OTTUMWA - The Iowa Central men's and women's cross country programs will be the odds-on favorites here Friday when the Region XI Cross Country Championships take place.

The event will be hosted by Indian Hills and held at the Cedar Creek Golf Course. The Tritons have swept the team titles each of the past six seasons. 

Coming into the meet, the Triton women are ranked No. 1 in the nation and the men are third. Iowa Western is ranked in the Top-10 in both men's and women's, with NIACC boasting ranked men's (17th) and women's (14th) teams as well. The Hawkeye men are ranked 22nd. 

Winrose Chesang, who set a school-record at the Tori Neubauer Invitational at 21:02.6 to earn national runner of the week honors, is the favorite. 

Leading the way for Iowa Central on the men's side is Awet Yohannes, as the sophomore from Sweden is coming off a victory at the Jim Drew Invitational that earned him runner of the week honors. He set a new personal-best time of 24:41.2 at the event.

Each racer's finish determines their All-Region status for 2019. The champion through 7th place receive First-Team honors; 8th through 14th place will be on Second-Team, and 15th through 25th will be on Honorable Mention. 

The NJCAA National Championships will be held Nov. 9 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.