John Cusick
Sep 8, 20229 min
Edits and additional commentary by Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On some occasions, we are referencing TFFRS or team rosters in order to properly and accurately talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
The UC-Colorado Springs men are returning one of the best Division Two runners in the nation for the 2022 cross country season. However, on the other hand, they are also losing three of their top-seven men from last year’s NCAA XC Championship lineup.
Trying to balance those two aspects for the Mountain Lions this fall won't be easy, but we thought placing them here at TSR #9 was the perfect spot for a team that should still be loaded with plenty of high-value scoring talent over the next few months of competition.
The 2021 cross country season was much different for the Mountain Lions than it was for most other distance programs. The UCCS men only raced in the regular season two times and in those races, they didn’t travel to any, what we would consider, high-profile meets.
At the 14th Annual UCCS Rust Buster, the Mountain Lions walked away with a 46-point margin of victory over the next-best team, Colorado Mesa. For as convincing as that win was, UCCS didn't leave us with any major takeaways.
Afewerki Zeru rattled off a 55-second victory while leading his team to a score of just 23 points. The quartet of Evan Graff, Branden Bohling, Matt Schramm and Mark Simmons would finish 3-5-6-8 to round out the scoring for UCCS, creating a varsity contingent that was simply unmatched across all five scoring spots.
With Zeru being the outlier, the other four men all finished within 19 seconds of each other. And while we understood that this was a simple rust-buster, it was still an encouraging sign to see this supporting cast put together a cohesive (and complete) lineup structure.
At their next meet, and their final regular season cross country meet of the year, we saw the Mountain Lions head to Wisconsin for the Lucan Rosa Invitational.
Once again, Zeru dominated the 8k course as he ran 24:44 and won by more than 45 seconds in the process. But it was once again the rest of his teammates who impressed us. Graff, Simmons, Bohling and Schramm all finished inside the top-six.
And for good measure, Gavin Harden and Will Young finished 7th and 9th, giving everyone who traveled to the meet a top-10 individual finish. The Mountain Lions would go on to score 19 points as a team and take home a 70-point margin of victory back to Colorado.
But for as strong as this team looked in the regular season, trying to gauge their actual talent against higher-end competition was still a challenge.
That, of course, would eventually be fixed in the postseason.
It was more than a month before this team got back to racing, but they showed no signs of rust when they toed the line at the RMAC XC Championships.
Zeru was brilliant yet again as he took home 2nd place honors, breaking up the elite scoring trio from Colorado Mines. He finished 20 seconds back of conference title winner Dillon Powell, but was a comfortable 11 seconds ahead of the meet's 3rd place finisher.
And while Zeru continue his strong running, so did his teammates.
Schramm, Simmons and Bohling were just 10 seconds apart from each other. They finished 16th, 17th and 19th overall, a brilliant display of compact scoring that allowed Zeru's low-stick finish to maintain some potency.
Harden would round out the scoring in 31st place, a result that admittedly opened up a bit of a gap, but hardly a major setback in terms of UCCS' potential.
The Mountain Lions went on to score 84 points which secured them a 3rd place team finish; their best placing as a team at the RMAC XC Championships since 2004 when they were also the bronze medal recipients.
And despite falling to traditional powerhouses like Colorado Mines and Adams State, a 3rd place finish still included head-to-head victories over top-notch distance programs like Western Colorado and Colorado Christian.
But while that championship performance certainly highlighted their season, it was also fair to say that the Mountain Lions were not yet done.
Two weeks later at the South Central Regional XC Championships, the UC-Colorado Springs men took home a solid 4th place team finish with 99 points, just eight points behind the Colorado Christian men.
While their finish at the conference meet was incredibly strong, you could easily argue that their finish at the regional meet was better -- even if it meant one spot worse in the overall results.
Zeru finished runner-up once more as he made sure to let everyone know that his conference meet finish was not just a one-time thing.
However, behind him, it was Schramm, Graff, and Simmons who crossed the line just five seconds apart in 19th, 20th and 23rd, respectively. Bohling was the team's fifth man back in 35th place, creating a lineup structure that was almost identical to what we had see at the RMAC XC Championships.
The Mountian Lions went on to finish an outstanding 5th place at the NCAA XC Championships to end one of the strongest, and maybe even quietest, 2021 cross country campaigns in Division Two.
And historically, this was a program-defining result for the Mountain Lions. Prior to that 5th place finish, UCCS had never earned a national meet finish inside the top-11.
Zeru capped off his incredible season on the grass, finishing 15th overall and garnering his first All-American accolade on the grass. He was the only Mountain Lion runner inside the top-40, but that didn’t stop this team from proving that they were the real deal.
Schramm finished 52nd overall while Simmons placed 63rd and Graff was 67th. Once again, the middle portion of this lineup proved to be one of the most stable and reliable contingent of scorers that the D2 scene had to offer.
Harden was the team's fifth and final scorer back in 93rd place, once again closing out the Mountain Lion's team score within a reasonable timeframe.
There was not much else that this team could have done at the national meet to improve their placing, either. They were 35 points ahead of Wingate (who finished 6th) and 33 points behind Augustana (SD) (who finished 4th).
