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PREDICTIONS & PREVIEWS: 2024 RMAC XC Championships
- Gavin Struve
- Oct 24, 2024
- 11 min read
Written by Gavin Struve, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin
Just two weeks ago, we witnessed the nation's most competitive Division Two regular season meet: the Lewis Crossover.
It feels fair to posit that the RMAC XC Championships is the most significant non-NCAA Championship postseason meet at the Division Two level each and every year.
Relative to its peers, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) is the most loaded league in the country. That's to say, it has the largest share of elite teams in Division Two, even more so than the realigned BIG 12 has relative to Division One.
As such, we're giving it a stand-alone preview. Below, we previewed both the men's and women's races at the RMAC XC Championships from the individual and team perspectives.
Stay tuned for a group chat article discussing the rest of the Division Two conference meets tomorrow!
Women’s Preview
We're in for a barnburner of a women's race at the 2024 RMAC XC Championships! It's hard to remember a Division Two field before the month of November that's been this stacked.
Almost two-thirds (16) of the women in our latest top-25 individual rankings hail from the RMAC. Frankly, it's hard to find a statistic more illustrative of the conference's prowess than that. Half of the top-10 squads in our last team rankings update also hail from the RMAC. Of the top-15 women from the 2023 RMAC XC Championships, 11 of those women return.
And yet, the team competition isn't expected to be much of a...well...competition.
From a team perspective, we expect Adams State to flex their depth. That doesn't mean that other programs can't bolster their cases as podium candidates, but Adams State is the clear national title favorite this year for a reason.
The RMAC could also produce next month's individual national champion. The difference is that there is no single woman favored over the rest of the field to take home the title in this race or at the national meet.
After she won the Lewis Crossover, Colorado Mines senior Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge is our new TSR #1 name in a wide-open year for the women's individual national title picture. She outran her teammates by over half a minute and set a course record in her season opener before making a major statement earlier this month by winning the Lewis Crossover by 11 seconds.
As "only" a two-time All-American who placed 7th at this meet last year, Ramsey-Rutledge is hardly impervious to defeat.
Our TSR #2 individual, Anna Fauske, and her team (UC-Colorado Springs) also reside in this conference. Fauske finished two spots higher (and 11 seconds faster) than Ramsey-Rutledge at this meet last year. The UCCS ace was a top-10 All-American on the grass last year and has gotten better at each successive cross country national meet.
Ramsey-Rutledge's stock is higher after winning the Lewis Crossover, and Fauske has shown less this season. But the latter looked quite sharp in dominating her home opener and holding her own against Division One competition at the Louisville XC Classic.
Oh, and guess what? The individual ranked at our TSR #3 spot, Adams State senior Ava O'Connor, is also an RMAC athlete! In fact, these three women went 5-6-7 (with O'Connor in the middle) at the 2023 RMAC XC Championships.
O'Connor has raced just once this fall, finishing as the fastest D2 runner by 20 seconds against her star teammates and Grand Valley State in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational's top race. Not only that, but her fitness on the oval this past spring (and briefly this past winter) suggested that she has reached a new tier of competitiveness.
Western Colorado star Leah Taylor makes for four RMAC women among our top-five runners nationally. She looked exceptionally fit in finishing 4th (behind just three D1 "Power Four" talents) at the Chile Pepper XC Festival a month ago. Her rising fitness and exorbitant amount of upside makes her quietly very dangerous in this field. Don't be surprised if she upsets a few key names.
Adams State senior Elena Carey bears mentioning after finishing as the second-fastest D2 runner at the Joe Piane Invitational in her last outing. She's someone who has continued to get better over the past year, and her best result last fall came at this meet when she placed 12th.
Her younger teammate, Tristian Spence, is one of a small handful of women with the upside to put herself in the mix for the individual RMAC crown. She recorded a "DNF" in her lone effort this fall, but she largely broke onto the NCAA radar at this meet last year before finishing as a top-half All-American on the grass and running 15:58 over 5000 meters. She will likely be intending to re-establish herself this weekend and, in theory, could thrive in a hard-from-the-gun type of race.
