COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference on Wednesday released its 2021-22 women’s and men’s basketball coaches preseason polls, listing Western Colorado University at No. 4 with 150 points and one first-place vote in the women’s rankings and 13th on the men’s list with 58 points.
Colorado School of Mines, with 190 points and 11 first-place votes, topped the women’s poll, ahead of Colorado Mesa (164 pts., 2 first-place votes), Metropolitan State University of Denver (151 pts.), and Western Colorado.
The Western women completed the 2020-21 season in the NCAA tournament, finishing the schedule with a 14-6 record overall and a 12-4 mark in the league. Though the Mountaineers were downed in the semifinal round of the conference tournament, they still earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Division II national tournament where conference foe Westminster (Utah) College ended the Western season in the opening round.
Returner Samantha Coleman started all 20 games during the 2020-21 schedule, finishing the season averaging 12.5 points per game for the offense while registering 29 steals for the defense.
Also returning is Emmery Wagstaff, the team’s second-leading scorer at 13.0 PPG. Wagstaff played in all 20 games, earning a starting nod 15 times. She rained down a team-leading 49 made 3-point field goals and cleaned the glass to the tune of 5.9 rebounds per game, second most on the team.
Colorado Mesa led the men’s poll with 192 points and 12 first-place votes, followed by Colorado School of Mines (183 pts.) and Black Hills State (163 pts.) with each receiving one first-place marker.
Western finished the abbreviated 2020-21 schedule with a 6-12 overall mark and a 6-11 record within the conference. Among their six victories was a six-point home upset of then-No. 6 Colorado Mesa on January 30, 2021, in Paul Wright Gym.
The Mountaineers also recorded a back-to-back mid-February sweep of Colorado state University Pueblo.
Western returns three players – Cole Sienknecht, Avery Rembao and Matthew Ragsdale – who started each of the 18 games on last season’s schedule. Ragsdale led the Mountaineers in scoring with a 20.8 PPG average.
Rembao added 14.3 PPG and Sienknecht chipped with 12.8 PPG. Sienknecht’s 53 assists were second most on the team, as were also his 15 steals.
The Western women open the season Sunday with an exhibition outing at the University of New Mexico, and then begin the regular-season slate in Denton, Texas, against Texas Women’s University on Friday, November 12.
The Mountaineer men play an exhibition at Weber State (Utah) University on Tuesday, Nov. 9, then open their 2021-22 schedule also in Texas at West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas, on Fri., Nov. 12.
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