For nearly two decades, the Iowa Central cross country program has been a formidable force on the national scene.
Under Dee Brown, the Tritons have scored 12 national titles between the men's and women's programs, including the fourth championship for the men last fall.
Iowa Central will be looking to repeat the feat behind Kelvin Bungei, who was the individual champion on his home course. Bungei is joined by sophomore Hunter Klimek and freshman Zander Cobb as key runners for the Tritons.
Bungei won the individual race by over 13 seconds as Iowa Central had four finishers in the Top-20 and five in the Top-25. Klimek was the third-fastest Triton at nationals. Cobb was fifth in Michigan at the state championship as a senior.
"We had a 5K time trial last week at Iowa Western that was canceled after about 19 minutes," Brown said. "We did get to see a few of our guys run over three miles, but most of the rest only got through 2-2.5 miles."
Hopes were high for a sweep of both championships last fall, but the Triton women were knocked out of nationals due to COVID. They entered as the No. 1 ranked team and three-time defending champions of the meet.
Finding replacements for the Top-3 runners will be key as returning sophomores Josie Stackis and Kate Miron are joined by freshman Taylor McCreedy and other newcomers.
Iowa Central will run in Iowa City at the Hawkeye Invitational hosted by the University of Iowa on Friday. They are also set for the All-American Invitational in Decorah and the Greeno/Dirksen in Nebraska this month with October featuring events in Arkansas, Wisconsin and Iowa.
"We are anxious to start a normal year kicking off our season against some of the top NCAA Div. I teams in the area," Brown said. "Taking our team to the University of Iowa is always very exciting as the majority of our roster is from our home state.
"We are still shaking the rust off from the summer and learning how to race together with our teammates. It will be a fun first competition for the squad to see where we are in early September and what we need to work on over the next two months to prepare for our 'final exam.'"
The Region XI Championships go down October 29 in Waterloo and the NJCAA Championships take place November 13 in Richmond, Virginia.
Cross country and the ICCAC are both split into two divisions. Iowa Central is in Div. I with Indian Hills, Iowa Western and Southwestern, while Div. II features Des Moines Area, Hawkeye, North Iowa Area, Scott and Southeastern for men. In women, Iowa Central, Indian Hills and Iowa Western are Div. I with DMACC, Hawkeye, NIACC, Scott and Southeastern Div. II.
-By Dana Becker