Maggie McCleskey won Adams State's home opener over Carey and several other All-Americans and was the Grizzlies' third scorer at the Joe Piane Invitational. She's another woman who could conceivably emerge as this team's lead scorer on Saturday.
And how about Emily Schoellkopf? She is actually Adams State's top returner from the 2023 RMAC XC Championships, where she earned individual bronze. The six-time All-American looks to still be in top form, as she was the runner-up at Adams State's Joe Vigil Open last month. When it comes to the Grizzlies, she is quietly one of their more reliable postseason talents.
Heck, we haven't even gotten to the eighth top-10 finisher from the 2023 RMAC XC Championships: three-time cross country All-American Morgan O'Keefe (née Hykes) of Adams State.
If it feels like this preview and race are littered with Adams State stars. That, of course, is because the Grizzlies have a historic level of depth and firepower. They have legitimate All-American candidates who won't race in their varsity seven for the regional and national meets.
It's pretty difficult to pin down the order in which this interchangeable roster will finish. We just know that almost all of them will be toward the front of the field.
Elsewhere in the state of Colorado, UCCS senior Kate Hedlund has the talent to join her teammate, Anna Fauske, in the top-10. She was, after all, a top-half All-American at the 2022 NCAA XC Championships before struggling a bit more in the postseason last year.
However, she's yet to have a great race at the RMAC XC Championships. Hedlund finished outside of the top-30 at the conference meet in 2021, recorded a "DNF" in 2022 and then fell back late in the race last year and finished outside of the top-50.
The Mountain Lions may not have the same kind of high-level depth that a few of their Centennial State peers boast, but a strong performance from Hedlund can certainly help them match their 5th-place effort from the 2023 RMAC XC Championships.
Western Colorado star Allison Beasley was our highest-ranked RMAC individual before the season (TSR #3), but she has yet to race this fall and isn't listed in the entries despite being rostered.
All things equal, a full-strength version of the Mountaineers would be in the mix for a runner-up finish and may even be favored to out-duel a full-strength version of Colorado Mines on paper.
Peyton Weiss gave them a third All-American last year and should challenge for a top-15 finish in this field. Lauren Willson further bolsters the back half of the Mountaineers' scoring contingent. With three other returners who were top-45 RMAC finishers a year ago, we anticipate Western Colorado will be able to piece together a solid lineup.
However, Grace Strongman will likely give Colorado Mines a more potent complementary scorer behind Ramsey-Rutledge than Western Colorado has beyond Taylor.
Strongman placed one spot behind Ramsey-Rutledge (8th) at the 2023 RMAC XC Championships and was impressive in finishing 6th at the 2024 Lewis Crossover. We'll admit, the depth of talent in this field makes it no guarantee that she'll match or improve upon her finish from this meet last season.
Even so, there is still good reason to believe that, relative to the rest of the NCAA, Strongman is a...well, "stronger" runner in 2024.
Margaux Basart and Lexi Herr (both top-20 at the Lewis Crossover) are the kind of middle-lineup scorers that set Colorado Mines apart, but both are absent from the entries, perhaps giving the upper-hand back to Western Colorado.
Helen Braybrook is a battle-tested RMAC competitor who feels virtually guaranteed a top-15 finish in this field. She may be known for her middle distance success, but her ability to effectively move up in distance remarkable. She is an far stronger low-stick than some people may realize.
Her CSU-Pueblo teammate, Leah Keisler, is a middle-lineup scorer who stacks up quite well with Basart and Herr, but the unexpected absence of Margot Thomas-Gatel from this field (per the entries) will hurt a ThunderWolves team that otherwise has some of the best backend depth in the conference despite carrying only nine women on the roster.
Fort Lewis is less well-rounded than the aforementioned teams, but Hannah Hartwell and Linda Weigang offer one of the RMAC's better one-two punches despite being in only their second year with the Skyhawks. The former placed 5th over 10,000 meters at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships, and the latter was a backend All-American as a freshman last fall.
