National Champions Crowned in NJCAA DI Cross Country

FORT DODGE, IOWA – National champions in NJCAA Division I Cross Country were crowned Saturday morning.

The No. 1 Iowa Central CC men and No. 2 Lansing CC women claimed the national team titles, while Gilbert Kigen of Central Arizona and Leanne Pompeani of Iowa Central CC won the men’s and women’s individual titles, respectively.

FULL RESULTS

ICCC’s men won their second national team crown in a row, topping No. 3 Central Arizona and No. 2 South Plains College, 56-86-88. Andrew Ronoh was fourth overall individually to lead the Tritons, leading a pack of five ICCC runners in the top 16.

The Tritons came through the two-mile mark tied with Central Arizona and never let up from that point on in the eight-kilometer race.

Ronoh was part of a small group of six runners who took the race out hard from the gun. That group was whittled to just Kigen, Ronoh, Festus Lagat of Gillette and Sylvester Barus of Iowa Western CC by two miles.

With just a half mile to go, Kigen and Barus separated themselves further and it was Kigen who sprinted in for the win in 23:55.20 by six seconds over Barus. Kigen’s win marks the third consecutive year a Central Arizona runner has won the men’s title, following in the footsteps of two-time winner Harry Mulenga. Mulenga, now competed at the NCAA level for Alabama, won the NCAA DI South Region title yesterday.

The Lansing CC women claimed their first-ever NJCAA DI national title with a victory over pre-meet favorite No. 1 Iowa Central, 92-135. This national crown joins LCC’s national title collection alongside four NJCAA Division II titles in the early 1990s. NJCAA DII hasn’t contested a national cross country championship since the final edition in 2003.

Led by 10th-place individual finisher Kaitlin Beyer, the Stars ran exceptionally well as a pack with their entire five-woman scoring roster coming through among the top-26 finishers and all seven varsity runners in among the top-41. No other team had more than four runners in that soon.

That team was runner-up Iowa Central, which had four runners in the top 35 led by individual winner Pompeani. Five times a National Athlete of the Week in 2015, the Australian covered the five-kilometer course in 17:21.58 to win by 28 seconds over Lydia Mato of Barton CC.

This is the second year in a row Iowa Central has finished runner-up after winning three national titles from 2011 through 2013.

No. 3 Central Arizona proved true to its rank with a third-place finish with 193 points, while No. 12 Gillette well exceeded its pre-meet prognostication in third with 228.

Defending national champion No. 4 El Paso CC was seventh with 301 points.

Full results can be found here.