IOWA CITY - Iowa Central sophomore Kelvin Bungei bested a field of NCAA Div. I runners here Friday night, capturing the men's individual title at the Hawkeye Invitational.

The event, hosted by the University of Iowa, featured eight NCAA programs and the Tritons.

Iowa was first followed by Illinois-Chicago, Creighton, Drake, Northern Iowa, Loyola, Illinois State and Bradley.

Bungei clocked a time of 18:21.4, winning by nearly a second over Iowa's Nick Trattner.

"Our guys did a great job of following the game plan and ran some decent times on a tough course with even tougher competition," Iowa Central head coach Dee Brown said. "The course was water-logged and muddy from a day of rain. We ran against all NCAA Division I athletes. Our varsity group held up well despite missing a few athletes. 

"The rest of the team did a great job of working together with their teammates to keep each other going. We are looking forward to having some fun next weekend at Luther College where our team will fit in much better with the competition."

Hunter Klimek was 35th in 19:38, Brady Hogan placed 59th in 20:24, Marco Lopez was 60th in 20:27, Yared Kidane finished 62nd in 20:36 and Cassius Havis was 69th in 21:30.

Jacob Willson placed 71st in 22:18 with Daniel Bekkouche, Brayan Silva, Nolan Jergens, Trae Corby, Isaiah Nebbe, Caleb Harb, Carter Theesfeld, Justin Nibaur, Michael Turner, Briar Knapp and Kaeden Langfitt also completing the course for the Tritons.

The Iowa Central women did not compete at the event.

-By Dana Becker