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Colorado Mountain College to launch cross-country running team in 2019

The running club at CMC Leadville, including Marley Seifert, left, traveled to Michigan in November to compete in the National Intercollegiate Running Club Association races, which offer friendly competition to the collegiate running community. In fall 2019, Colorado Mountain College’s Leadville campus will be starting a sanctioned cross-country running team that will race at a more competitive level and be open to students at other CMC campuses, including Dillon and Breckenridge.
Darren Brungardt | Special to the Daily

More information

Contact Colorado Mountain College running team coach Darren Brungardt at 719-486-4296 or dbrungardt@coloradomtn.edu. It’s possible for team members to compete on the team from any one of CMC’s 11 campuses — including Dillon and Breckenridge — by following a workout schedule online, attending team meetings virtually and joining the team in person for meets.

LEADVILLE — Starting in the fall of 2019, Colorado Mountain College Leadville will have men’s and women’s National Junior College Athletic cross-country running teams, joining an association of community college and junior college athletic departments throughout the U.S.

Runners from all CMC campuses, including the CMC Breckenridge and Dillon community campuses here in Summit County, are able to join the team.

Coach Darren Brungardt is actively recruiting to fill slots on both teams. Brungardt is an assistant professor of mathematics as well as the running club coach at the Leadville campus. He’s been working to elevate the college’s running program from a club to a NJCAA-sanctioned program by recently securing an official NJCAA designation for CMC’s runners.



“Reaching upcoming high school seniors in the college’s service area is critical in filling our team,” Brungardt said, since those runners will be the incoming first-year students on the team in 2019. He noted that there are nearly 20 high school cross-country running teams in CMC’s service area. “College decisions are rapidly approaching and I want our communities to know that running in college is possible at CMC starting in the fall of 2019.”



A trail system like no other

CMC’s team will compete against bigger universities in the state in preparation for regional competition, where they will compete against four NJCAA teams from Wyoming, Colorado and western Nebraska. CMC’s team can then compete against the rest of the country at nationals. The Leadville campus will host races as well as travel to other colleges.

“Everyone has a chance to run on our team,” Brungardt said. “And there’s nothing like our trail system at any other college. We have miles of soft trails running through the forest, right on campus and just steps away from any building. It is a cross-country running experience that is leaps and bounds above anyone else’s in the country.”

“Plus,” he added, “you get stronger and tougher running at 10,000 feet.”

Train from any campus

Brungardt said it’s possible to run with CMC for two years, then transfer to a larger program. It’s also possible for team members to compete on the team from any one of CMC’s campuses remotely, part of the time.

“You can train when we train and be a part of the team online,” he said.

For instance, a runner living near another CMC campus who can’t attend trainings in Leadville can instead follow the workout schedule online, attend team meetings virtually and join the team in person for meets. Wherever they are, all team members need to do is attend school full-time which means they need to take 12 credits, and they can’t have any previous college degrees.

“I could have used a place like CMC when I was going to college,” said Brungardt, who attended the University of Northern Colorado, where he ran for the team. He went on to earn a master’s degree in coaching and has coached cross-country and track for over a decade.

For more information about the 2019 Colorado Mountain College cross-country running team, contact Brungardt at 719-486-4296 or dbrungardt@coloradomtn.edu.


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