Tritons Claim Back-to-Back National Championships
Iowa Central women won their second consecutive NJCAA Cross Country Championship overall; the Triton Men finished second behind Central Arizona.
Iowa Central claimed the NJCAA Division I Women's Cross Country National Championship and broke the all-time record for most NJCAA Division I Women's Cross-Country National Championships on Saturday in Garden City, Kansas. The victory is the second straight title for the Iowa Central women's cross country and their seventh all-time in program history.
The Tritons were paced by three dominant performances from Lilian Busienei (3rd) 18:55.4, Marion Bartilol (4th) 19:09.1, and Florance Uwajeneza (5th) 19:11.2. Abeba Sullivan (13th) 19:37, Winrose Chesang (19th) 19:52.3 also contributed to help the team win back-to-back championships. Busienei, Bartilol, Uwajeneza, and Sullivan all earned All-American honors for placing in the top-15 in the nation.
Other top finishers from ICCAC teams include a pair of runners from Hawkeye in Joanna Topham (22nd) 20:00.4, and Alayna Kollasch (23rd) 20:01.3. Additional schools represented at National's included Indian Hills, NIACC, and Southwestern.
On the men's side, Iowa Central finished second overall behind Central Arizona and paced by a few top finishers in Ezekiel Kipchirchir (3rd) 25:37.0, Innocent Murwanashyaka (14th) 26:33.2, and Milos Pendic (24th) 26:55.8. Kipchirchir and Murwanashyaka earned All-American Honors for placing in the top-15 in the nation. Iowa Central has been either first or second place for the last six seasons at the NJCAA Championships and continued that streak this weekend.
Other top runners included Indian Hills sophomore Marcus Graham, who came in 22nd place (26:51.5) for the Warriors, and sophomore Michael DeMeyer was right behind him in 23rd (26:54.3). The duo helped the Warriors finish 15th overall in the team standings.
Other ICCAC squads represented at the Men's Championship were Iowa Western, NIACC, Southwestern, and Hawkeye.