Iowa Western Men Win Back-to-Back Half Marathon Championships | Reviers Sweep Individual Titles
FORT DODGE, Iowa - After a quick turnaround from the unsual, snowy cold running conditions on November 8 during the NJCAA Cross Country National Championships, four ICCAC teams decided to part take in the NJCAA Half Marathon Championships in Fort Dodge.
The story of the meet was Iowa Western. The Reivers dominated their way to a victory in the Men's Division and finished as the runner-up in the Women's division.
It was all Iowa Western. The Reivers placed five runners in the top 10 and won the team title by 21 points over fellow ICCAC member and recently crowned Division I Men's Cross Country national champion Iowa Central. The 1–2 punch of Barnabas Ndiwa and Geofrey Ronoh delivered again, taking the top two spots in identical times of 1:04:55.3, 30 seconds ahead of third place. Miguel Angel Lopez Carranza, Victor Kemboi, and Flynn Pumpa also finished inside the top 10, crossing in a tight pack within 13 seconds of one another.
Behind Iowa Western, the race for second went to Iowa Central. The Tritons placed all five scorers in the top 15, led by sixth-place finisher Chakib Cherkaoui Rhazouani. Southeastern also fielded a team and finished 19th; its top runner, Parker Quinlan, clocked 1:13:50.5 to place 56th. NIACC rounded out the ICCAC contingent, placing 31st as a team.
The women's team race came down to a tight battle between Odessa and Iowa Western. The Reivers finished second, just nine points back, and held a 30-point cushion over third place.
Perhaps the standout runner of the meet, both men and women included, had to be Juliana Sakat. The freshman—and the Reivers' women's 5K record holder—won by nearly two minutes in 1:15:47.3, a time that would have placed her well within the top half of the men's field. Teammate, Elizabeth Ewusie, added an eighth-place finish in 1:20:21.1 to give the Reivers two in the top 10.
Despite finishing with two runners in the top ten, Iowa Central finished with 67 points, earning themselves a 7th place finish as a team. The top finisher for the Tritons was Abbigail Hutchinson, who finished in 7th place overall. Hafsa Oukadou took 9th.
Southeastern rounded out the competing ICCAC teams and finished in 19th place, with the top finisher for the Blackhawks being Paetyn Wiegand, who finished in 1:34:34.3, earning herself a 56th overall finish of the 131 runners who finished.