RAPID CITY, S.D.— Led by a 29^th place finish from Clayton Wilson and a strong pack time that saw five more runners finish within 40 seconds of one another, the Colorado Mesa University men's cross country team recorded a strong sixth place finish at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday morning here at the Hart Ranch Camping Resort.
 
The Mavs' team finish was their best in four years and was five spots better than their 11^th place finish from last year.  CMU, which scored 217 points, had been picked eighth in the RMAC's Preseason Coaches' Poll.
 
The Maverick women also fared well finishing fifth, their best RMAC Championship effort since 2014.
 
Wilson finished the 8-kilometer race in 24 minutes, 33.8 seconds and just missed out on all-conference honors, which go to the top 28 individual finishers, by a tenth of a second.
 
Meanwhile, freshman Daxin Holtzen and senior Owen Frank finished together in 48^th and 49^th place with career-best times of 25:14.4 and 25:15.5, respectively.
 
Colton White was the Mavs' fourth finisher, taking 55^th in 25:31.9 while Peter Leary rounded out the Mavs' team score with a career-best time of 25:53.2 and a 70^th place finish.
 
Meanwhile, Chase Brown was just behind, taking 71^st.
 
Nick Clark (83^rd, 26:12.1) and Dominick Muller (100^th, 26:48.9) also finished in the top 100 while Ryan O'Loughlin (102^nd, 26:49.6) and Evan Morrison (103^rd, 26:50.2) were just outside of it.
 
Adams State, ranked third in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division II poll had three of the top six and five of the top 11 finishers to win a second straight team title with 33 points.  Second-ranked Colorado School of Mines finished second with 48 points but had the individual champion in Dawson Gunn, who finished in 23:17.3.
 
No. 9 Western Colorado took third with 174 points while No. 14 UCCS (107) and No. 26 CSU Pueblo (116) were ahead of the Mavs, who finished three points ahead of MSU Denver.
 
Nationally-ranked No. 13 Fort Lewis and No. 19 Colorado Christian were well back in the team standings in tenth and 13^th place, respectively, but rested runners in advance of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championships, which will be held over a 10-kilometer course in Lubbock, Texas in a fortnight (Nov. 21).