Colorado State's student-athletes, coaches and teams achieved significant success in the 2017-18 academic year, including producing an individual NCAA champion for the second year in a row and two Mountain West team championships. Reflecting the aspirations of a world-class university, Colorado State Athletics continues to climb to new heights under the leadership of Director of Athletics Joe Parker.

 

Colorado State Rams' 2017-18 Major Accomplishments

NCAA Champions: 1

• Mostafa Hassan, indoor men's track & field; shot put

All-America: 10 awards by 5 student-athletes

• Cole Rockhold, men's cross country
• Cole Rockhold, indoor men's track & field (first team in mile)
• Cole Rockhold, indoor men's track & field (second team in 3,000m)
• Cole Rockhold, outdoor men's track & field (second team in 5,000m)
• Michael Gallup, football (consensus first team)
• Grant Fischer, indoor men's track & field (second team in 5,000m)
• Grant Fischer, outdoor men's track & field (second team in 10,000m)
• Mostafa Hassan, indoor men's track & field (first team in shot put)
• Mostafa Hassan, outdoor men's track & field (first team in shot put)
• Kelcey Bedard, outdoor women's track & field (second team in hammer throw)

MW Team Titles: 2

• Men's Cross Country
• Volleyball

MW Coach of the Year Awards: 3

• Art Siemers, men's cross country
• Tom Hilbert, volleyball
• Christian Newton, men's golf

MW Athlete of the Year: 4

• Katie Oleksak, volleyball
• Jerrell Mock, men's cross country
• Mostafa Hassan, men's indoor track & field student-athlete of the year
• Haley Rowley, women's swimmer of the year

MW Individual Champion: 13 (by 10 athletes)

• Jerrell Mock, men's cross country
• Jerrell Mock, outdoor men's track & field (10,000m)
• Kelcey Bedard, indoor women's track & field (weight throw)
• Alex Blaho, indoor men's track & field (weight throw)
• Grant Fischer, indoor men's track & field (5,000m)
• Mostafa Hassan, indoor men's track & field (shot put)
• Mostafa Hassan, outdoor men's track & field (shot put)
• Jalen Hunter, outdoor men's track & field (110m hurdles)
• Cole Rockhold, outdoor men's track & field (5,000m)
• Autumn Gardner, outdoor women's track & field (high jump)
• Maria Muzzio, outdoor women's track & field (discus)
• Haley Rowley, women's swimming (1650 Free)
• Haley Rowley, women's swimming (400 IM)

Bowl Game/NCAA Championships/Postseason Tournament

• Football: fifth year in a row in a bowl, tying longest streak in school history
• Men's Cross Country: NCAA Championships; 4^th time in last 5 years
• Volleyball: NCAA Tournament; 23^rd consecutive appearance
• Women's Basketball: WNIT; fifth consecutive postseason tournament invitation
• Men's Golf: NCAA Regionals (finished 7^th, 4 strokes out of tie for 5^th to advance to championships)
• Individuals from men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field, and women's golf, participated in NCAA Championships
• Softball in National Invitational Softball Championship tournament

CoSIDA Academic All-District

• Amanda Young, volleyball
• Janelle Stone, women's soccer

Total Wins

• 121

• 89

• 138
  • Fall 2017: 57
  • Winter/Spring: 81

OVERALL 2017-18 HIGHLIGHTS

Colorado State's athletics programs are enjoying overall success in competition and in the classroom that rivals or exceeds the most successful periods in school history.

• The Colorado State Rams claimed two Mountain West championships (men's cross country, and volleyball).
• Overall, 6 of 16 programs finished in the top two in the MW-two champions and four second-place finishes (men's golf, women's indoor track & field, men's indoor track & field and men's outdoor track & field)
• Half of the Rams programs-8 of 16-finished in the top 3 of the MW standings.
• The average MW finish of the Rams' 16 programs was 4.69 (last year was No. 1 in MW at 3.94)
• In 2017-18 the Rams were represented in the postseason, whether as a team or by individuals, in 11 sports:
• NCAA Championships (8): Volleyball, men's cross country, men's indoor and outdoor track & field, women's indoor and outdoor track & field, men's golf and women's golf
• Bowl Game (1): Football
• National Invitation Tournament (1): Women's basketball
• National Invitational Softball Championship (1): Softball

