Fall sports for 2019 are done and done. Zero Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles for Colorado Mesa University but there are a lot of things to observe and analyze heading into next year. Now that winter sports has also started, here are some stories to reflect on from the fall seasons.
Zero RMAC Titles
The Mavericks are known as a top dog in the RMAC. However, this fall proved to be a lackluster outing for the fall sports at CMU. For the first time in a couple years, no CMU sports were still competing heading into Thanksgiving break and no team made it into any form of the NCAA Playoffs/Tournament.
Teams like men’s soccer, football and volleyball failed to claim a conference title despite being deemed a top-five team in each set of rankings. Despite the lack of rings, there were still some success from other Maverick squads.
Triathlon shined above the rest
Under new head coach, Mickey Wender, the Mavericks made remarkable strides in their third year as a CMU sport.
Wender led his team to a fourth-place finish in the Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championships back on Nov. 16 in Tempe, AZ. Freshman Mazzy Jackson finished the best overall as the Alaska native finished fourth individually. The race that included a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike and 5-kilometer run segments was finished by Jackson in one hour, nine minutes and 26 seconds.
Coach Wender spent his last tenure at Army West Point where he coached the Black Knights Swim & Dive team. Wender, along with assistant coach Bryant Howard, run a team with nine underclassmen (six sophomores and three freshmen) and only one junior. Looking ahead, the Mavericks should be able to surpass Black Hills State as the best Tri team in the entire Rocky Mountain Region.
National Champions
The CMU cycling team has been stamped as the lone National Championship team this year. The Mavericks won another team national title at the National Varsity Championships this October. In Big Bear Lake, Torbjorn Roed finished second by only six seconds in the short track. Trevor McCutcheon finished second overall in the downhill portion with a total score of 174 and teammates Collin Hudson and Torbjorn Roed took fifth and sixth.
Gilfert and Smith’s Curtain Call
Volleyball came up short in the RMAC Tournament but Kasie Gilfert and Camille Smith got awarded properly for their efforts during the season.
The two middle blockers made the First Team All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Volleyball squad for the second straight year. Gilfert led the RMAC in hitting percentage with a .391 and was second in the conference in points per set with 4.63. Gilfert was a top ten player in the RMAC and was second on the team with 267 kills and averaged 3.00 kills per set.
