By: Dee Brown
Director of Track & Field
The Iowa Central Triton's enter the 2024 Indoor Track and Field season as the reigning Region 11 champions on both the Men's and Women's side. While they ended the Indoor season on top, Iowa Western prevailed at the Outdoor Region 11 championships for both men and women while the Tritons finished runners-up. The team has set their sights on titles this season.
"Last year the team and I were first at the regional indoor meet," said Sophomore Abby Frey of Bennington, NE. "I ran seven events in the span of two days. My body was ready to give up, but my heart wouldn't. The rush of hearing my school winning and the smiling and jumping around from my teammates, it was all worth it. After getting second at the outdoor regionals it definitely brought it down, but it just gives us more motivation to go and get it this year."
The men will be led by the Indoor and Outdoor Regional Field Athlete of the Year, sophomore Waukeem Walters of St. Catherine, Jamaica. Walters is the top returner in the long jump and triple jump in the region and finished his freshmen year scoring four times at the national meets, but he has his eye on bigger goals. Last year he scored both indoors and outdoors in the long and triple jump events.
"This season I'm looking forward to getting in really good jumps and definitely breaking both indoor and outdoor records," said Walters. "My goal this year is to get over 8m in the long jump,16m in the triple jump and just have fun in my last year at Iowa Central. There's some work to be done but I believe that I can get there." Walters has already signed with the Golden Gophers from the University of Minnesota.
Walters leads a talented jumps squad. Between Walters, Garrison Murray and Adreian Roper, the Tritons return athletes that scored points at the regional meet in the long, triple and high jump events last year. The jump squad will be rounded out by newcomers Jayson Simmons, Jeremy Brown, Peyton Sanders, Stephen Sydnor, and Ronnie Major.
The rest of the field event areas will be looking to fresh faces as the Tritons do not return any regional scorers from a year ago in the pole vault, shot put, weight throw or heptathlon. In the throwing events, first-year Triton Coach, Gil Briscoe will be looking to two Iowa freshmen, Kolton Luscombe and Nick Kaska. In the pole vault, the Tritons will be relying on newcomer Scot Brown and sophomore swimmer, Canyon Jones, who will join the team in the spring at the conclusion of his current season. Combined event athletes Santiago Gonzalez and Cooper Spurgeon round out the newcomers in the field events for Iowa Central.
In the sprints, the Tritons return reigning Region 11 60-meter champion, Zion Campbell. Campbell, of Freeport, Bahamas, was a national qualifier indoors in both the 60m and 200m. Jakub Sobura-Durma of Kielce, Poland, scored points last year in both the 200m and 400m at the indoor regional meet. Sobura-Durma qualified for nationals in the 400m and ran legs of the 4x400m and distance medley relay (DMR) for the Tritons at the NJCAA Indoor National Championships.
Coach Alexis Kauzlarich, second year sprints coach, reloaded this offseason bringing in not only depth for the Tritons but loads of talent. Newcomers in the short sprints include Shawn Bryant, Donovan Cephus, Chayton Ewurs, Remington Converse, JC Barquinero, Tramere Cornelius, Youssef Hamed, Andrew McCall, and Amos Sieh. Covering the long sprint events will be first-year Alec Wyman, Musa Nkosi, Miles Reed, and Caston Frank.
In the middle distance events the Tritons will be strong, returning all but one leg of the 4x800m team that placed seventh at the NJCAA Indoor National Championships. Sophomores Joseph Asahi Wright,
Baylor Bergren and Trevon Prince are the returning members of that quartet. Iowa Central will look to Prince to score a lot of points at both the regional and national meet this year. Last year at the regional meet he scored points in both the 800m and ran a leg on the 4x400m team. Price qualified for the National meet in the 800m and ran legs of the Tritons 4x400m, 4x 800m and DMR.
Bergren of Red Oak, IA, also added points in the 1000m last year at the regional meet and was a national qualifier in the event. In addition to the relay, Wright of Tokyo, Japan was also a national qualifier in the 800m during his freshman season. Sophomore Jadon Boots of Big Lake, MN ran on both the 4x800m and DMR that placed first and second respectively in the regional meet last year. Boots was one of the Triton's top runners this fall during the Cross-Country season and was the top placer at the Half-Marathon National Championships. Other key returners for Iowa Central are Caleb Crystal and Gavin Stalzer. Newcomers Seon Booker, Antoine Tshimanga, Chase Deiter and Ben Reyes will add more depth to this mid-distance group that will be looked at to score many points in not only individual events but also the relays.
