TERRE HAUTE, IN - The No. 11 Iona College men's cross country team finished tied for eighth place at the 2009 NCAA Championship race at the LaVern Gibson Championship XC Course. The Gaels extended their streak to eight straight Top 10 national finishes.
Sophomores Ryan Sheridan and Alexander Soderberg paced the Maroon & Gold and qualified for All-American honors. Sheridan finished 12th overall (team score 11) with his time of 29:47.4. Sheridan ran with the lead pack for virtually the entire race. Soderberg was 35th overall (team score 31) with a strong time of 30:19.3. He picked up nearly 30 spots in the standings over the last 5k. Sophomore Matt Bayley was the Gaels third scorer in 77th place (team score 65). Juniors Jason Weller (125th/100 TS) and Josh Hibbs (178th/144 TS) rounded out Iona's scoring quintet. Rookies Thorsten Baumeister and Craig Murphy also competed for Iona in the 10k event.
Junior Samuel Chelanga from Liberty was the race winner setting a course record with a time of 28:41.3 and finishing nearly 25 seconds in front of the second place finisher. Chelanga set a grueling pace to begin the first kilometer that was tough to keep up with and broke away from Sheridan in the first pack.
With 350 points, the Gaels finished tied for eighth with New Mexico. They were four points ahead of No. 1 ranked Stanford, who finished 10th overall. Just ahead of Iona was Wisconsin with a team score of 321. Oklahoma State topped all other competitors for the team title. After finishing second at Regionals, the Gaels were the top Northeast squad at the event, finishing six spots ahead of Syracuse. The Orange knocked off the Maroon & Gold in Boston nine days ago. Providence finished 20th overall.
Iona has finished in the Top 10 at nationals in each of the last eight seasons with five top four finishes during the stretch. After back-to-back runner up finishes, Iona graduated three important seniors after 2008. With three sophomores, two juniors and two freshman representing the Gaels in 2009, the squad will look to continue the "Tradition of Excellence" into the 2010 cross country season.