Fremd’s Gwen Zimmerman goes after the ball during the Class 3A state semifinal game against St. Charles North at North Central College in Naperville on Friday, May 31, 2024.
Sandy Bressner/Shaw Local News Network

Gwen Zimmerman can do almost anything.

Last fall, she helped Fremd win the state championship in flag football despite never having played the sport.

This spring her 1,600-meter relay team qualified for the state track meet, and her soccer team is favored to return to the state tournament after finishing third a season ago.

The one thing she can’t do is be in two places at once.

“It’s difficult. It’s not always going to line up exactly as you want it,” Zimmerman said. “My 4×400 relay, we qualified for state, and so we have that going on Friday and Saturday, but there’s also the regional soccer game on Friday, so I’m not sure what I’m doing for that.”

Zimmerman has been a member of both the track and field and soccer teams since her freshman year at Fremd. While she’s committed to Northwestern for soccer, the indoor track season begins in January, which allowed her a few months of focusing on track before switching to soccer. With three years of dual-sport action under her belt, Zimmerman has become quite adept at balancing responsibilities.

“One of the main reasons she is able to balance both sports is her ability to communicate with coaches about her workload for each week,” said Fremd girls track and field coach Joseph Marcin. “She has coaches that understand her talents in both sports and allow her to participate in both sports.”

This year Zimmerman tacked on yet another responsibility — playing for the Welsh U19 soccer team. While she missed three of Fremd’s games in early March for the UEFA U19 championship, she believes her trip across the Atlantic Ocean will benefit the Vikings in the long run.

“It was an amazing experience. You get to learn to lead in different environments,” Zimmerman said. “I can take some of those lessons that we talked about defensively, and try to implement them and talk about them with some of my high school teammates.”

Zimmerman has been with those teammates for three seasons now, and her connection with her fellow juniors is especially evident. The other top scorers on Fremd’s roster — Sammy Serpico, Kate Rubens and Lily Mayer — are all in Zimmerman’s class, and the four of them have developed a synergy.

“They all enjoy each other. They’re a very tight group. They get along very well, and they want to work for one another,” said Fremd girls soccer coach Steve Keller. “They know each other in terms of what they like to do, in terms of where they like the ball, so it’s obviously advantageous for us in that regard.”

Their bond was enhanced in last year’s postseason run, a trip to the state tournament that culminated in a third-place finish. With that experience under their belts, the Vikings are ready to take on all comers.

“I think the girls know that we’re a team to be reckoned with, but at the same time, we have to bring our best every game, because we’ve accomplished a lot,” Keller said. “I think (last year’s tournament run) instilled a belief in the girls. They know it’s possible.”

The main reason it’s possible is Zimmerman. Keller has placed her all across the lineup this season — she played as a defender against Peoria Notre Dame, as a midfielder most other games, and is constantly in the penalty area when the Vikings need a score. Zimmerman is the definition of a team player — she’ll do whatever it takes to help Fremd to victory.

If she can continue her run of excellent play, she’ll be in a similar position as last fall: holding up a state championship trophy.

“It’s all about recognizing what the team needs and being willing to adapt and read the game moment to moment,” Zimmerman said. “I just try to do the best I can in whatever position they put me in.”

By: Tim Flynn

2025 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Thursday-Saturday – Pueblo, Colo. [Live Results] [Live Video – Track] [Live Video – Throws] [Schedule]

OREDIGGERS CLOSE 2025 SEASON AT NCAA OUTDOORS

For the second time in three years, the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships return to Colorado as CSU Pueblo hosts the three-day meet starting Thursday. Colorado School of Mines will send a large qualifying group with 22 competitors in 25 events spanning all three days of the meet, which will take place at the Thunderbowl. 

LIVE COVERAGE

The bulk of the NCAA Championships will stream on ncaa.com, but throws events will be available on the RMAC Network; both streams are free. Live results are available from Leone Timing. Fans can also follow @csmtrack on Instagram for updates.

MINES AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

This will mark the 26th consecutive outdoor championship that Mines has qualified competitors, dating back to 1999. The Mines men enter this weekend ranked sixth in the USTFCCCA ratings index and finished third at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships; they have finished in the top 25 outdoors in four straight years, coming in sixth in 2021, ninth in 2022, 12th in 2023, and 22nd in 2024. The women, ranked #8 by the USTFCCCA, have set back-to-back best outdoor finishes ever including 11th the last time in Pueblo in 2023 and 12th a year ago in Kansas. 

WHAT TO WATCH – THURSDAY

The opening day of the meet will be a busy one for the Orediggers starting in the field with the women’s hammer throw (12:30 p.m.), where Jennifer Jarnagin and Abbi Gillespie are the #6 and #7 seeds, respectively, as they make their outdoors debut. Holden Murphy will wrap up his decorated career in the men’s hammer throw at 3:30 p.m., entering as the #10 seed. 

