Ottumwa, IA - The Iowa Central Women returned to dominant form winning both the ICCAC Conference and Region 11 Championship meets. In the six-team conference race, the Tritons scored 21 points outdistancing their nearest competitor, Iowa Western, by 34 points. In the NJCAA Division 1, Region 11 Championship, Iowa Central finished first with 21 points, followed by Iowa Western with 43 points then Indian Hills with 65 points. In the 21-year history of the region, Iowa Central has won the championship 20 times.
Freshman, Yididiya Bifa led the Tritons and was the conference and region champion in a time of 18:13.0, five seconds ahead of second place. Bifa was voted the Region 11 Female Athlete of the Year for her performance. This was the 13th time a Triton athlete has been victorious at the Region 11 Championships.
The top five women were all named to First Team All-Region team. Led by Bifa, Triton teammates, Maud Lambotte, Abbi Hutchinson and Imane Jourji claimed four of the five spots. Lambotte, Hutchinson and Jourji finished in third, fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Freshman, Marie Garrett finished eighth overall earning her a spot on the Second Team All-Region squad.
The Triton's sixth and seventh runners Juliette Gavois and Natalie Bogdanova Kirilova earned spots on the Third Team All-Region team with their 11th and 13th place finishes in the meet.
Also competing for Iowa Central were Aliva Edens in 16th place and Dari Cook in 18th place of 21 finishers. Cook posted a personal best performance in her last race of the season by over two minutes.
Coach Dee Brown was voted the Region 11 Women's Coach of the Year for the 17th time in 21 years.
In the men's competition the #12 NJCAA ranked Tritons finished third of seven teams in the ICCAC conference championship despite racing without their #2 and #3 runners this week. The Iowa Central men finished second of two teams in the Region 11 Championship. NJCAA #2 Iowa Western won the championship by a score of 18 to 43. Over the past 21 years, Iowa Central has won 16 championships and finished as runners-up twice.
Mohamed Dahmouch led the Tritons again with a third-place finish and a time of 23:34.8, only one second shy of the school record set by Andrew Ronoh back in 2015.
Sophomore Yasser Soualah was next in for the Tritons, finishing eighth overall to earn a spot on the Second Team All-Region. Soualah ran a personal best time of 25:28.0.
Earning spots on the All-Region Third Team were Antoine Tshimanga in 13th place (25:59.0) and Ala Elmbarki in 15th place (26:10.6). The Triton's fifth scorer was Evan Paplow in 18th place with a time of 26:25.8.
Twelve Tritons competed in the championship and all twelve men ran personal bests.
"To see every single guy, from first to last, run a personal best today was exactly what you hope for in a championship meet. With Brian Kirwa and Hamza Mohamed out with injuries, we couldn't have asked for better today," said Director of Cross Country and Track and Field, Coach Dee Brown.
The NJCAA third ranked women and twelfth ranked men will head to Richmond, VA next to compete at the NJCAA Cross Country National Championships on Saturday, November 9th