NYU wins Div III, Iona nearly does the same in Div I
It has been quite a week of cross country for New Yorkers.
For the first time ever, a New York City-area team has won one of the national collegiate championships. Nick McDonough’s NYU men’s team won the Division III title last Saturday in Northfield, Minn.
Mick Byrne’s Iona Gaels nearly pulled it off as well two days later against the big boys, finishing a close 2nd to the Oregon Ducks in the Div I championships in Terre Haute, Ind. It was the highest NCAA finish ever, in any sport, for Iona.
And the winner of the Div I men’s race was Josh McDougal, a senior at Liberty University in Virginia, who won a thrilling stretch drive from Oregon’s Galen Rupp, reminding us of the great head-to-head race the two had over 2 miles on the Armory track when they were seniors in high school, in 2004.
McDougal is also a New Yorker. He grew up upstate in Peru, where he was home-schooled. That makes him the first New Yorker to win the men’s cross country championship since 1952, when Charles Capozzoli won the race for Georgetown. Capozzoli graduated from Bayside, Queens in 1949, and ran the 5,000 in the 1952 Olympics. (Jen Rhines, a New Yorker as well, won the women’s race for Villanova in 1994.)
Div III
NYU upset favored Calvin College, which had been ranked No.1 all season. Calvin and NYU had finished 1-2 in 2006. This year Calvin finished 4th, behind NYU (128), Haverford College (150) and SUNY Cortland (158).
Cortland actually puts its 4th man inside of NYU’s (32 to 34) but slipped to 77th place for its 5th runner. “It was a war, a real war,” McDonough said.
NYU’s scorers were Hany Abdallah (6), Jesse Schneider (16), Spenser Popeson (33), James McCarthy (34) and Ryan Williams (39). Four are seniors, including Habdallah, who is from Madison, N.J.
“I hit a wall in the first mile,” Abdallah said. “I knew individually that I wasn’t going to win, but I knew I had to tough it out for the team. I just wasn’t sure we had done enough to win it.”
The individual winner was Tyler Sigl of Wisconsin/Platteville. Others in the top 10 included Peter Kosgei of Hamilton College, 2nd; Erik Donohue of St. Lawrence, 6th, Shamus Nally of Cortland, 8th, and Abdallah in 9th. Seth DuBois of Cortland was 19th.
The race was run in cold, blustery conditions over 8K.
Other scoring teams included Williams College 10th, Geneseo 22nd, College of New Jersey 28th and Trinity (Conn.) 29th.
It was the first NCAA championship for NYU since the school won the women’s Div III basketball championship in 1997. In cross country, the school actually finished 2nd one year, during its heyday, in 1946, the same year it was 3rd in the NCAA track and field championships. NYU has a long tradition of greatness in track. It has won 25 Penn Relays championships, though none since 1962, and its alumni include such luminaries as Dr. Philip Edwards, Jimmy Herbert, Dr. Byron Dyce, George Spitz, Lesley MacMitchell, Larry Ellis, Sol Furth, Reggie Pearman and Irv (Moon) Mondschein.
The women’s championship was won by Amherst College of Massachusetts (120), defeating Plattsburgh State (159). Amherst, coached by the former miler Erik Nedeau, had lost to Middlebury by 1 point a year earlier.
The individual winner was Sarah Zerzan of Willamette, repeating as champion. Zerzan is a brilliant straight-A student in premed.
The runnerup was Liz Montgomery of Geneseo, which placed 5th in the team standings. Plattsburgh was led by Allison Busby (8th) and Toni Wiszowaty (10th). Meghan Nolan was 14th for Geneseo, Erin Fisher 15th for Elizabethtown (Pa.). Other scoring teams included Williams 14th, Middlebury 15th, Ithaca College 20th, CNJ 22nd, Elizabethtown 23rd, Haverford 26th and Johns Hopkins 29th.
Div II
The East has only a handful of schools in this division. Slippery Rock finished 9th and Edinboro 14th in the men’s race, which was won by Abilene Christian of Texas. Evans Kigen of New York Tech was 8th individually.
The women’s race was won by Adams State of Colorado; Bloomsburg was 15th, Edinboro 20th. The individual winner was Jessica Pixler of Seattle Pacific, coached by the former world cross country champion, Doris Heritage.
Div I
For Iona, it was the highest finish in the cross country championships by an NYC school since NYU’s runnerup finish in ’46. The Gaels made it close, too, losing by just 85-113 to the Ducks, who had been ranked as the nation’s No. 1 team most of the year.
