Korir Finishes Third, Iona Ninth at the NCAA Cross Country Championship
MAAC Sports
TERRE HAUTE, IN - Iona College men's cross country senior Leonard Korir finished third
overall and paced the Gaels to a ninth place finish at the 2011 NCAA Championship. It was the team's tenth straight top-10 finish at the national championship.
Korir finished the 10k course with a time of 29:02.5, 38 seconds faster than his time last year and just 18 seconds behind winner Lawi Lalang from the University of Arizona. Stanford's Chris Derrick finished second overall. The race capped off another superb season for Korir that saw him earn his second-straight individual titles at both the MAAC Championship and the NCAA Regional NCAA Regional Championship.
Senior Mitch Goose was the Gaels No.2 finisher, completing the course 40th overall in 30:12.4 to earn All-American honors. Junior Matt Bayley was close behind him in 44th with a time of 30:17.4. Iona's last two scorers, seniors Alex Soderberg (30:55.9) and Jason Weller (31:09.2) finished 116th and 143rd respectively.
Wisconsin earned the team title with 97 points. Other teams finishing ahead of Iona were Oklahoma State, Colorado, BYU, Stanford, Oklahoma, Indiana and Portland. North Carolina State finished behind Iona and was the last team to round out the top 10.