FORT DODGE, Iowa - Looking to defend their 2019 National Title and pull off the unthinkable, the number-three ranked Cloud County Community College men's cross country team would land their third-straight top-10 team finish at the NJCAA Championships with a fourth-place finish in Fort Dodge, Iowa on Saturday.
Led by two All-American runners, Cloud County would finish with a total of 122 points to finish as the highest Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference team in the meet while edging out fifth-place Hutchinson who finished with 134 points. Winning a National Title on their home course, Iowa Central capped off their season by finishing with 65 points, 26 points better than National Runner-Up College of Southern Idaho. Iowa Western would take third with 95 points to cap off the top-three teams.
Improving upon last year's 19th place finish, sophomore Habtamu Geta would earn Cloud County's highest individual finish since 2018 by taking third with a time of 25:20.50 to earn All-America status. Joining Geta as an All-American would be Awet Beraki who would take sixth with a time of 25:36.65 while Michael Iyali would take 21st (26:28.02) to give CCCC three top-20 finishers. Rylan Cheney (46th) and Linus Limo (49th) would be Cloud County's next two highest finishers with times of 27:30.92 and 27:35.89 while Ryder Amos would post a time of 31:29.40. (134th).
"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 two All-Americans and a team trophy is something I'll never forget."
The fourth-place finish in the Division I Championships is the fifth time in the past five years that Cloud County has finished in the top-13 and is believed to be the second-highest finish in a Division I Championship by CCCC behind only last year's National Championship. Since 2018, the T-Birds have now had six runners earn All-American status with Geta holding the highest finish in that span.
--cloudtbirds.com--