DENVER— The Colorado Mesa University cross country teams both turned in solid top five performances as the Maverick women placed fourth out of 13 teams while the men took fifth out of 14 teams at Saturday's Roadrunners Invitational, contested here at Washington Park, which will later play host to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championships in seven weeks on Nov. 9..
 
The Maverick women were led by Brooke Miller's 18^th place performance and scored 130 team points to finish better than two nationally-ranked squads plus another in host MSU Denver that was receiving votes in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's poll.
 
No. 12 Colorado School of Mines won the meet with 26 points after placing three runners in the top five and another in seventh while NCAA Division I Colorado finished second with 32 points.  Ninth-ranked Division II UCCS was third with 80 points while the Mavericks were five points clear of the host Roadrunners, who scored 135.
 
St. Edward's finished sixth with 178 while twenty-third ranked Colorado Christian was seventh with 236 points, just ahead of No. 19 Fort Lewis.
 
Mines, ranked second in the national men's poll, also dominated the men's race with five top-10 finishers overall and had seven of the top nine team scorers.  The Orediggers scored just 20 points, well ahead of poll No. 18 Fort Lewis, which was second with 97.  MSU Denver (106) and St. Edward's (128) were just ahead of the Mavericks (144), who had a 5-man pack time of just over 32 seconds on the 8-kilometer course.
 
The Maverick men also finished higher than two nationally-ranked squads in No. 6 Adams State, which took sixth with 154 points, and No. 15 Colorado Christina, which was tenth in the final team standings.
 
Kevin DeGree led the Mavericks for the second straight weekend, placing 33^rd overall and 21^st amongst team scorers with a time of 25:53.95.
 
Drexel Cox, 44^th in 26:05.16 and Triston Charles, 45^th in 26:06.65 then crossed the line together as the 28^th and 29^th fastest team scoring runners.  Owen Frank, 48^th overall and 31^st in the team scoring, was the next Maverick finisher in 26:19.38 while Chase Brown rounded out the Mavs' top five with a 56^th place time of 26:26.31.  He scored 35 team points.
 
The Maverick women rested 2023 NCAA Division II Championship individual qualifier Kirstin Williams and 2022 qualifier Kira MacGill, but still managed their strong finish as Miller turned in a stellar time of 22:28.00 in the women's 6-kilometer race to lead the Maverick women.  She was the 15^th overall team scorer as three runners ahead of her were competing unattached.
 
The Mavs then had four other runners finish with 16 ½ seconds of one another as Kendall White finished 35^th overall and 27^th amongst team scorers in 23:07.29 to lead the pack.  Autumn McQuitty (38^th, 23:17.98), Quin Gregg (39^th, 23:19.22), Lauren Hodges (42^nd, 23:23.77) and Kate Linstedt (47^th, 23:32.67) then all finished within 15 seconds of each other while Megan Hodges was just more than seven seconds back in 23:39.75, good for 54^th overall place out of 143 finishers.
 
Freshman Shirley Weaver was also amongst the top half of the field, taking 60^th overall in 23:44.30 in her collegiate debut as the Mavs' eighth finishers.
 
The Maverick men also had eight total finishers amongst the top half of the large 186-person race.  Jacob Dalrymple (63^rd, 26:32.04), Ryan O'Loughlin (72^nd, 26:39.09) and Gustavo Rivera (87^th, 26:54.33) joined the top five in those regards.
 
After racing on consecutive weeks, the Mavericks will now have the next two weekends off before resuming their season on Oct. 12 at the Lewis Crossover Invitational in Romeoville, Illinois.