Juma Mouchette ended his college career on a winning note after helping Virginia State University secure their first Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Men’s Cross Country Championship title in nearly a decade.

The Trojans clinched the title competing at high altitude in Salem, Virgina on Thursday, with Bermudian Mouchette completing the 8km course in eighth in a field of 76 runners in a time of 29:39.4.

“All in all it was a good achievement for the team,” Mouchette told The Royal Gazette. “This is something we have been working on for four years now, and to finally get it at my last college meet of my career is bitter sweet. I graduate in December so that meet was officially my last one.

“Personally, it wasn’t one of my best races. The race was up in the mountains so it was really cold and the air was really thin.

“We were at high altitude and that was a challenge. Nobody in the race had a personal best so it was a difficult course. I think the winner ran something like 27:30 and my first race of the season was a 27:30, so that just shows it was poor performance but we got the ring, so I am happy.”

The Trojans captured the tile with a team score of 39 points.

“It feels wonderful that we won the 2017 CIAA Cross Country Championship that has eluded VSU Men’s Cross Country since 2008,” Wilbert Johnson, the Trojans head coach, told the school’s website.

“Our guys endured the 5.30am practices all season long that led them to be true soldiers. They delivered and conquered the championship in a domination fashion.”

Mouchette, who plays football locally for Premier Division side Devonshire Cougars, added: “I haven’t had the college career that I was projected to have coming out of high school in terms of how good I was running. It has been a rough college career but to end it with a championship ring is a good feeling.

“I am a two-times All American in cross country and been named College Athlete of the Week for VSU a number of times, so I’ve still had some good accomplishments.”