Salt Lake CC Earns NJCAA Cross Country National Championships
Nov 13, 2024, 2:14 PM
The Salt Lake Community College men's & women's track and field teams celebrate winning the 2024 NCJAA national championship. (Isaac Wood, SLCC)
(Isaac Wood, SLCC)
RICHMOND, Virginia – It doesn’t get much better than this for the Salt Lake Community College cross-country team. In just its third year of existence under head coach Isaac Wood, the SLCC men’s and women’s programs each secured national championship titles over the weekend.
The SLCC women have now won two consecutive national titles, while this is the first team national championship for the Bruin men. Salt Lake is the first school to sweep the men’s and women’s national titles since Iowa Central in 2017. Cowley College also accomplished the feat in 2010.
“I’m thrilled with the outcomes today. Both teams (men and women) executed incredibly well and ran for each other,” said head coach Isaac Wood.
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Both programs opened the season No. 1 in the country and lived up to that billing throughout a grueling fall schedule.
The Bruin women dominated the competition, finishing with 55 points compared to 105 for second place Iowa Western Community College.
After finishing second in 2023, the SLCC men entered 2024 with one goal in mind. The Bruins secured their first national title with 52 points, beating second-place Iowa Western’s 85.
SLCC sophomore JaQuavious Harris finished with the best overall time, checking in at 23:30:7 despite a minor equipment malfunction on the course. “JQ’s shoe fell off halfway through the race. He stopped, put it back on, and still won,” said Wood.
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The Bruins open the indoor portion of the season on December 9 and 10 at the BYU Indoor Invitational. SLCC is scheduled for nine competition dates before the NJCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships begin on Friday, March 3.
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Brian Preece is a sports.ksl.com insider covering Locals in MLB and Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees and Beehive baseball coverage here.
