MASON CITY - The Iowa Central cross country team brought their junior varsity to the Trent Smith Invitational hosted by North Iowa Area.
Smith was NIACC's first male cross country All-American, and he still holds the indoor 3,000 meter record. While at NIACC, Smith worked as a student ambassador in the Admissions Department. Smith was tragically killed in the fall of 2016 in a car accident. Trent Smith left his mark and definitely will be missed by his NIACC family.
While sitting their top 8 athletes, the rest of the men's squad competed in freezing temperatures, high winds and snow. The University of Minnesota Duluth took home the team title with 27 points, followed by Minnesota State Mankato with 49. Concordia of St. Paul was third with 76 while the Tritons of Iowa Central were fourth with 121 points. NJCAA 15th ranked NIACC was fifth while, 18th ranked Hawkeye finished seventh in the 12 team field. Other Region XI opponents in the field included Indian Hills in eighth, Southwestern in 10th and DMACC in 11th.
Leading the team were freshman, Noah Friske of Rockford, IL in 26:53 and sophomore, Moise Habineza of West Des Moines Valley high school. Friske and Habineza finished in 18th and 19th places respectively. Habineza's time of 26:58 was a lifetime personal best for him at 8 kilometers. Over half of the Tritons that competed ran lifetime bests in the frigid conditions. Freshman Baraka Sila of Silver Springs, MD was third for the Tritons in 27th place with a best time of 27:16. Rounding out the scoring spots for Iowa Central were sophomores Will Valentin of Forest Lake, MN and Rico Holland of Milwaukee, WI. The sophomores finished 32nd and 33rd respectively in 27:32 and 27:33.
For the women of Iowa Central, Freshman, Haley Kuchel of Manning, IA was the only competitor for the squad. Kuchel ran a season's best 5 kilometer time of 23:32 in 68th place of 92 finishers.
The full squads will return to action on Saturday in Ettrick, WI. The teams will compete in the Jim Drews / Tori Neubauer Invitationals hosted by the University of Wisconsin La Crosse. Last year the Tritons swept the titles at the competition composed primarily of NCAA Division III teams.