Women's Team Predictions
Adams State Grizzlies
Western Colorado Mountaineers
Colorado Mines Orediggers
UC-Colorado Springs Mountain Lions
CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves
Women's Individual Predictions
Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge (Colorado Mines)
Ava O'Connor (Adams State)
Leah Taylor (Western Colorado)
Anna Fauske (UC-Colorado Springs)
Emily Schoellkopf (Adams State)
Tristian Spence (Adams State)
Elena Carey (Adams State)
Maggie McCleskey (Adams State)
Hannah Hartwell (Fort Lewis)
Helen Braybrook (CSU-Pueblo)
Kate Hedlund (UC-Colorado Springs)
Grace Strongman (Colorado Mines)
Precious Robinson (Adams State)
Morgan O'Keefe (née Hykes) (Adams State)
Linda Weigang (Fort Lewis)
Peyton Weiss (Western Colorado)
Katie Hughes (Adams State)
Fiona Hawkins (Adams State)
Lauren Willson (Western Colorado)
Leah Keisler (CSU-Pueblo)
Men's Preview
The top three men's finishers from the 2023 RMAC XC Championships will be absent from this year's field. That, in turn, presents an individual conference race that appears almost as compelling as the women's side.
Romain Legendre is as big of a star as any individual in this conference. He was promising last fall after finishing 6th at this meet, before running 13:16 (5k) and 28:28 (10k) and winning an NCAA title in the 5k earlier this year.
The Frenchman has seemingly translated that fitness to the grass this fall. He placed 7th against some D1 heavy hitters at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational (finishing ahead of every individual on the team champion Fighting Irish squad) and could claim his first RMAC title this weekend.
All things equal, his biggest threat will be Colorado Mines' Loic Scomparin. He's the top returner from the 2023 RMAC XC Championships after finishing 4th.
We've yet to see Legendre's fellow Frenchman race this season, but Scomparin also hadn't raced prior to the RMAC XC Championships last season before going on to record top-eight finishes at the conference, regional and national stages.
Scomparin's teammate, Paul Knight, finished one spot and one second behind him at last year's conference meet and looked solid in his lone outing this year when he was the top attached runner at the Roadrunners Invite.
A third Oredigger All-American, Logan Bocovich, is in a similar boat to Scomparin in that he has yet to race this fall. That hardly means that we should rule out a top-five finish for him. After all, Bocovich seamlessly transitioned from the D3 level to D2 last year, and he faces a less daunting task in making his season debut this weekend.
The trio of Scomparin, Knight and Bocovich, at their very best, are all stars. The former can realistically challenge most of the men in Division Two, the second athlete is an underrated veteran and the latter name has been quietly excellent in the postseason. The raw firepower that this trio will bring to this field could be flat-out overwhelming.
Truthfully, Colorado Mines might flood the front of this field, and they may be able to do so without the 3rd place finisher from the Lewis Crossover, Ethan Grolnic, who is not listed in the entries. However, teammate Jeremiah Vaille (7th) was comfortably in the top-10 at the Lewis Crossover, making it feel laughable that he's projected as a backend scorer for the Orediggers.
These Golden, Colorado-based men don't quite have the same blend of firepower and depth that the Adams State women do, but we expect the Orediggers to similarly coast to the men's team title.
Western Colorado's Tyler Nord finished just behind Scomparin, Legendre and Knight at this meet last year and was even more impressive than Bocovich late last fall. Nord doesn't shy away from big stages, so we can't rule him out from winning the individual title to one-up former teammate Simon Kelati's RMAC runner-up result from last year.
Several of Colorado Mines' backend scorers and Adams State's middle-lineup runners could finish in any conceivable order. The x-factor for the Grizzlies will be Kidus Begashaw, who was the fastest collegian in Adams State's home opener and is a 14:03 (5k) guy who finished in the top-55 at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.
