GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University cross country teams will make their long-awaited 2026 debut on Saturday when the main group of Mavs head to Denver and Washington Park for MSU Denver's Roadrunner Invitational.
Meanwhile, a smaller contingent of Maverick athletes, most of whom train as long sprint and middle distance runners on the CMU Track & Field team, will head to Gunnison to run in Saturday's Mountaineer/Cowboy Invitational against Western Colorado University, in large part to help make it a countable meet for the host Mountaineers.
Meet Details – Roadrunners Invitational
The men's 8K race at Washington Park will begin at 8:30 a.m. before the women's 6K race will get underway at 9:15 a.m. The race will be contested over a 2-kilometer grass loops and is relatively flat.
High school races will follow the college event.
Five Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams are expected to compete alongside three NCAA Division I programs and three junior college teams.
The Mavs will be joined by conference rivals Colorado School of Mines, MSU Denver, Regis and UCCS.
Colorado, Northern Colorado and Wyoming will represent NCAA Division I while Colorado Mountain College, Colorado Northwestern Community College and Fort Hays Tech Northwest will represent the junior college ranks. A host of club and unattached runners are also slated to race.
Live results
can be found here.
Maps for what is a slighty revised course from previous years can be seen here:
MEN | WOMEN
Meet Details- Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite
The men's 8K race will begin at 10 a.m. with the women's 5K to follow at 10:45 a.m. The races will take part at the Gunnison Community School on a flat course of dirt paths and grass.
The college races, held between middle school and high school events, will be small with only runners from the host Western Colorado program and the small Maverick contingents and possibly some unattached runners. The small group of Mavs are primarily using the event as a training run and to help make it a countable meet for the Mountaineers.
Live results
can be found here.
Course maps can be found here:
MEN | WOMEN
Maverick Entries (MSU Denver)
Here is a list of the Maverick entries for Saturday's races at MSU Denver.
Men (14): Lucas Blevins,
Chase Brown,
Nick Clark,
Dillon Elliott,
Owen Frank,
Daxin Holtzen,
Howie Huffman,
Kael Jex,
Bode Klein,
Peter Leary,
Evan Morrison,
Ryan O'Loughlin,
Colton White,
Clayton Wilson.
Women (14): Lola Boice,
Caitlyn Boyle,
Quin Dedrick,
Addie Hollmann,
Wehazit Kelati,
Keira King,
Daisy Lalonde,
Kate Linstedt,
Autumn McQuitty,
Lily Nichols,
Jordan Staniszewski,
Chloe Swan,
Sofia Voss,
Shirley Weaver.
Maverick Entries (Western Colorado)
Here is the list of the Mavericks scheduled to run on Saturday in Gunnison.
Men (5+Alternate):
Vasileios Salpas,
Jack Singleton,
Jayden Thulson,
Kyle Towne,
Winter Whittle;
Dominick Muller (Alternate)
Women (5):
Maggie Bush,
Paige Kehmeier,
Kammi Merritt,
Emily Scott,
Abby Varner.
A Look back to 2025
The Maverick women qualified as a team for the NCAA Division II National Championships for the second straight year and posted their best ever national championship finish, taking 20
th at the championship meet in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Prior to that, the Maverick women finished sixth at the RMAC Championships and then earned an at-large berth into the national championships thanks to their seventh place finish at the South Central Regional.
The Maverick women were nationally ranked throughout the season, reaching as high as No. 14 after a strong fourth place finish out of 36 teams at the Lewis Crossover Invitational.
The Maverick men, who were quite youthful in 2025, also had a strong end to the 2026 season, taking ninth at the NCAA South Central Regional Championships, the team's best finish in three years.
National Rankings
The Maverick women were
ranked 13th in the preseason edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's National Coaches' Poll. That ranking was the program's highest since 2015, when they were ranked 11
th in both the preseason and Week No. 1 rankings.
Although they have not yet run, the Mavs dropped one spot to
14th in the first regular season edition, released on Wednesday. They flipped spots with Winona State.
The Maverick men were receiving votes and just outside the top-30 poll in the preseason poll from Sept. 2 but are no longer included ahead of their season-opener.
Regional Rankings
The Maverick women remained in the No. 6 spot of the USTFCCCA's Regional Rankings. The first set of those regular season rankings were released on Tuesday after the preseason edition had come out on Sept. 1.
The Maverick men are now ranked tenth in the region after sitting ninth in the preseason edition.
RMAC Polls
The Maverick women were tabbed fifth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll,
released last month. The Maverick men were picked eighth out of the 15 teams.
