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Ronnisha Hall (Pahokee, FL/HS) and Jordan Anderson (Mason City/HS) earned NJCAA Coaches Association All-American honors in two events and Becky Dahn (Lake Mills/HS) earned the same honor in an event as North Iowa Area Community College competed in the NJCAA Division I track and field championship.

For the second straight year, Hall finished third in the women’s weight throw, this time with a toss of 51 feet, 1 inch on Saturday afternoon. She had placed third in the shot put on Friday with a toss of 41-8 ¾. In her two appearances at the NJCAA indoor nationals has finished third three times and fourth once, earning All-American honors each time.

Dahn earned All-American honors on Saturday, placing fifth in the women’s 600-meter finals in a time of 1:43.79. She qualified for the finals on Friday by running her heat in 1:41.19 for the seventh fastest time of the day. The efforts of Hall and Dahn enabled head coach Curtis Vais’ team to score 16 points, good for 15th overall among the 40 teams sending representatives.

In the men’s competition Anderson earned his All-American status for NIACC, placing first among all U.S. runners and fifth in the 5,000-meter race on Friday in 14 minutes, 50.03 seconds. He finished second among U.S. runners and 10th overall later that evening in the 3,000 with an 8:52.09 clocking, earning All-American honors.

Four other Trojans competed at the indoor track and field nationals last weekend. Emily Mujica (Mason City/HS) ran in the women’s 800 on Friday and while she didn’t make the finals, her 2:31.54 was good enough for 11th overall. In the women’s 3,000, Kelly Ipsen (Homestead/Iowa Valley) finished 14th in 11:37.51.

In the men’s pentathlon, Spenser Rahm (Wesley/Bishop Garrigan) was among 16 athletes that earned a berth into the NJCAA indoor nationals and he placed 11th overall on Friday with a school-record total of 2,929 points, well over the 2,786-point effort that earned him first at the Region XI meet on February 23.

Rahm’s best effort in the five-event competition was the shot put, where he was first with a toss of 41-6. Meanwhile, Joe McCall (Council Bluffs/Abraham Lincoln) placed 11th in the shot put with a toss of 42-2 ¾.  The men’s team was 25th overall in the team competition.

More about NIACC’s track and field program can be found at www.niacc.edu/athletics.

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