NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. - Two ICCAC Division schools, Iowa Western and Iowa Central, competed in the Briar Cliff Invite this past Saturday. The races were held within the Adams Nature Preserve in South Dakota. The women started the day running at 10:30 AM and the men followed.
Women
Iowa Central and Iowa Western claimed the top two individual finishers in the 13-school field.
The Iowa Central women's team finished fifth overall averaging a team time of 19:40. In the 5K race, sophomore Eleonora Curtabbi finished second, running a time of 17:07.9. Curtabbi beat her previous time at the Morningside Invite by nine seconds. The next Triton finisher was Kate Miron who finished 24th running a 18:53.1.
Iowa Western finished eighth overall averaging a team time of 20:14. The Reivers were led by sophomore Faith Linga who claimed the top spot individually. Linga crushed her previous time at the Morningside Invite by more than 40 seconds. Linga crossed the finish line 27 seconds before the runner-up finished.
Men
For the men, Iowa Central was the overall meet champion. The team averaged a time of 24:51 in the 8K race. The Tritons were responsible for three runners finishing in the top-10. Sophomore Pur Biel finished in second place, only six seconds behind the champion. Biel ran a whole minute faster than his last race coming in at a time of 24:18.5.
The next Triton finisher was Kelvin Bungei who finished fourth individually. Bungei ran a time of 24:32.2 finishing three tenths of a second ahead of the fifth place finisher. To round out Iowa Central's top-10 finishers, freshman Hunter Klimek finished ninth running a time of 24:51.9. This is Klimek's highest finish of the season so far.
Iowa Western finished third in the team standings averaging a team time of 25:40. Yonas Mogos led his team crossing the finish line in seventh place with a time of 24:37.2. Mogos improved his last time by more than 30 seconds. The next two finishers for the Reivers finished one right behind the other. Kassim Kibet finished 22nd overall (25:35.7) and Wimachmorr Gilo finished 23rd (25:37.8) two seconds behind Kibet.
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Look Ahead: The ICCAC will be competing this Friday, October 9 in the fourth annual Trent Smith Invitational. The women's 5K will begin at 4:30 p.m. and the men's 8K will follow. The ICCAC teams competing are DMACC, Indian Hills, Iowa Central, Southwestern, and host NIACC.