COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University softball program swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Coach, Player and Pitcher of the Year honors and led the conference with five First Team All-RMAC selections, it was announced by the conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Maverick junior shortstop Myah Arrieta was named as the RMAC Player of the Year while fellow junior Preslee Christensen was tabbed as the RMAC Pitcher of the Year.  Mercedes Bohte was named as the RMAC Coach of the Year for the second time in her four years at the helm of the program after leading the Mavericks to a 43-7 overall record and a 15th overall RMAC title with a 41-3 RMAC record.
 
Bohte has been the Mavs' head coach for three of those (2021, 2022, 2024) title wins and has been on the Mavericks coaching staff in eight title winning years since joining the program in 2013.
 
The Mavs, who have won 33 straight games, will be the top seed and host this week's RMAC Tournament, which begins Thursday at the CMU Softball Stadium.  They have also already broken the RMAC record for home runs, hitting 113 so far this season.
 
Ally Distler, selected at the Utility/Player position, outfielder Iliana Mendoza and designated player Miranda Pruitt also joined Arrieta and Christensen on the First Team All-RMAC unit with first baseman Ava Fugate picking up second team all-conference honors while also being named as the Mavs' lone selection to the Gold Glove team.
 
Second baseman Chloe Valdez also received Honorable Mention All-RMAC accolades.
 
All of the awards were voted on by the league's head coaches.
 
Arrieta, a local product out of Grand Junction Central High School, broke a RMAC record for home runs in a season on Saturday, hitting her 26^th of the campaign, in walk-off fashion during the final at-bat of the Mavs' regular season.  She also the RMAC in batting average (.500), slugging percentage (1.079), on-base percentage (.575), OPS (on base + slugging percentage) (1.654) and runs scored (81) and ranks third in the RMAC for RBIs as the Mavs' lead-off hitter.
 
Arrieta could also break the RMAC and CMU records for runs scored (83) and total bases (183) this weekend, marks held by former Maverick greats Maggie Manwarren and Brooke Hodgson, respectively.
 
She is the eighth different Maverick to have won a combined 12 RMAC Player of the Year awards since 2000.  CMU had won every such honor from 2014-22.  Hodgson was the co-award winner in 2017 and the lone recipient in 2018.
 
Arrieta has now earned two First Team All-RMAC honors after also doing so as a freshman in 2022.  She missed the second half of 2023 due to injury.
 
Christensen, a native of Heber City, Utah, joined the Maverick program from Utah State-Eastern this season, and leads the RMAC in ERA (1.99) and strikeouts per seven innings (6.5).  She is also second in wins with her 17-3 record and is third in total strikeouts (115) and has caught 44 opponents looking at third strikes, ten more than any other RMAC pitcher.
 
Christensen is also tied for the RMAC lead in shutouts with six and has given up no more than two runs in each of her last ten starts.  She is the sixth different Maverick to have won seven total RMAC Pitcher of the Year honors and is the fifth Maverick to have won six such honors with Bohte as the team's pitching coach.
 
Distler, Mendoza, Pruitt, Fugate and Valdez have all been big parts of the Mavericks' 2024 success as well.
Distler was also named to the First Team All-RMAC squad in 2022 at the catcher position after earning second team honors as a freshman in 2021.  She redshirted last year.
 
Distler is hitting .382 on the season and is second in the RMAC with 68 RBIs.  She and Pruitt are also tied for second in the RMAC with 19 home runs behind only Arrieta.  The Littleton, Colorado native who has played at the catcher, left field, third base and designated player positions this season, has also scored 60 runs to rank third in the RMAC.  She also has nine doubles to her credit and is slugging .816 to rank sixth in both that category and OPS (1.284).
 
Pruitt, a graduate student who originally hails from Joshua, Texas, has split games with Distler behind the plate and serves as the designated player when not catching.  She has also hit 19 home runs and has driven in 60 runs to rank fifth in the conference.  She also has a .400 batting average and ranks second in the RMAC behind Arrieta in slugging percentage at .900 while ranking third in OPS at 1.382.
 
Mendoza, a fifth-year senior and graduate student from Tucson, Arizona, is second on the Maverick squad and fourth in the RMAC with her .461 batting average.  She is also fifth in slugging percentage (.817), second for on-base percentage (.559) and fourth for OPS (1.376), having recorded 20 doubles and six home runs while scoring 49 runs and driving in 44.  The center fielder was a Second Team All-RMAC selection last year.
 
Fugate, a senior from Chehalis, Washington, is hitting .384 this season and has banged out 26 doubles and ten home runs.  Her 26 doubles are second most in Division II and the RMAC and are just one shy of Hodgson's school record of 27.  Fugate has also scored 55 runs, to stand seventh in the conference, and has posted a .736 slugging percentage and 42 RBIs.  She has also swiped nine bases to stand third on the team behind Distler (11) and Arrieta (10).
 
Defensively, she has made just two errors while recording a .993 fielding percentage and has set a new CMU individual record by helping turn 20 doubles plays.  The Mavs have recorded 26 as a team, equal to the program record.
 
Valdez, a junior from Parker, Colorado, who had spent the previous two seasons at Division I College of Charleston, is hitting .331 on the season and has 11 home runs, 42 runs scored and 41 RBIs to her credit.  She also has nine doubles and two triples to help her to a .642 slugging percentage and has a strong .974 fielding percentage at second base.  She has also been a part of 16 doubles plays.