Inside the Thunderbowl, Thursday’s track program starts at 5:10 p.m. with the women’s and men’s 1,500m runs as Grace Strongman, Alberto Campa, and Brock Drengenberg compete in prelims; Strongman, the Mines recordholder at the distance, is the women’s #6 seed, while Campa is #9 and Drengenberg #20 in the men’s race. Both steeplechase prelims will see a pair of Orediggers in them as the women’s race (6:40 p.m.) features RMAC champion and program recordholder Emily LaMena, the #7 seed, and Margaux Basart, the #14 seed, while the men’s prelim (7:10 p.m.) has RMAC winner Alex Shaw seeded #17 and Max Bonenberger seeded #8. Allison Comer makes her nationals debut in the 400m hurdles with a 7:40 p.m. prelim, seeded ninth after winning the RMAC title. Mines expects big team points out of the 10,000m to close Thursday night; Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge is the lone entrant in the women’s race (8:10 p.m.) and is deceptively seeded 15th, but ran the nation’s fastest 10K time of the year, 32:31, at a non-qualifying meet early in the season. The Oredigger men will line up five in their 10K (8:50 p.m.) featuring 2024 cross country all-Americans Loic Scomparin, Paul Knight, Jeremiah Vaille, and Logan Bocovich, plus first-time qualifier Braden Struhs; Vaille was the RMAC champion in the event, and both Scomparin and Knight have been on the podium previously in the event at NCAA Outdoors.

Thursday (all times Mountain)

12:30 p.m. – women’s hammer throw final (Abbi Gillespie/Jennifer Jarnagin)

3:30 p.m. – men’s hammer throw final (Holden Murphy)

5:10 p.m. – women’s 1,500m prelim (Grace Strongman)

5:25 p.m. – men’s 1,500m prelim (Alberto Campa/Brock Drengenberg)

6:40 p.m. – women’s 3,000m steeplechase prelim (Margaux Basart/Emily LaMena)

7:10 p.m. – men’s 3,000m steeplechase prelim (Max Bonenberger/Alex Shaw)

7:40 p.m. – women’s 400m hurdles prelim (Allison Comer)

8:10 p.m. – women’s 10,000m final (Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge)

8:50 p.m. – men’s 10,000m final (Logan Bocovich/Paul Knight/Loic Scomparin/Braden Struhs/Jeremiah Vaille)

WHAT TO WATCH – FRIDAY
With a hot and windy forecast in the 90s, Friday will thankfully be the shortest day of Mines’ weekend schedule, starting with Kitt Rupar in the women’s discus finals (2 p.m.). Rupar, an all-American in the event a year ago, won the discus at RMACs and is seeded #12. Two track prelims happen Thursday night starting with the men’s 800m (6:15 p.m.) and Tim Thompson, who is coming off his career-best and Mines-record performance of 1:48.24 two weeks ago to go in with the #5 seed. Everett Delate, an all-American last year and the indoor 60m hurdles runner-up this year, closes out his exceptional career with the 110m hurdles prelim at 6:55 p.m., where the RMAC champion is the #6 seed. The steeplechase finals are at 7:15 p.m. (women) and 7:30 p.m. (men) for those advancing from Friday.

Friday (all times Mountain)

2 p.m. – women’s discus throw final (Kitt Rupar)

6:15 p.m. – men’s 800m prelim (Tim Thompson)

6:55 p.m. – men’s 110m hurdles prelim (Everett Delate)

7:15 p.m. – women’s 3,000m steeplechase final (Margaux Basart/Emily LaMena, if qualify)

7:30 p.m. – men’s 3,000m steeplechase final (Max Bonenberger/Alex Shaw, if qualify)

WHAT TO WATCH – SATURDAY
The meet wraps up on Saturday starting in the field with Dale Thompson’s return trip in the pole vault (11 a.m.), where the RMAC champ is the #12 seed. Kitt Rupar competes in her second event, the shot put, at 1:15 p.m., hoping to repeat her 2024 all-America finish as the #15 seed. On the track, advancers from prelims will contest the finals of the women’s and men’s 1,500m (5:35/5:45 p.m.), men’s 110m hurdles (6:10 p.m.), men’s 800m (7:10 p.m.), and women’s 400m hurdles (7:25 p.m.), before the Orediggers wrap up their slate with the women’s and men’s 5,000m runs (8:05/8:30 p.m.). Indoor national champion Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge hopes to make it a sweep in the women’s 5K, entering as the #2 seed, while indoor runner-up Loic Scomparin hopes to end his career with a national title as he runs with 2024 cross country all-American Dawson Gunn. 

