REPEAT! Linga Doubles Down; Reivers Sophomore Wins Second Cross Country Title

Ft. Dodge, Iowa

Reivers sophomore Faith Linga left no doubt who has been the most dominant women's cross country runner in the NJCAA the past two seasons, cruising to victory Saturday at the NJCAA National Cross Country Championships.  Linga, last year's winner by 13 seconds, won this year's women's individual title by nearly 36 seconds over the second-place finisher, Patricia Koma from Cloud County (KS).  Linga, the sophomore from Nairobi, Kenya, led by four seconds at the one mile split and extended it from there, eventually winning with a time of 18:10.90. Faith, who completed an undefeated season, became just the third woman in NJCAA DI history to win back-to-back individual titles in meet history, joining Adeh Mwamba of South Plains College ('02 and '03) and Leanne Pompeani of Iowa Central CC ('15 and '16).  

The victory for the sophomore places her as the all-time winningest athlete at IWCC with four individual national titles, just ahead of Latario Collie-Minns who won three national titles in the triple jump from 2013-14.

The Reivers finished in 6th place as a team overall with Mohussin Abakar the second Reiver to cross with a time of 20:19.2.  Blayne Lachance (20:57.88) and Nia Taylor (21:07.68) also finished inside the meet's Top 50.

Linga and her teammates will continue racing when the IWCC Indoor Track & Field season commences in January.

Final IWCC Results | Women's Cross Country