He was less impressive on the conference stage last season (finishing 29th) and feels like he has one of the wider range of outcomes among the top talents in this field, with the potential to finish in the top-10 or outside of the top-20.
It's also difficult to place New Mexico Highlands freshman Weldon Chebon, who moved into our individual rankings after a win at the DBU Old Glory Gallup. He competed decently against the Colorado Mines men at the Roadrunners Invitational, but he wouldn't be a top-25 name on the strength of that debut effort alone.
Last year, we saw Andrew Amor emerge as a surprise RMAC champion for New Mexico Highlands (although he was already an established star). We don't think Chebon will make that kind of a leap into relevance in his first season in the NCAA, but it's worth keeping an eye on the Cowboys' new focal star.
UC-Colorado Springs miler Jagger Zlotoff also figures to factor into the individual race after finishing 13th in the conference last year and opening this season with wins in two smaller meets.
We're presuming that Colorado Christian (our TSR #10 men's team) won't field a varsity lineup, given that they haven't done so at the RMAC XC Championships in recent years. Matthew Storer would otherwise be in the individual title race, and the Cougars could be among the conference's top-five teams.
With or without the Cougars present, Western Colorado looks like the second-best men's team in the conference. They don't appear to have a true second star beyond Nord, but they could realistically be even better and deeper than they were last year despite the fact that Kelati is now competing for a team across the state in Boulder rather than Gunnison.
Kyle Partin and John Houdeshell are trusty veterans who will fortify the middle of the team's lineup, and we'll be closely monitoring how international freshman Oliver Diaz fares after he more than held his own as the Mountaineers' second scorer in his debut at the Chile Pepper XC Festival.
In a more condensed field like this, Adams State could give Western Colorado a run for 2nd place. Juan Rosales has looked like a new runner this season, twice finishing as the Grizzlies' second scorer. How close will the rest of the lineup be to him?
CSU-Pueblo is arguably a top-10 team nationally as well. The ThunderWolves boast strong continuity from last year's 12th-place team finish at the cross country national meet, a quality lead scorer in Reece Sharman-Newell and strong lineup support behind him with Matisse Virey, Kaleb Beloy and Kameron Eustace. They've quietly run quite well to open this fall and stand to improve on their 6th-place result from the 2023 RMAC XC Championships.
Fort Lewis has a group that we were quite high on entering this season, placing the Skyhawks at TSR #10 in our preseason team rankings. However, they fell out of our rankings (and even beyond our "Honorable Mentions" section) after a rough 15th-place result at the Lewis Crossover.
If they start to peak for the postseason like last year -- when they finished 4th at the RMAC XC Championships and 13th at the NCAA XC Championships after a forgettable 9th-place result at the 2023 Lewis Crossover -- they could finish top-five in the team standings on Saturday.
As is, UC-Colorado Springs feels like the more reliable team despite losing a couple of scorers from last year's squad, which was worse than Fort Lewis' 2023 team.
Men's Team Predictions
Colorado Mines Orediggers
Western Colorado Mountaineers
Adams State Grizzlies
CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves
UC-Colorado Springs Mountain Lions
Men's Individual Predictions
Romain Legendre (Adams State)
Loic Scomparin (Colorado Mines)
Tyler Nord (Western Colorado)
Logan Bocovich (Colorado Mines)
Paul Knight (Colorado Mines)
Jagger Zlotoff (UC-Colorado Springs)
Jeremiah Vaille (Colorado Mines)
Kidus Begashaw (Adams State)
Weldon Chebon (New Mexico Highlands)
Reece Sharman-Newell (CSU-Pueblo)
Kyle Partin (Western Colorado)
Elijah Smith (Fort Lewis)
Juan Rosales (Adams State)
Max Bonenberger (Colorado Mines)
Matisse Virey (CSU-Pueblo)
John Houdeshell (Western Colorado)
Braden Struhs (Colorado Mines)
Noel Lopez (MSU Denver)
Oliver Diaz (Western Colorado)
Kaleb Beloy (CSU-Pueblo)
