FORT DODGE, Iowa - In what can only be described as an epic battle featuring two top-10 teams going toe-to-toe for the entire race, the number two-ranked Cloud County Community College women's cross country team would fall just one point short of winning a National Title to finish as 2020 NJCAA Division I National Runner-Up at the Cross Country Championships in Fort Dodge, Iowa on Saturday.
Totaling 76 points with four runners finishing inside the top-20, Cloud County would trail only National Champion Ranger College who would finish with 75 points to edge the T-Birds in one of the closest NJCAA Championship races to ever occur. CCCC would hold the lead through the two-mile mark of the 5K race before seeing the Lady Rangers grab the lead by a single point and manage to fend off the T-Birds. Ranger's scoring breakdown would go 8-12-13-20-22 while Cloud County would earn scores of 2-14-15-17-28 for their total. Third-place College of Southern Idaho would round out the top-three with 104 points while Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference member Colby would take fourth with 122 points.
Earning a national runner-up finish to cap off the season would be sophomore Patricia Koma as the 2020 United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association NJCAA Division I Central Region Athlete of the Year would post a time of 18:46.16, trailing only Faith Linga of Iowa Western who became just the third women's runner to ever win back-to-back individual titles at the NJCAA level with a time of 18:10.90. Sophomores Kya Johnson (19:52.05) and Maryse Mbenoun (19:52.71) would finish back-to-back in 14th and 15th to give the T-Birds three All-American status runners while Pamela Milano would take 17th with a time of 19:58.01. Ludjenie Mondesir would add a 28th-place finish with a time of 20:31.12 while Abbey Hoover (39th, 20:47.93) and Emma Holthaus (21:16.15) also ran in the meet for CCCC.
"The experience in 2020 was a roller coaster and I'm so happy our team got a full season and a championship race to compete in" said head coach Drew Mahin in a post-meet interview. "I felt like we have grown so much in the last 95-plus days and to come home with so many All-Americans and a team trophy is something I'll never forget."
The race caps off a season that saw the T-Birds finish no-worse than second in any that they competed in while winning the program's first NJCAA Region VI Division I and KJCCC West Division Titles. The three All-American runners (Koma, Johnson, and Mbenoun) are the first since Stephanie Barrett in 2015.
--cloudtbirds.com--