COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference released this year's All-RMAC teams and major award winners this afternoon with five different Mavericks earning honors.
Of those five, the Mavs were led by the duo of Manuel Ponce Casas and Nathan Hernandez with each of them earning spots on this year's First Team.
The final three members were all Honorable Mention picks with that group consisting of George Jones, Matteo Bonelli and Kensho Negi.
The All-RMAC teams and awards are selected by the league's 11 head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for themselves or their own players.
The pair of Ponce Casas and Negi both earn their second All-RMAC nods of their career now with Ponce Casas being a previous Second Team pick in 2023 and Negi repeating as an Honorable Mention selection after being one last season as well.
Ponce Casas earns this honor after putting together a strong Senior season to finish his career at CMU, recording nine goals and four assists. He recorded two braces on the year while finishing with 22 total points to rank top five in the conference. In conference play alone he scored six of his goals.
In addition, Ponce Casas now finishes his career at Colorado Mesa with 27 goals to rank third all-time and ties for third in career points with 66.
Joining Ponce Casas on the First Team as another offensive threat for the Mavs was Hernandez, with him totaling eight goals and four assists this year in his debut season for the team.
Finishing with 20 points, Hernandez had the sixth most points in the conference while leading the Mavs in game-winners this year with three. He had five of his goals come in conference play with three assists in that span as well.
On the Honorable Mention squad, George Jones was the lone defender to be selected for Colorado Mesa with the Junior transfer leading the entire team in minutes at 1,581. He recorded one assist on the year while appearing and starting every game. Prior to this year, Jones was also an Honorable Mention pick last season for the GNAC conference with him playing at MSU Billings before they cut the program.
Bonelli and Negi are the two midfielder selections to round out the team for Honorable Mention with each of them being key contributors.
Bonelli ended the year with four goals and six assists for 14 points while appearing in every game of the season. On Sept. 24, Bonelli recorded a hat trick for the Mavs with him scoring three goals and adding an assist in that game as well as Colorado Mesa beat Adams State, 5-0. He was the conference player of the week following that performance.
Negi joins Bonelli as another assist threat on the team with him racking up four this season and finishing with the fifth most minutes played. He recorded three of his assists in conference play while playing the complete 90 minutes in four games.
Taking home the conference's top individual awards were Fort Lewis's Alessio Andreottola as both Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, UCCS's Luke Noameshi as Defensive Player of the Year, and MSU Denver's Nick McNeil as Goalkeeper of the Year. Nick Kirchhof, the coach for MSU Denver, was also named the Coach of the Year.