Saturday (all times Mountain)

11 a.m. – women’s pole vault final (Dale Thompson)

1:15 p.m. – women’s shot put final (Kitt Rupar)

5:35 p.m. – women’s 1,500m final (Grace Strongman, if qualify)

5:45 p.m. – men’s 1,500m final (Alberto Campa/Brock Drengenberg, if qualify)

6:10 p.m. – men’s 110m hurdles final (Everett Delate, if qualify)

7:10 p.m. – men’s 800m final (Tim Thompson, if qualify)

7:25 p.m. – women’s 400m hurdles final (Allison Comer, if qualify)

8:05 p.m. – women’s 5,000m final (Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge)

8:30 p.m. – men’s 5,000m final (Dawson Gunn/Loic Scomparin)

MINES MEN CHASE PROGRAM OF THE YEAR CROWN
More than just NCAA hardware is on the line for the Mines men’s program this weekend as they have a chance to secure their first-ever USTFCCCA Program of the Year honor with a strong team finish. The NCAA champion in cross country and third at NCAA Indoors, the Orediggers lead the Program of the Year standings entering the NCAA Outdoor meet; a team finish of third or better would secure the award, along with several other combinations of finishes by teams near the top of the standings. After the winter, Mines (4 points) led Adams State (7), Grand Valley State (7), Pitt State (8), and Wingate (9), with teams getting the number of points corresponding to their team finish at each of the three championships. 

SCOMPARIN EYES ALL-AMERICA RECORD

At last year’s NCAA Outdoor meet, distance star Zoe Baker became the most-decorated Oredigger of all time earning her 15th all-America honor, the most by any Mines athlete in any sport. This year, Loic Scomparin has a chance to equal or break that mark; the 14-time all-American is entered in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, and doubled on the podium indoors in the 3K and 5K in addition to his cross country all-America medal and team national championship in the fall. As it stands, Scomparin is the most decorated man in Mines Athletics history, having surpassed Dylan Ko (12) this winter.

LAMENA LEADS ALL-RMAC HONORS

Women’s Freshman of the Year Emily LaMena led 40 total all-RMAC honors for Colorado School of Mines announced on Monday. The Mines men had 23 student-athletes earn 30 total all-RMAC honors, while 17 Oredigger women received 20 awards. Among the honorees are 10 RMAC champions: Everett Delate (110m hurdles), Alex Shaw (steeplechase), Jeremiah Vaille (5,000m and 10,000m), Allison Comer (400m hurdles), Jennifer Jarnagin (hammer), LaMena (steeplechase), Kitt Rupar (discus), Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge (5,000m), Dale Thompson (pole vault), and Avery Wright (heptathlon). 

RMAC CHAMPIONSHIPS REWIND

The Mines men and women finished a strong second place at the 2025 RMAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships held at the end of April at Stermole Track, with 11 gold medalists overall. The Oredigger men scored a massive 195 points – their second-most ever – while the Mines women scored their most points ever at 157. Jeremiah Vaille did the double, winning both the 5,000m and 10,000m, while Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge captured the women’s 5K title. Alex Shaw and Emily LaMena swept the steeplechase golds, and Everett Delate won his third consecutive 110m hurdle crown in a new meet record 13.87 seconds with Allison Comer smashing her program record to win the women’s 400m hurdles in 59.39. In the field, Dale Thompson took first in the women’s pole vault, Kitt Rupar won the discus, and Jennifer Jarnagin captured the hammer throw gold while Avery Wright took home another heptathlon title. 

GET THAT SILVER

Last weekend, 28 members of the Mines cross country and track & field program received silver diplomas as graduates in the school’s Class of 2025. Six men – Alberto Campa, Coulton Chan, Brock Drengenberg, Ethan Grolnic, Noah Kelly, and Brody Welch – received bachelor’s degrees, six more – Everett Delate, Davin Kiesby, Holden Murphy, Hunter Potrykus, Loic Scomparin, and Jeremiah Vaille – got master’s degrees, and Aaron Swift, a 2010 undergraduate degree recipient and former all-American for the Orediggers, earned his doctorate. Fifteen women earned degrees including Grace Galvin, Jennifer Jarnagin, Kitt Rupar, Margaux Basart, Lexi Herr, Ella Kenly, Callen Nash, Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge, and Grace Strongman receiving their bachelor’s, and Allison Comer, Claire Kintzley, Ava Kowalski, Hayley Rayburn, Dale Thompson, and Ashleigh Loe getting master’s degrees. The senior class has been incredibly impressive in competition: it includes 17 all-Americans, four Academic All-Americans, 26 RMAC champions, and six national champions.