaign. Colorado State is predicted to repeat as conference champions after winning its first-ever Mountain West cross country title in men's competition last season.
CSU's men won last year's conference crown in one of the most dominant team performances in the history of the meet, as the Rams' 31 points were the second-fewest ever tallied by any current conference member (26 – New Mexico, 2014). The Rams defeated second-place Air Force (59 points) by a 28-point margin.
The majority of the top seven returns from that CSU team, including 2017 MW cross country runner-up Cole Rockhold and fifth-place finisher Eric Hamer. No other school returns any male athlete that finished higher than Rockhold or Hamer at the MW Championships in 2017. Trent Powell, who placed 15th in the conference last year, and Carson Hume, the meet's 18th-place finisher in 2017, give the Rams more returners from 2017's top-18 conference finishers than any other men's team (four for CSU, three for Boise State).

Newcomers for CSU Women Shine at Wyoming Invite

Performances by newcomers to the Colorado State women's team at the Wyoming Invite indicate that they will have a significant impact on the team in 2018. Four of the Rams' top five and five of their top seven ran cross country in a CSU uniform for the first time at that meet.
The Rams were led by transfer and senior Bailey Ness, who finished third. Of that aforementioned group, three of the Rams' scorers were freshman, as were four of the Rams' top seven. Furthermore, none of CSU's top seven from Friday scored for the Rams in cross country previously.
Colorado State placed third behind only No. 2 Colorado and only two points behind Air Force. That result came despite two of their top projected returners, Ali Kallner and Macy Kreutz, being unavailable for the meet.

All-America Performer Highlights Rams' Returners

Among the returners for the preseason No. 9 CSU men was senior Cole Rockhold, who led the Rams to their ninth-place NCAA finish with an All-America-caliber 32nd-place individual finish.
That marked the first All-America honor in cross country for Rockhold, who currently owns a combined five First-Team and Second-Team All-America honors. Among his top NCAA performances were respective sixth-place finishes in the mile and 3,000 meters, each garnering First-Team All-America distinction.
Notably, Rockhold's three indoor All-America honors rank as the third-most by any female or male athlete in program history.

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