The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference preseason awards were announced Thursday for the outdoor track and field season, and Fort Lewis College will look to build upon the success it had during the cross-country season last fall with a pair of track-only teams.
The Fort Lewis men’s track program will begin competition in its inaugural season next weekend.
No Skyhawks were named to either the men’s or women’s preseason All-RMAC teams, but FLC will look to its veteran long-distance runners for this year’s success.
Senior Bismarck Kipilach and junior Andrew Rome – both of whom were standouts during fall and helped Fort Lewis to a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Division II South Central Region race, will help lead the new men’s team that has nine freshmen.
Colorado School of Mines was picked to win the conference after it received nine first-place votes and topped the preseason poll with 139 points. Adams State was picked to finish second after the Grizzlies received three first-place votes and tallied 121 points. University of Colorado-Colorado Springs had one first-place vote and was projected to finish in third with 121 points. Chadron State College sophomore hurdler Isaac Grimes was named the preseason athlete of the year after he won the 2018 RMAC outdoor long jump and triple jump titles.
Fort Lewis was projected to finish tied for 11th after it received 31 points and tied with Colorado Christian. South Dakota Mines earned 45 votes for 10th, while Westminster College was bottom of the pack with 17 points to come in 13th in the men’s poll.
The conference returned two national champions on the men’s side, as Colorado State University-Pueblo has distance runner Thomas Staines, a junior who won the 800-meter event. Mines brought back its own national champion in junior pole vaulter Jake Pinkston.
On the women’s side, UCCS was picked to win the RMAC title with 184 points and five first-place votes, while Adams State had more first place votes, with six but tallied 177 points for a projected second-place finish. Western rounded out the top-three with 165 points and earned one first-place vote.
Fort Lewis tallied 49 points and is projected to finish in 12th. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology edged the Skyhawks by three points for 11th, while Colorado Christian had 47 points for 14th and Dixie State had 43 points for 14th. Westminster College was also projected to finish in last on the women’s side with 28 points.
FLC will be led by graduate student Becca Bramley, who finished 24th and made first-team All-Region at the South Central cross-country regional last fall. FLC will have three other seniors, sprinter Quinlyn Borneo, distance runner Madison Obernesser and Carly Wilborn. There are four juniors and five sophomores who make up the remainder of FLC’s squad.
UCCS senior Skylyn Webb, a former Fort Lewis women’s basketball player, was named the preseason athlete of the year. She won a national championship in the 800 with a time of 2:02.47. Webb is one of a number of returning national champions in the RMAC, as Kandace Thomas from Adams State won the 100-meter dash last season, Alicja Konieczek of Western Colorado won the 3,000-meter steeplechase and Eilish Flanagan finished in second in the NCAA Cross-Country Championships for Adams State while her twin sister Roisin was also named to the all-conference pre-season team.
Fort Lewis will open the season at the Oxy Distance Carnival Spring Break Classic next weekend at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
The Skyhawks announced the signing of track and cross-country runner Tony Onsae from Bosque Farms, New Mexico.
Onsae was cross-country captain for two seasons, and has had a good track career, as well.
“Tony’s is a steady, passionate young man who will contribute well to our long term vision. We are excited to have him join our squad,” said FLC head coach Josuha Coon in a news release.
Onsae finished fifth in the 800, and was also part of a district championship and earned the cross-country All-Harrier award.
bploen@durangoherald,com
