Riverdale, NY - The No. 8 Iona College men's cross country team earned its fourth straight NCAA Northeast Regional championship in convincing fashion at Van Cortlandt Park. Senior Mohamed Khadraoui was the meet's champion finishing first overall in the 10k race.
"I'm extremely pleased with our performance today, the guys executed the game plan to perfection," said first-year head coach Ricardo Santos. "They knew we needed our top three guys to finish in the first six or seven of the race. Chris Vizcaino and Alex Soderberg had excellent finishes to round out our scorers. It was an overall team effort to win."
Khadraoui topped Providence's David McCarthy by just under two seconds to earn the Regional Championship with a time of 31:11.6. As a junior in 2007, he finished 12th overall.
Fellow seniors Harbert Okuti and Andrew Ledwith finished fourth and fifth overall. Okuti nipped his teammate by a tenth of a second with a time of 31:28.8. Junior Chris Vizcaino (32:06.1) and sophomore Alexander Soderberg (32:47.2) also earned All-Region honors by finishing 11th and 25th respectively. The Gaels also got strong performances from sophomore Josh Hibbs (36th) and senior Chase Pizzonia (49th) to round out the the squad's top seven.
With 46 team points, the Gaels topped regional rivals Providence (88), Columbia (103), Dartmouth (122) and Syracuse (161) to round out the top five. The win is the Maroon & Gold's fourth straight regional title, sixth in the last seven years and seventh overall in school history.
Iona earns an automatic bid into the 2008 NCAA Championships set to take place on Monday, Nov. 24 in Terre Haute, IN.
Complete Men's Results