In other words, the UCCS men ran a nearly perfect race, just the same as they had in their two postseason meets leading up to their season finale.
So if the Mountain Lions ran so well when it mattered the most in 2021, then why are they "only" ranked at TSR #9 to start their 2022 cross country season?
That’s a valid question, but we have just as valid answers.
The Mountain Lions are losing Schramm and Simmons from their top-five of last year’s national meet lineup. They’ll also be losing Bohling who was a consistent scorer for this team throughout the postseason.
On paper, that is a TON of scoring value that is now out the door. The core of what made this team so strong throughout 2022 now leaves UCCS with a significant level of uncertainty and maybe even instability when it comes to their projected 2022 lineup.
Luckily, Afewerki Zeru is returning, and that will at least be an outstanding starting point for this UCCS team when it comes to reloading over the next months.
After his 15th place national meet finish on the grass, Zeru made sure to let everyone know that he was not just a cross country runner. He lowered his personal bests on the track to 8:04 (3k), 13:44 (5k) and 28:56 (10k) putting himself in elite territory when talking about D2's hierarchy of distance athletes.
Zeru won the 5000 meter national title during the outdoor season and that was after he finished 3rd in the 10,000 meters less than 48 hours prior. Zeru is currently listed at TSR #4 in our preseason individual rankings and there’s a legitimate shot that he could win gold come December.
If that happens, then he can at least shave a few points off from his 2021 national meet finish.
It won't be a lot of points, but it could happen.
Even Graff is the next returner for the Mountain Lions, although he’s known mostly for his success at the mile.
Last year was the second time that Graff had raced on the big stage during cross country and that led to a huge improvement over his 2019 national meet finish, going from 164th to 67th.
He ran an altitude converted 14:22 for 5000 meters this past spring and lowered his 1500 time to an altitude converted mark of 3:44, showing us improvement in his aerobic strength and even his overall talent.
Graff's continued improvement makes us think that finishing higher than 67th at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships isn’t outside of the realm of possibility. In fact, we think an All-American honor is even probable for someone like him!
But that also means that Graff is likely going to carry a lot weight in terms of scoring pressure. There’s a real possibility that he’ll be the second scoring option for this squad over the next few months, a spot that could make or break this team in 2022.
We then move to Gavin Harden who didn’t race during the outdoor track season, but still saw some promising success during the indoor season.
The rising UCCS talent qualified for the indoor national meet in the mile this past winter, solidifying himself as a national-caliber talent. And despite a 14th place finish, he gained some much needed experience. He should be able to translate that to the grass in 2022.
And if he does, then Harden could run alongside Graff, potentially emulating the same scoring stability that we saw from last year's veterans. If that happens, then the UCCS men won't fall too far from their 5th place national meet finish that we saw last year.
Will Young is the final returner from last year's national meet lineup. He’ll bring necessary experience to this team in a year where the Mountain Lions are trying to retain their scoring prowess.
Admittedly, Young's times on the track don’t quite stack up with the rest of his teammates. Even so, that won’t dismiss him from being a key part of this team in the fall. At the very least, he offers depth and in a best case scenario, he emerges as a reliable middle lineup scorer.
But if those are just the returners then...who will fill out the rest of this lineup?
Flagler transfer Marcus Graham makes his way to the RMAC this fall after an underrated career in the Peach Belt Conference. He recently won double gold in the 5k and the 10k at the Peach Belt Outdoor Championships and has run very solid times of 8:35 (3k), 14:32 (5k) and 31:19 (10k) on the oval.
Graham also brings some national meet experience with him. He was 83rd at the cross country national meet in 2019 which came on the heels of him placing 4th at the Peach Belt XC Championships and then 5th at the Southeast Regional XC Championships.
With an expectation of something similar, he will help this team enormously when it comes to replenishing their depth.
Along with Graham is a transfer from Northern Colorado in Logan Cole. His track times, admittedly, don't blow anyone away, but he does fit the mold of a potential scorer (or depth piece) for the Mountain Lions in 2022.
He’s run 25:36 for 8k on the grass and ran 9:21 for 3200 meters during high school. A fresh start might be what he needs to kick-start his collegiate career to the next level.
We can expect both of these transfers to come in and immediately help the Mountain Lions, although they won’t be the only ones vying for a spot inside the team's top-seven.
Jagger Zlotoff redshirted the 2021 cross country season and is expected to be an impact runner for UCCS in 2022. Troy Cournoyer and Justin Banta were both part of the extended roster for the RMAC XC Championships and with another year in the program, they should be an integral part of this team moving forward.
This Mountain Lions team is set up for sneaky-good success heading into the fall of 2022 despite the loss of multiple high-value scorers from the year prior.
UCCS has a clear low-stick who has every bit of potential to make up for (some) backend blunders that this team could face. Not only that, but this roster also has the depth to replace those key veterans who are not returning.
While last year may have been the most successful season in UCCS history, there’s no reason that the 2022 season can’t end in a similar way. It will take some strong performances from everyone not named Zeru in order for that to happen, but they have flashed enough talent to instill some confidence in us going into this fall.
Don’t be surprised if you see them put together another strong campaign in 2022 and climb up our rankings yet again.