—Photo by Kirk Hardcastle, for The Messenger Iowa Central’s Leanne Pompeani competes during the NJCAA national cross country meet in El Dorado, Kan. on Saturday.

EL DORADO, Kan. — Iowa Central Leanne Pompeani ran away from the competition and to another title here on Saturday, repeating as the NJCAA women’s national cross country champion.

The Tritons’ All-American sophomore standout turned in a time of 17:11.34, finishing nearly a full 19 seconds ahead of runner-up Susan Ejore of Monroe College (N.Y.). Pompeani’s effort was almost 10 seconds better than her golden performance in Fort Dodge a year ago as a freshman.

”You don’t see a runner accomplish what Leanne has very often,” ICCC head coach Dee Brown said of Pompeani, who is now a seven-time national champ between cross country and track. ”She was again named female athlete of the year (at the meet) for winning.

”It’s really been an incredible stretch, and we’re all very happy for and proud of her.”

The top-ranked Triton women settled for fourth place overall with 111 points. No. 2 Lansing Community College (103) was first in a tight team race, followed by Central Arizona and El Paso (106).

”We weren’t quite hitting on all cylinders, which was unfortunate because it was close,” Brown said. ”We had some health and injury issues. There are a lot of really good teams on the women’s side right now, but we were still right there.”

The No. 1 Iowa Central men were dethroned as national champion, as their two-year reign at the top came to an end. Second-rated Central Arizona (49) was ahead of the runner-up Tritons (62).

The men turned in three Top-10 individual performances. Karim Achengli was fourth (24:32.26), followed by Ashenalfi Hatte (6th, 24:51.72) and Omer Almog (8th, 25:15.30). The trio joined Belesti Akalu (13th, 25:33.95) as All-Americans.

In his final race, Fort Dodge Senior High graduate Alex Jackson was 31st individually in 26:10.06.

”Central did an amazing job,” Brown said. ”I give them a lot of credit. They were awesome (on Saturday). We’re disappointed by the results, but not the performance. And we’re not going to let one day define the season, even if we came up just short (of a three-peat).”

Both Triton squads will participate in the NJCAA Half-Marathon Classic in Gulf Shores, Ala. at 9 a.m. on Saturday.