Tritons Show Well at Region 11 Championships
Iowa Central Community College played host to the 2025 Region 11 Championships featuring NJCAA Division I and II athletes of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC). The Iowa Central men entered the competition ranked #5 in the Nation and their division rivals included #1 ranked Iowa Western and #21 ranked Indian Hills. The men's team was off to a quick start early in the season, but injuries knocked the Tritons backwards prior to Regionals. The Region 11 Championships marked the first competition all men were back to full strength together since their first competition of the 2025 season.

Iowa Western got out to a quick start leading the Tritons by 15 points at the first kilometer of the men's 8-kilometer race. Throughout the rest of the race, Iowa Central whittled away at the gap. By two kilometers they were within 12 points and then only nine points away by three kilometers. At the halfway mark, the Tritons got as close as they would all day by narrowing the deficit to only three points. In the end, Iowa Western downed the Tritons by a final tally of 26 to 30. DMACC was third in the ICCAC standings with 83 points, followed by Southeastern and then NIACC. Indian Hills did not field a full scoring squad. The final NJCAA Division I standings saw the same score of 26 to 30, with the Tritons on the short end.

Three Tritons were named to the NJCAA Division I First Team All-Region, by virtue of their top five finish. Soufyane Laaziz led the team with a third-place finish and a personal best time of 24:39.4 over the eight-kilometer course.  Chakib Cherkaoui Rhazouani was fourth in 24:46.4 and Said Rifi Loutfi was fifth in a personal best time of 24:51.1.

Saad Rifi Loutfi earned second team all-region honors with his seventh-place finish.

The Tritons remaining three varsity runners all earned honorable mention, all-region honors by finishing among the top 15.  Taha Ouchene finished 11^th, Emmanuel Kiplagat was 14^th and the lone sophomore, Brian Kirwa, finished 15^th in the NJCAA Division 1 Region 11 Championship with a personal best time of 26:04.5.

All Conference honors are awarded based on the overall finish of the combined division 1 and division 2 races. First team all-conference honorees included Laaziz, Cherkaoui Rhazouani, and the Rifi Loutfi twins.

Second team all-conference honorees included athletes who finished between eighth and fourteenth places overall.  Tritons Ouchene and Kiplagat were both so honored.

Brian Kirwa finished 15^th overall and was named to the Honorable Mention All-Conference team.

Of the remaining eight athletes competing today for the Tritons, seven of them ran personal bests while the eighth was only 14 seconds away from his best time.

"It was a very close and tense competition. Our guys truly feel they are the best team out there and can run with anyone. They desperately wanted to win the Region Championship. We will have to wait and train smart these next two weeks before we take one more crack at it on our home course again at Nationals," said Director of Cross Country & Track and Field, Coach Dee Brown.

The Women's Region 11 Championship was also a close race.  The #9 ranked Tritons were battling with #14 Indian Hills to claim the runner up position in the team race to #2 ranked Iowa Western. The Tritons were battling injuries all season with at least one athlete sitting out of each competition. The Tritons were without their #5 runner due to a sprained ankle earlier in the week and their typical #3 runner, Juliette Gavois hyperextended her knee during the race but still finished.  Iowa Western claimed the NJCAA Division I Region 11 title with 27 points while Indian Hills was second with 48, followed by Iowa Central with 50 points.

Hafsa Oukadou led the Tritons with a runner up finish, and time of 18:25.0 for the 5-kilometer course. Sophomore Abbi Hutchinson finished in fifth overall with at time of 18:50.6.  Both athletes earned honors for the first team all-region and first team all-conference.

Alivia Edens and Fanny den Uyl finished in 13^th and 14^th places in the region meet to earn honorable mention all-region. In the combined division 1 and division 2 conference championship, they finished 20^th and 21^st respectively to also earn honorable mention all-conference honors. Den Uyl saved her best race for last, running a personal best of 20:58.9.

Finishing fifth for the Tritons was Juliette Gavois in 26^th overall and 16^th in the region. Dari Cook rounded out the women's team with a 31^st place overall finish out of 44 total finishers.

Iowa Central will play host to the NJCAA Division I, II and III National Cross Country Championships in two weeks on Saturday, November 8^th at Lakeside Golf Course. The last time the Tritons hosted was in 2020 when the men's team were crowned national champions while the #1 ranked women's team was in quarantine with covid.