SPORT-BY-SPORT SUMMARY

• The football, volleyball, men's cross-country, women's basketball and men's golf programs have qualified for postseason competition in 2017-18, with each team extending an impressive streak of postseason competition.
• The softball program, led by head coach Jen Fisher, started the season 7-0-its best start since 1997-and earned a berth in the National Invitational Softball Championship (NSIC) after finishing with a regular season record of 26-21.
• The men's golf program, under Mountain West Coach of the Year Christian Newton, was runner-up at the MW Championships for the second season in a row and earned an NCAA Regional invitation as a team for the first time since 2012, to the Kissimmee Regional. The foundation for the successful season was set with a strong fall season that saw the Rams ranked 18th in the nation by Golfweek, on the strength of finishing in the top five of all four fall tournaments.
• Women's golf, under head coach Annie Young, rallied in the final two rounds to earn an impressive third-place finish at the Mountain West Championships, the program's highest finish since 2010. Two Rams, Katrina Prendergast and Ellen Secor, earned invitations as individuals to the NCAA Regional. The pair also won the USGA Four Ball competition in Tarzana, Calif., in May, the week before NCAA Regionals.
• The women's and men's track and field programs, under the direction of five-time MW Coach of the Year Brian Bedard, finished the Indoor season with second-place performances at the Mountain West Championships in February. The men's team was ranked No. 6 in the nation in the preseason poll-its highest ranking in school history.
  • Senior Mostafa Hassan repeated as NCAA Indoor national champion in the shot put, and claimed his third consecutive MW Indoor shot put title, to go with two outdoor titles. He was the NCAA Outdoor shot put runner-up in 2017.
• The women's tennis team, led by second-year head coach Jared Camerota, reached the 10-win plateau for the first time since 2007.
• Head coach Mike Bobo led the football team to its fifth consecutive bowl game, tied for the longest streak in school history. The Rams also went to five bowls in a row between 1999-2003. Senior wide receiver Michael Gallup became just the fourth consensus first-team All-American in school history, was a finalist for the Biletnikoff and was drafted in the third round, 81^st overall, by the Dallas Cowboys in April.
  • Bobo is the first CSU head coach to lead the Rams to bowl games in each of his first three seasons.
  • Bobo and Sonny Lubick are the only two coaches in CSU history to coach the Rams in multiple bowl games.
  • The Rams join Boise State (16) and San Diego State (8) as the only Mountain West schools to play in a bowl game in each of the last five seasons.
• Volleyball made its school-record 23^rd consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament and claimed its 14^th overall MW championship. MW Coach of the Year Tom Hilbert's team defeated Michigan in the first round before falling to a Stanford team-on its home floor-that advanced all the way to the Final Four. Hilbert earned MW Coach of the Year honors and added to his career record (538-126) as the winningest Division I collegiate head coach in any sport in the state of Colorado.
• Men's cross-country, under Mountain West Coach of the Year Art Siemers, recorded its best finish at the NCAA Championships since 1978, placing 9^th in what was its fourth trip to the national championships as a team in the last five years. Jerrell Mock was MW champion for the second year in a row and Cole Rockhold earned All-America honors. The women's team finished seventh at the NCAA Mountain Regional. The Rams reached a national ranking of No. 8 during the season and junior Cole Rockhold earned his first All-America honor with his 32^nd-place finish. The ninth-place finish was the Rams' third-best in program history, and is just the 10^th national Top 10 finish by a Colorado State team in any sport.
• Women's basketball earned an invitation to the WNIT, making its fifth consecutive appearance in a postseason tournament. Ryun Williams became the all-time winningest head coach in CSU women's basketball program history on Jan. 31, 2018, with his 130^th win since becoming the Rams' head coach in 2012.
• Men's basketball introduced new head coach Niko Medved in March, generating a great deal of excitement among Rams fans who recall the great success at CSU that Medved helped lead as an assistant coach in Fort Collins from 2007-13 before becoming a head coach at Furman University and Drake University.
• The women's swimming and diving program, led by head coach Woody Woodard, posted its best dual meet record (8-3) since 2009-10 and placed fifth at the Mountain West Championships for the second year in a row-its two highest finishes since that '09-'10 season. Junior Haley Rowley was named MW Swimmer of the Year, becoming the first Ram to earn the honor since 2003-04.
• Women's soccer, under fourth-year head coach Bill Hempen, put together its most prolific offensive season in its short history, scoring 26 goals on the season, nearly doubling the previous record of 14.

ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS

• 57 Rams student-athletes received Academic All-Mountain West recognition from the fall sports seasons, one fewer than the school record of 58, set just a year earlier, for Fall 2016.
• Women's swimming and diving was recognized by the NCAA as one of the top 10 percent of performers in multi-year APR scores with a perfect score of 1,000 for the four-year period from 2013-14 through 2016-17.
  • Six other programs were recognized for having a perfect single-year APR score of 1,000 for the 2016-17 academic year: women's basketball, women's cross country, women's golf, men's golf, softball and women's tennis
• Women's swimming and diving also was recognized by the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America as a Scholar All-America team for the 12^th consecutive semester.
• The men’s and women’s cross country programs were recognized by the USTFCCCA as national All-Academic teams for 2017, for having a team cumulative GPA above 3.0. The women’s team GPA was 3.61, and the men’s was 3.29
• The volleyball program earned an AVCA Team Academic Award for having a team cumulative GP of 3.3 or better, one of 164 Division I programs recognized, and among five from the MW.

• 156 students made the Athletic Director Honor Roll in FA17 (term GPA of 3.25 or greater)
• 106 students made the Athletic Director Honor Roll in SP18 (term GPA of 3.25 or greater)