Juliana Sakat & Barnabas Ndiwa Named National Athlete of the Week After Record Setting Weekend

NEW ORLEANS - The first outdoor race of the year was worth the wait for Barnabas Ndiwa.

And it's been since 1987 that any NJCAA athlete has run as fast as Ndiwa did over 10,000 meters at the Brian Clay Invitational. He completed 25 laps of the Azusa Pacific track in 28:52.64 for third in his section to become No. 2 on the all-time NJCAA list for 10,000 meters. Only the 28:35.0 by Mark Roberts of Central Arizona in 1987 is faster in NJCAA history.

The 28:52.64 represented a PR by over 28 seconds for Ndiwa, whose previous best was 29:21.55 from last year.

This is the second time that a male athlete from Iowa Western CC has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season. Ndiwa joins Strymar Livingston (2015) in that regard.

A new event meant yet another NJCAA all-time mark for Juliana Sakat.

This time it was the 10,000 meters and an NJCAA record by over a minute as Sakat competed in the fast section at the Brian Clay Invitational, placing ninth in 33:23.71. That took down the NJCAA (and Iowa Western program) record of 34:42.65 set by Faith Linga at the Drake Relays in 2021.

Sakat's performance – her first of the outdoor season – added to her domination from indoors when she won four individual events at the NJCAA Indoor Championships. She rates among the NJCAA all-time top-10 in three indoor events, including the NJCAA record of 16:20.80 in the 5000. 

This is the third time that a female athlete from Iowa Western CC has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season. Sakat joins Miracle Ailes (2022) and Hilda Olemomoi (nee Chebet) (2022) in that regard.

Her mark is also a Ghana national record.