Photo by Iowa Central Athletics: George McIntyre of Iowa Central was named 2026 All-Region Player of the Year on Wednesday.

In a season filled with plenty of heartbreak, Chris Witzke was awarded for showing incredible perseverance and passion by his fellow ICCAC coaches.

Witzke, a Humboldt graduate and the head coach at Iowa Lakes, was named the regional coach of the year.

The Lakers experienced the loss of a teammate following an auto accident earlier this year. Several others were hospitalized, as Witzke was able to rally the troops to 10 wins in one of the more difficult leagues in junior college baseball.

Iowa Central, who claimed the Region 11 Tournament title this past weekend, had both the player and pitcher of the year in George McIntyre and Isaiah Brennan. Those two were joined on the first team by Ben Jones and Sawyer Stein.

Maddox Sullivan and Tate Perrin made the second team while Parker Studtmann and Will Specht were honorable mention.

Kirkwood’s Blake Lundholm took home defensive player of the year.

McIntyre led the conference with a .505 batting average, as he was also first in on-base percentage (.647), slugging percentage (1.075), runs scored (68) and stolen bases (15). His 47 RBI and 100 total bases ranked second, as he currently leads all of the NJCAA in runs (118), total bases (189) and slugging percentage (1.056) while hitting 30 home runs.

Brennan went 4-1 with 39 strikeouts and a 3.86 earned run average in league games. He averaged over 11 strikeouts per nine innings, holding batters to a .231 average. Overall, he is 8-2 with a complete game and 82 strikeouts in 57 innings pitched.

Jones, a redshirt sophomore, hit .361 with 13 home runs, 46 RBI, 53 runs scored and 12 steals while Stein, a sophomore, had 28 homers, drove in a team-high 109 and hit .467, scoring 93 runs on the season.

The Tritons head to Williston State on Friday for the North Plains District title in a best-of-three series. A win automatically qualifies Iowa Central for the NJCAA Div. II World Series.