DENVER— Redshirt senior Tony Torres and the Colorado Mesa University men's cross country team as a whole put themselves on the bubble for possible NCAA Division II Championship selection as Torres finished 16^th individually while leading the Mavericks to an eighth-place team finish in Saturday's South Central Regional Championships here at Washington Park.
 
Torres finished the 10-kilometer race in 31 minutes, 36.8 seconds and will receive U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association honors, reserved for the top 25 individual finishers.
 
He is currently ranked fifth in the region amongst runners not on the automatic qualifying teams for the Dec. 2 national meet in University Place, Washington, but could easily move into the top two, which would guarantee a trip if UCCS and West Texas A&M both receive team at-large selections, which will be announced by the NCAA Division II Cross Country Committee on Monday afternoon by 3 p.m. MST via NCAA.com along with the individual qualifiers.
 
The Mavericks also have an outside chance to qualify as a team after scoring 255 team points to match their 2021 regional team finish in what is typically regarded as the toughest region in the country.  Six men's teams from the region were selected in 2021, including three at-large.
 
The Colorado School of Mines, ranked first in the nation according the USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll, had six of the top nine individual finishers and easily took the regional team title with 25 points.  The Oredgiggers will be joined at the national meet by 12th-ranked Colorado Christian (59) and No. 7 Western Colorado (103) as the other two automatic qualifiers.
 
Those three schools also gobbled up nine of the top ten individual finishes as Mines' Dillon Powell dominated the race to win by more than 45 seconds over UCCS's Afewereki Zeru.  Powell finished in 29:43.1, good for a 4:47.1 mile pace.
 
Zeru and West Texas A&M's Harry Louradour, who finished 11^th in 31:15.8, currently hold down the top two individual qualification spots but would free those up if their teams are amongst the ten teams selected at-large from the eight regions around the country.  If so, New Mexico Highlands' Andrew Amor, who finished 12^th, and Torres would be the beneficiaries as automatic qualifiers.
 
If not, Torres could also potentially nab one of the additional eight at-large individual qualification spots.
 
As a team, the Mavs had three of the top 40 finishers as Mark Testa and Ethan Abbs crossed the finish line together in 38^th and 39^th place, separated by just a tenth of a second.  Testa was clocked in 32:29.7.
 
Kevin DeGree was CMU's fourth finisher, placing 63^rd in 33:14.8 while Triston Charles finished 99^th in 34:29.2 to complete the Mavs' team score.
 
Aiden Mobley (119^th, 35:21.4) and Peter Martin (128^th, 35:53.2) also represented the Mavs in their first regional efforts.
 
UCCS finished fourth in the team standings with 126 points after coming into the meet ranked fifth in the region and 14th nationally, according to the USTFCCCA.  They will be compared to the other seven fourth-place regional finishers, according to the national selection criteria.  If the Mountain Lions are selected, West Texas A&AM, ranked 25th nationally coming in, will then be compared to the remaining teams and so on and so forth.
 
CSU Pueblo, not ranked amongst the top 30 nationally coming into the day, placed sixth in 199 points, while Adams State, ranked second in the national poll shockingly took seventh with 213 points and will be on pins and needles until Monday to see if they can continue a streak of 25 national championship selections since 1995, ten which of resulted in national titles.  The Grizzlies had just one top-25 finisher on Saturday in Cameron Allan, who placed 25^th, after placing second in the country as a team at the last two national championship meets in 2019 and 2021.
 
New Mexico Highlands finished ninth with 261 points as Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams took eight of the top nine and 12 of the top 14 team finishes in Saturday's race.  Only tenth-place Dallas Baptist joined West Texas A&M as the only Lone Star Conference teams in the top half of the 25-team, 169-runner field.
 
In the later women's race, Kira MacGill earned her second consecutive USTFCCCA All-Region honor placing 14^th while leading the Mavericks to an 11^th place team finish, their best in six years.  Like Torres, MacGill is currently fifth on the list of individuals not on the automatic qualifying teams.