The Colorado College men's cross country team opened the 2026 season on Saturday with a third-place result at the UCCS Rust Buster Meet in Monument Valley Park.
 
Junior Diego Escalante led the Tigers with a fifth-place individual finish. Escalante finished the 8K race in a time of 25:54.1.  
 
Fellow Junior Vincent Mangat followed in 14^th place with a time of 26:25.3, while sophomore Aric Accetta was 22^nd with a personal-best time of 26:57.8.
 
Sophomore Lincoln Brewer and freshman Mateo Escalante rounded out the scoring for Colorado College by placing 26^th and 27^th, respectively.
 
The team's third-place ties the best at the Rust Buster Meet (2025) since placing second in 2016. CC was the only Division III school at the meet.
 
"We got off to a very good start today," head coach Alex Nichols said. "They showed strong depth and packing from our third through seventh runners. With Diego finishing top five, the squad has strong leadership up front as well. Now the team knows where they are and can focus on some very good training weeks ahead before our bigger meets in October."
 
 
Team Results
1. UCCS – 20
2. MSU-Denver - 73
3. Colorado College – 75
4. Colorado Christian – 75
5. Regis University - 144
 
 
Colorado College Individual Results

Place	Name	Time	Pts
5	Diego Escalante	25:54.1	5
14	Vincent Mangat	26:25.3	12
22	Aric Accetta	26:57.8	17
26	Lincoln Brewer	27:04.9	20
27	Mateo Escalante	27:08.4	21
28	Sammy Berman	27:12.8	(22)
30	Mack Levy	27:24.1	(23)
31	Finn Gradia	27:31.8
37	Niall McDermott	27:49.8
38	Liam Singh	27:55.2
41	Cooper Bollom	27:58.9
45	Julien Lee	28:12.2
51	Jacoby Soter	26:43.8
56	Silas Whiteson	29:06.9
57	Simon Kessler	29:10.7
60	Will Lennert	29:31.8
62	Matt Wells	29:52.2