“The guys executed the game plan to perfection,” Coach Byrne said. “I have to give a ton of credit to Coach Vin Lananna and the Oregon team for running a tremendous race.
“It is a very special day for Iona College and the cross country program and I’m extremely proud of our kids for the job they did this afternoon.”
Iona squeezed all 5 of its scorers between 14th and 45th place. Mathew Kiplagat, the No. 5 runner, moved up 40 places during the second half of the 10k race. Iona had been reported as standing in 5th place halfway, then in 2nd and just 17 points behind at 8k.
McDougal won the race in 29:22.4, 1 second ahead of Rupp. In 3rd place, well back, was another New Yorker, Lopez Lomong of Northern Arizona. Lomong, a native of Sudan, grew up in Tully, N.Y., where he had been adopted by an American family. Rob Curtis of Villanova was 4th.
Iona’s scorers were Abraham Ng’etich (14th), Mohamed Khadraoui (25th), Andrew Ledwith (31st), Harbert Okuti (38th) and Kiplagat. Three are juniors. Oregon, whose team is all underclass, also placed Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott in the top 10. Its No. 5 runner, Daniel Mercado, survived a scare early in the race when he was pushed from behind and fell. He got up quickly, however, and eventually finished ahead of Kiplagat.
Other Eastern finishers included Virginia (12th), Georgetown (13th), William & Mary (15th), Notre Dame (21st), Villanova (25th) and Providence (27th). Individuals included Princeton’s Michael Maag (59th), David Nightingale (73rd) and Ben Sitler (212th); Hakon Devries (90th) for Stanford, Gavin Coombs (115th) and John Martinez (151st) for NC State, Brendan Fennell (119th) for American, freshman Craig Forys (121st) for Michigan, Kevin Tschirhart (200th) for Virginia and John Mickowski (207th) for Army.
For Oregon, it was their 5th title overall, their first in 30 years. Only Arkansas, Michigan State and UTEP have won more in men’s cross country. For Lananna, it was his first national championship for the Ducks after winning in cross country and track previously at Stanford. After the race he received a congratulatory hug from Phil Knight, the founder of Nike and an Oregon grad, who was on hand to cheer on his alma mater.
Women The Ducks put a scare into Stanford in the women’s race as well before the heavily favored Cardinal prevailed, 145-177, for their 3rd consecutive championship. Stanford’s West Regional champion, Teresa McWalters, collapsed near the end of the race and crawled across the finish line, and wound up their No. 5 scorer.
New York native Nicole Blood, now a sophomore at Oregon, finished 8th for the Ducks, one place ahead of Stanford’s first finisher, senior Ari Lambie. Lambie and McWalters had gone 1-2 at the Pac-10 last month, with Blood well back in 4th.
It was the 5th cross country title overall for Stanford Coach Peter Tegen – he also won twice for Wisconsin in the 1980s – and also the 5th for the Stanford women overall. Only Villanova has won more women’s cross country championships. Marty Stern coached 5 of those winning teams for Nova.
Pac-10 schools went 1-2-4-8, and of course won both finals.
Lauren Centrowitz wound up 36th for Stanford and earned another NCAA championship, just as her father, Matt, had done for the 1977 Oregon team. Lauren’s younger brother, Matthew, a freshman at Oregon, was in Terre Haute as the alternate for the race, but he did not run.
Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech repeated as individual winner, defeating Jenny Barringer of Colorado by 17 seconds and setting a course record over the 6k distance. Emily Harrison of Virginia was 6th and Melissa Grelli of Georgetown 10th.
The top Eastern team was West Virginia, the Big East champions, in 9th place, followed by Princeton (14th), Duke (24th), Providence (26th), Georgetown (28th) and Stony Brook (31st).
Other top individuals included Carmen Ballard of Columbia (23rd), Lindsay Donaldson of Yale (38th), Christy Johnson of Princeton (41st), Bridget Franek of Penn State (57th), Liz Maloy of Georgetown (79th), Jessica Hampson of Stony Brook (87th), freshman Ashley Higginson for Princeton (94th), McKayla Plank for Iona (98th), Lindsay Sundell for Florida (118th), freshman Danielle Tauro of Michigan (177th), Cheyenne Ogletree of Rutgers (195th), Virginia freshman Catherine White for Arkansas (199th) and New Yorker Aislinn Ryan for Colorado (208th).
IC4A
The Georgetown men won the IC4A championships on Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park, defeating Duke 38-73. New Hampshire won the ECAC women’s race.
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NICOLE BLOOD PHOTO BY KIM SPIR