Facing chilly early morning temperatures in Minneapolis, Minn., Janet Cherobon-Bawcom and Mohamed Trafeh each defended their titles in the USA 10 Mile Championships Sunday, which was run as part of the TC Medtronic 10 Mile.

Cherobon-Bawcom cruised to the win in a time of 53 minutes, 43 seconds to finish ahead of runner-up Kara Goucher (53:56) and third place Alisha Williams (54:08). Trafeh recorded a winning time of 46:56, which was ahead of Ben True (47:19) and Jacob Riley (47:22).

It was the third USA title on the roads in 2012 for Cherobon-Bawcom as she also won national titles in the 15 km and 25 km earlier in the year. A 2012 Olympian in the 10,000m, it is the sixth USA title for Cherobon-Bawcom in the last two seasons (10 km, 10 Mile and 20 km in 2011).

Sunday’s win comes in an impressive run for Trafeh as well, who picked up his fifth USA championship in the last two years and his second title in 2012. Trafeh won the USA 15 km Championships earlier this year and picked up wins in the 10 Mile, 15 km and Half Marathon in 2011.

Complete results from Sunday’s race along with race and post-race video is available here.

About the USARC
The USA 10 mile Championships were the tenth stop on the 2012 USA Running Circuit (USARC) and featured $30,000 in prize money. The USARC is a USA Track & Field road series, featuring USA Championships from one mile to the marathon and attracts the best U.S. distance runners. The 2012 circuit features nine events for men and ten for women.

The 2012 USARC features more than $900,000 in circuit prize money with U.S. athletes competing for the right to represent Team USA in various international competitions.

The first ten U.S. runners earn points at each USARC race (15 for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1), with a final $12,500 grand prix purse ($6,000, $4,000, and $2,500) for the top three men and women point scorers overall.

The mission of the USA Running Circuit is to showcase, support, and promote U.S. runners. Since its inception in 1995, the USARC and its races have provided over $6 million dollars to U.S. distance runners.