"I'm looking to qualify in both the 800m and mile for the national meet," said Wright. "I want to win the 4x800m relay again at the indoor regional meet and defend our title. Our team this year has more talent than last year. It's a smaller group but is well organized and each of us know what to do."
While the Tritons do not return any runners who placed in the 3,000m or 5,000m last year, the Cross-Country team won their 11th consecutive Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) championship this fall, and Coach Dee Brown's distance squad is loaded with talent again. This fall Iowa Central was led by Sophomore, Housem Hrabi of Doha, Qatar, who finished 11th at the NJCAA National Cross Country meet to earn his first NJCAA All-American honors. Hrabi was not able to finish the indoor season last year due to injury; however, he still put up national qualifying marks in 1000m, Mile and 3,000m (every event he raced) during the regular season. Andew Boyum
Another standout on the cross-country course who was unable to race last track season due to injury was Jed Elmbarki of Sidi Aich, Tunisia. The distance squad will look to sophomore Andrew Boyum of Jackson, MN as well as freshmen Alex Camarena Aguilar, Seth Cheney, Hamza Mohamed and Emmanuel Kipkogei for additional depth.
On the women's side the Tritons will be looking for lots of newcomers to contribute as they only return two athletes who scored points at last year's indoor regional meet. Sophomore Abigail Frey placed in the 60-meter hurdles (4th) and 400m (8th) last year. Frey was a national qualifier outdoors in the 400-meter hurdles. Raylene Williams of Emmetsburg, IA scored in both the 600m (6th) and 5000m (8th) events.
This distance squad will be led by first-year runner, Joan Jepngetich of Kapsabet, Kenya. Jepngetich's cross country season was highlighted by a second-place finish at the prestigious Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas. She was twice named the ICCAC Athlete of the Week during the Fall season. Freshman Maurine Limo who was the Tritons top finisher at the regional cross country meet and NJCAA Half Marathon National Championships will add depth to the long-distance races as well as newcomer Ivyne Maiyo of Eldoret, Kenya.
New faces in the middle-distance group include Natalie Bogdanova Kirilova of Madrid, Spain and Morgan Bodholdt of Fort Dodge, IA. Both women earned honorable mention All-Region honors during their first cross country season at Iowa Central.
The Tritons will see lots of athletes crossing over between the sprints, hurdles, jumps and combined events. The only returner from this group is Frey. While she is new to Iowa Central, she is not new to the NJCAA national meet scene, Dayvione Briggs of Cleveland Heights, OH transferred from Cuyahoga Community College. Last year Briggs was an NJCAA national meet qualifier in the 400m hurdles.
Newcomers to the sprints, hurdles, jumps and combined events include Zariah Greaves, Landry McCoid, Nicky Schaefer, Tina Samson, Kamryn Sanders and Liberty Tupper.
"While the sprints, hurdles, jumps and multi group may be small, it's loaded with talented women who will be able to handle competing in multiple events at big meets," said first-year Head Coach Anne Cleary.
While the throws squad does not return any scorers from the indoor region championship, sophomore Sara Diew will make an impact. Diew, of South Sioux City, NE scored in both the shot put and discus during the outdoor season last year. She is training full-time this winter with the track and field team after playing basketball her freshman season.
"I am looking forward to seeing how our team will look this year," said Diew. "We have a lot of young talent and with the new additions to the coaching staff I'm excited to see what we can bring to the table. I've been working really hard with our new throwing coach, Gil Briscoe, I have already seen a lot of improvement in myself these past couple months."
Rowland Kirton-Browne, Aliyah Henry, and Zuriya Robinson round out the talented group of first-year throwers for the Tritons.
The Tritons coaching staff also looks vastly different from last season. With only sprints/hurdles coach Alexis Kauzlarich returning from last season, Dee Brown, the Director of Iowa Central Cross Country & Track and Field hired four staff members to join him. Anne Cleary, formerly of Edinboro University assumed the role of Head Track and Field coach and oversees the jumps and combined event athletes. Gil Briscoe, formerly of Cuyahoga CC will oversee the throwing events. Overseeing the pole vaulters will be assistant coach Aubry Weyerstrass. Assistant cross country/track and field coach MacKenzie Gaherty will assist Brown with the mid/distance athletes.
"While there may be challenges with a large number of new staff members, the positives will outweigh the negatives. We have built some amazing camaraderie throughout the fall and the energy and passion they exude is infectious. I am excited to start the season with this group of coaches and athletes," said Brown.
Iowa Central's first meet of the season will be January 20 at the Jim Emmerich Alumni Meet in Brookings, SD.