COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University's Track & Field Coach Brad Gamble made program history as he was named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Men's Indoor Coach of the Year while one of his most heralded young athletes Miller Jones was named as the RMAC Men's Co-Freshman of the Year, it was announced by conference officials on Thursday.
 
The Maverick men had 12 athletes combined for eight first team and 18 total All-RMAC honors, which were also announced in conjunction with the major awards.
 
CMU's women also had  ten different athletes, combined for 13 all-conference honors, including five first team and eight second team honors.
 
Gamble, the first Maverick track & field coach to ever earn RMAC Coach of the Year honors, led the Maverick men to a program-record 106 team points at the RMAC Championships on Feb. 23-24 in Spearfish, South Dakota, allowing the Maverick men to place third as a team, their second best finish in program history behind only the 2022 squad that took second with the former record of 101 team points. 
 
The Mavs were also ranked amongst the nation's top-10 teams for the first six weeks of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Track & Field Ratings Index (TFRI).  They reached a program-record seventh in those rankings and will enter this weekend's NCAA Division II Championships in Pittsburg, Kansas ranked 11^th.
 
The Maverick men have four athletes and five total entries into the national meet, all four of whom are seeded in the top seven in their primary event.
 
Jones, a native of Grand Junction, Colorado won the triple jump at the RMAC Championships, setting a facility record of 15.55 meters (51 feet, 0 ¼ inches) inside Black Hills State University's Donald E. Young Center to do so.  Two weeks earlier, Jones had won the event at the Indoor Gorilla Classic, held pin Pittsburg State University's Robert W. Plaster Center, which will play host to this week's national meet.  He set his national qualifying mark of 15.57 meters (51-1) at that meet and was named as the RMAC Field Athlete of the Week with what held up as the conference's top mark this season.
 
He is the first Maverick men's track & field athlete to ever earn a RMAC Freshman of the Year plaudit joining three former Maverick women's winners.  Chadron State's Chayton Bynes was the other co-award winner after taking second behind Jones at the RMAC Championships in the triple jump.
 
The Maverick men swept the jumping events at the RMAC Championships with Jones, high jumper Eddie Kurjak and long jumper Justin Thompson all winning the gold.  The Mavs also had three other second place and three third place finishes on the men's side
 
The individual event medalists all earned First Team All-RMAC honors which go to the top three individual finishers in each individual event and to all four members of the winning relay team.  The Mavericks' 4x400-meter relay team earned second team honors as the runner-up.  The fourth through sixth place finishers in the individual events also garner those honors.
 
Kurjak was a 3-evet All-RMAC selection, earning first team honors in both the high and triple jumps thanks to his gold and bronze medal-winning efforts.  He was also a second team honoree in the long jump thanks to his fifth place finish and accounted for a team-high 20 points at the RMAC Championships, equal to the most of any field athlete in the meet.  He now has five All-RMAC honors to his credit over the last two seasons, earning first team honors in the 2022 indoor season and second team accolades during the 2023 outdoor season.
 
Thompson now has ten overall and seven first team All-RMAC honors to his credit.
 
Elijah Williams was also a 2-event First Team All-RMAC performer after taking second in the 200 and third in the 60 meters.  He now has 11 career All-RMAC certificates, including eight first team honors.
 
Zace Buckhold, who took second in the high jump behind Kurjak and Kelsey Montague, who took third in the 400 meters, were also First Team All-RMAC honorees.  Montague, also earned a second team honor in the 4x400-meter relay and now has six career All-RMAC honors to his credit, three of which are the first team variety.  Buckhold, was also the fourth place finisher in the triple jump and is now an 8-time honoree, including his two honors this season.  He also has three career first team honors.
 
Levi Hoenninger also earned two second team honors in the 4x400-meter relay and heptathlon.
 
CMU's other second team honorees included Salem Brunk (triple jump), Dylan Campbell (4x400m Relay), Kade Christensen (60m), Logan Hafey (heptathlon) and Amaris Mora (4x400m Relay).  Christensen now has six career All-RMAC honors to his credit while Hafey was honored for the second time in his career.  Brunk, Campbell, Hoenninger and Mora are all freshman and were recognized in their first collegiate opportunity.