MEET RECAP: 2018 NCAA Division II Rock Pre-Nationals

The nationally-ranked men’s and women’s teams from Colorado Mines swept the field in an impressive showing at the NCAA Division II Rock Pre-Nationals at Bob O’ Connor Golf Course on Saturday morning.

The Oredigger men captured the team title in the opening race of the day with a 19-point performance over 8K and the women followed suit right after with a 37-point victory over 6K.

Both the men’s and women’s race featured six nationally-ranked teams.

2018 Rock Pre-Nationals
Men’s 8K	Points	Women’s 6K	Points
No. 3 Colorado Mines	19	No. 6 Colorado Mines	37
No. 6 Queens (NC)*	126	No. 16 Walsh	91
No. 9 Mount Olive	126	No. 18 Hillsdale	128
Cedarville	158	Roberts Wesleyan	157
No. 21 Malone	164	No. 17 Queens (NC)	176
No. 15 Walsh	169	Tampa	180
Hillsdale	197	No. 23 Mount Olive	245
Charleston (WV)	206	Malone	307
No. 25 Edinboro	274	Anderson (SC)	313
Roberts Wesleyan	288	No. 20 Edinboro	323

Men’s 8K Recap

No. 3 Colorado Mines had the individual champion in Grant Colligan (24:57) and placed all five of its scoring athletes in the top-eight of the race to collect a 107-point victory over the next closest teams.

The Orediggers’s scoring attack was rounded out by Josh Hoskinson in second (25:09), Luc Hagen in third (25:14), Logan Ramlet in fifth (25:18) and Derek Steele in eighth (25:38). There was just a 41 second spread between Colorado Mines athletes.

No. 6 Queens (S.C.) and No. 9 Mount Olive raced to a tie for second. Queens was paced by Nick Kipkemei and had its athletes finish in spots No. 13, 26, 28, 29 and 30 while Mount Olive was led by Tai Smith and had the No. 9, 10, 21, 24 and 62 finishing athletes. Both teams recorded 126 points.

Cedarville came in fourth and No. 21 Malone finished in fifth to make up the rest of the top-five. Cedarville had an impressive morning as the Yellow Jackets came into the meet unranked nationally and sixth overall in the Midwest Region.

Women’s 6K Recap

No. 6 Colorado Mines finished three of its five runners in the top-seven and had all five place in the top-17 as the Orediggers took home the team title at this year’s Pre-Nationals.

Megan Wenham paced Colorado Mines in third (22:24) and was followed by Michaela Reynolds in fourth (22:43), Madelin Geesen in sixth (22:53), Zoe Baker in sixth (22:54) and Kara Burton in 17th (23:08) as the Orediggers took the victory with a 54-point margin. Colorado Mines had the lowest spread in the field at 44 seconds.

No. 16 Walsh came in second overall and was led by second-place finisher Brianna Coy (22:05). No. 18 Hillsdale was right behind them to take third and had its top athlete in Maryssa Depies (eighth overall/22:56).

The individual title went to Mount Olive’s Leah Hanle as she posted a time of 21:54 to win the race by seven seconds.

Roberts Wesleyan (157 points) and No. 17 Queens (N.C./176 points) rounded out the team top-five.