Year No. 3
Travis Floeck will begin his third season with the Mavs on Saturday. Named as CMU's Director of Track & Field/Cross Country in the summer of 2024, Floeck has guided the Maverick women to back-to-back NCAA Division II Championship team qualifications, a first for the program.
They turned in a 20
th place finish in 2025, the Mavs' highest national championship finish in program history, after taking 23
rdin 2024.
The Mav women also finished sixth at last year's RMAC Championships and seventh at the NCAA South Central Regional. Both of those finishes were the program's best since 2014, which was the only other year when the Mavs qualified as a team for the national meet.
The Maverick men also had their best regional finish in three years under Floeck last season.
Returning Mavs (Women)
The Mavericks return five of their nine runners from the RMAC Championship unit in 2025. Floeck also returns five of his seven runners from the regional and national championship units.
The Mavs will have to replace
Megan Hodges, who has exhausted her eligibility after claiming USTFCCCA All-America and All-South Central region plaudits as well as First Team All-RMAC honors last season.
However, they do return the services of Second Team All-RMAC honoree
Jordan Staniszewski, who was the Mavs' second runner at the regional championships and the team's No. 3 performer at the national championships. She took 28
th at the RMAC Championships, 47
th at the regional meet and 113
th at the national championships, just two spots behind then freshman and now sophomore
Daisy Lalonde, who did not run at the RMAC Championships before falling in the regional championship race.
Senior
Autumn McQuitty as well as fifth-year runners
Quin Dedrick and
Kate Linstedt also return to the Maverick lineup after representing the Mavs in both of the last two NCAA Championship races.
Wehazit Kelati also returns for her fourth season with the Mavs after coming in as the team's sixth runner at the regional championships and as the team's No. 3 runner and 49
th place overall finisher at the RMAC Championships.
Shirley Weaver is also back after taking 62
nd at the RMAC Championships.
Returning Mavs (Men)
The Maverick men return six of the seven runners that represented the team at the NCAA South Central Regional Championships. That team, which featured four freshman, finished ninth at the regional meet.
Freshman
Colton White led the way, placing 46
th overall. Fellow freshman
Clayton Wilson was just behind in 52
nd while
Kael Jex (92
nd) and
Dominick Muller (124
th) also return for their sophomore campaigns in 2026.
Muller had led the way with a 55
th place finish at the RMAC Championships while
Chase Brown, who will enter 2026 as a fifth-year runner, finished less than seconds later in 62
nd place. Brown, expected to provide some veteran leadership in his fifth year with the Mavs, also placed 60
th at the regional meet. White, Wilson and Jex then finished 71
st, 74
th and 75
th at the RMAC Championships.
Owen Frank also returns for his senior season after running at both championships meets while Dillion Elliott and
Ryan O'Loughlin are also back after running on the Mavs' 9-man unit at the RMAC Championships.
Meet the Newcomers
The Maverick men have four new freshman and a transfer on their roster.
Lucas Blevins, a native of Aurora, Colorado, ran at Mt. San Antonio College in California for the past two years. The freshman class includes two Coloradoans in
Nick Clark of Yampa and Soroco High School and
Bode Klein of Fort Collins' Fossil Ridge High School as well as two Idahoans in
Daxin Holtzen and
Howie Huffman of Jerome and Boise.
Floeck also successfully recruited four freshman and a transfer.
The transfer is Delta, Colorado native
Paige Kehmeier, who ran at Chadron State last year.
The freshman group includes runners from four different states in Addie Hollman of Arvada, Colorado and Ralston Valley High School,
Lily Nichols of Heppner, Oregon,
Emily Scott of Omaha, Nebraska and Millard West High School and Chloe Sawn of Leawood, Kansas and Shawnee Mission East High School.
Full biographies of the new Mavericks can be seen on their respective bio pages or in the overall summer cross country and track & field recruiting recaps. –
MEN |
WOMEN
Schedule Check
After this Saturday, the Mavs will have just two more regular season meets prior to the championship half of the season. They will next run at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet in Lawrence, Kansas on Oct. 11 to get a sneak peek at the course that will be used for the Dec. 4 Championships, which are two weeks later than normal due to the NCAA Division II Fall Sports Championship festival.
In between, the Mavs will host the High Desert Dental Maverick XC Invite on Oct. 24 before racing at the RMAC Championships on Nov. 7, which will be hosted by South Dakota Mines in Rapid City.
The NCAA South Central Regional Championships are slated for Nov. 21 in Lubbock, Texas and will be hosted by Lubbock Christian.
