Former Drake University track & field and cross country standout Brogan Austin won the USA Marathon Championship Sunday, Dec. 2, morning in Sacramento, Calif., to add to his list of impressive accomplishments in his professional career.
 
The California International Marathon served as this year's USATF championship in the event and the 27-year-old Austin, a current resident of West Des Moines, bested the championship field with a time of 2:12.38 on the streets of Sacramento.
 
Austin sat in 13^th place at the midpoint of the race, but continued to pick up steam, moving into the top-10 at the 35-kilometer mark and into second place five kilometers later with a 15:08 split over those five kilometers. 
 
With two minutes left in his race, Austin overtook the leader and held that position to the tape to collect $20,000 in prize money.
 
A 2015 Drake graduate originally from, Boone, Iowa, Austin qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2014 after finishing fourth at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships. At the league's 2014 Indoor Track & Field Championship, he was honored as co-Most Valuable Athlete after winning his third consecutive 5,000-meter conference title in an indoor school record time of 13:59.71 followed by a 3,000-meter title. In his final MVC Championship in 2015, he was the runner-up in the 10,000 meters and fifth in the 5,000 meters.
 
Austin also earned the MVC's Elite 18 Award twice in cross country (2012, 2014) and was a 2014 Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-America third-team pick in 2014.