GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick cross country teams will race for the second time this season when they head to Denver and Washington Park for Saturday morning's Roadrunners Invitational.
 
MSU Denver will host the meet, which includes the men's 8-kilometer race at 8:30 a.m. and the women's 6K race to follow at 9:15 a.m.  High school races are later in the morning.
 
Meet Information
 
Meet information and course maps for Saturday's meet can be found here.

The men's race will feature a short loop and three laps around a 2.5K loop  The women's race will include a 1K loop and two laps around a 2.5K loop.
 
Live results from Saturday's race can be found here.
 
A full meet recap will be posted on Saturday evening.
 
Who's Running
 
The Mavericks have entered eight men and 16 women (listed below) to run in Saturday's meet.  Several other Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference squads are also slated to compete.

Men's Entries (8): Jackson Baker, Chase Brown, Quintin Collins, Dillon Elliott, Owen Frank, Evan Morrison, Ryan O'Loughlin, Alex Spink.
 
Women's Entries (16): Elizabeth Boice, Caitlyn Boyle, Maggie Bush, Quin Gregg, Lauren Hodges, Megan Hodges, Wehazit Kelati, Keira King, Kate Linstedt, Autumn McCorkel, Autumn McQuitty, Brooke Miller, Ruthie Richardson, Jordan Staniszewski, Sofia Voss, Shirley Weaver.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks opened their season two weeks ago, hosting Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival and partial squads from Division I Colorado at the Gig Leadbetter Maverick Stampede on Sept. 5.
 
The Maverick women finished second with 49 points and placed two runners inside the top 10 with Megan Hodges placing fifth and Autumn McQuitty finishing tenth.
 
The Maverick men finished third and were led by Chase Brown's 11^th place finish.
 
A full meet recap can be seen here.
 
A Look at the Polls & Rankings

The Maverick women were ranked 25^th in the first regular season edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Coaches' Poll, released on Wednesday.  They were 20^th in the preseason poll but slipped five spots despite the second place finish at the home meet, won by Western Colorado, which moved up four spots to sixth in this week's poll.
 
The Mavs have now been ranked in six straight polls dating back to the Week No. 5 poll of 2024.
 
The Maverick women are also still included in the Division II South Central Regional rankings but dropped one spot from ninth to tenth between the preseason set and Tuesday's first regular season set of rankings.
 
The CMU men were ranked tenth in the regional preseason rankings but have dropped out this week.
 
More Preseason Predictions
 
The Maverick women were picked seventh in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Preseason Coaches' Poll.  The Maverick men were picked eighth.
 
Fifth-year senior Megan Hodges was also named to the Preseason All-RMAC Team, made up of the top 14 returning RMAC runners from last year's NCAA Championships.
 
A look back to 2024
 
The Mavericks enjoyed a strong season in 2024, especially on the women's side, qualifying for the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time in a decade.  They finished 23^rd at the national meet after taking ninth at the brutally competitive South Central Regional to help earn an at-large bid to the national meet.  That was their best regional finish since taking eighth in 2016.
 
They finished seventh at the nearly as tough RMAC Championships, matching their 2023 finish, which is CMU's best since placing fourth in 2014.
 
The Maverick men placed eighth at the RMAC Championships and 12^th at the regional, significant improvements over their 12^th and 18^th place finishes in the year prior.
 
Last Year's Meet

The Mavericks also ran in last year's Roadrunners Invitational and performed well.  The Mavs women placed fourth out of 13 teams and defeated a pair of nationally-ranked squads as Brooke Miller led the squad with an 18^th place individual finish and time of 22:28 on the 6K course.
 
The Maverick men took fifth out of 14 teams and also finished higher than a pair of nationally-ranked squads.  Kevin DeGree led the Mavs with a 33^rd place finish and time of 25:53.95.  Owen Frank, who finished 48^th overall in 26:19.39 is the Mavs' top returner for this Saturday's meet.
 
Colorado Mesa turns 100
 
The CMU Century Celebration stands as the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University's year-long centennial celebration. This ambitious initiative unites our community in honoring a rich heritage while boldly envisioning the next hundred years of academic excellence.

Led by the Steering Committee and six specialized sub-committees, we're orchestrating a transformative experience that will resonate through generations. Each committee brings unique expertise to create an unforgettable commemoration of our past, present and future.
 
To learn more about Colorado Mesa's 100-year celebration, visit cmucentury.com.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will race again in three weeks on Oct. 11, when they head to Romeoville, Illinois for the Lewis Crossover Invite.