Terre Haute, IN - The Iona College men's cross country team earned its second-highest finish ever at the NCAA Championship with seventh-place honors at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center at Indiana State University.

The Gaels totaled 279 points, finishing 10 points behind sixth-place Stanford, last year's XC national champion. Colorado (90 points) came in first, edging Wisconsin (94) by four points. Arkansas (202), Butler (243) and BYU (267) were the only other teams to finish ahead of Iona and Stanford.

Junior Stephen Chemlany was Iona's top finisher coming in 33rd place. Chemlany clocked a time 31:45 over the 10-kilometer course. Junior Richard Kiplagat was the Gaels second finisher, coming in 45th place with a time of 31:58. Senior Sean Connolly crossed the line in 32:12, good for 64th place.

Senior Mark Smyth placed 110th (32:42) and sophomore Adam Hortian rounded out the Gael scorers in 128th place (32:54). Junior Ramon Laboy and senior Rob Connolly finished 175th (34:07) and 194th (35:12), respectively.

"We ran a very tough race this afternoon. Coming in to the race we were ranked #16 but we knew we were better than that and it showed today" said Iona head coach Mick Byrne. "While there was no individual standout, everyone ran together as a team and that is something we're awfully proud of. We raced hard with a very tough underfooting, the course was very muddy."

The seventh place finished was the second highest in school history and the third straight year that Iona has finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championship. The Gaels finished fourth in 2003 in Waterloo, IA, the highest finish ever in any sport at Iona. Two years ago in Terre Haute, the Maroon & Gold finished 10th. In 1999, the Gaels earned their first ever Top 10 finish when they placed ninth as a team.