USTFCCCA News & Notes
Favorites Prevail at NJCAA DIII Championships
WESTFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS – Favorites prevailed in the NJCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships’ team and individual races at Stanley Park on Saturday.
The top-ranked Harper men and Suffolk County CC women clinched comfortable team title victories, while former multiple-time USTFCCCA National Athletes of the Week Zakaria Djouma of Mohawk County CC and Meseret Hart of Northampton CC won the individual men’s and women’s titles, respectively.
Third-place Will Troman led a quintet of Harper runners all across the finish line among the top-20 individual finishers to give the Hawks their fifth consecutive team title, 49-73, over No. 3 Mohawk Valley CC. No. 2 Howard CC was third with 92 points.
Mohawk Valley was led by individual winner Djouma, who broke the tape on the 8K course in 26:15.1 for a 53-second win over former National Athlete of the Week Jared Hallow of Potomac State College. The victory capped a 7-0 season for Djouma, who was named National Athlete of the Week four times during the regular season.
Djouma is the first MVCC man since Lubert Lewis in 1998 to win the NJCAA national title.
Led by a pair of former National Athletes of the Week in fifth-place Ryleigh Donegan and sixth-place Leana Wiebelt, Suffolk County CC won its first national cross country title since 2007 with a victory over No. 2 Harper College, 64-87. No. 5 Ocean County College edged No. 7 Anne Arundell CC for third, 131-132.
Hart, a two-time National Athlete of the Week, took the individual title by 17 seconds over another former National Athlete of the Week in Harper’s Ali Gutt. She crossed the line on the 5K course in 18:43.2, notching her seventh win of her undefeated 2015 campaign and making her one of just three NJCAA DIII champions to ever break 19 minutes at the national meet.
Hart is the first woman from Northampton CC to win an individual NJCAA cross country title.
Full men’s results are available here, and full women’s results can be found here.