By Christopher Hunt
Things may have been a little different leading up to the NCAA championships this season but has much as things may have looked different – they stayed pretty much the same.
Iona College men’s squad finished second for the second consecutive year at the national meet with 147 points behind Oregon, which claimed the national title with 93.
“It went really well,” said red-shirt freshman Ryan Sherdian, who finished 41st overall, one place away from earning all-American. “I thought at worse we’d get third. I just didn’t expect so many other teams to run poorly. I think a lot of the other teams just kind of collapsed.”
Part of that had to do with Oklahoma State, one of the favorites to win the national championship, finished eighth after freshman superstar German Fernandez dropped out with around a mile left an Achilles’ heel injury. Oregon’s Galen Rupp won the individual title in 29:03.2 over the 10-kilometer course at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind. He and Samuel Chelanga of Liberty expectedly broke away early. Chelanga finished second in 29:08.0.
Iona senior Andrew Ledwith came up for third in the last 500 meters, finishing 29:25.4. Teammate Mohamed Khadraoui finished sixth in 29:29.3. Harbert Okuti actually had a sub-par race and finished 46th in 30:23.8 and red-shirt freshman Jason Weller was 88th in 30:48.2.
“We had a good game plan going into the race and the guys went out there and executed the plan,” Iona coach Ricardo Santos said.
“They definitely impressed me,” he said later of Ledwith and Khadraoui. “We knew they could be top 10. Andrew likes to be more aggressive early on. Mo likes to go a little bit off the pace and then works is way up. Just after 2K (Khadraoui) he was probably in the high 30s or low 40s and over the next kilometer and a half he was around the top 15.”
Most predictions didn’t even have Iona making the podium but they were confident all along.
“People see our top three guys are seniors and they see the experience and they forget that our next three guys are red-shirt freshman and they’ve never been to this meet before,” Santos said. “I think their poise and composure surprised people. It didn’t surprise me. But I’m sure it surprised some people.”
Ledwith said that the only major change this season didn’t have much to do with Santos taking over as head coach. He said the team was smarter about how hard they raced and trained leading up to the NCAA championship instead of running each race like it was already nationals. The adjustment from Mick Byrne, who took over as head coach at Wisconsin before the season, to Santos, an Iona grad himself who ran under Byrne, has been a simple one. Because they had a new coach, Ledwith said it forced the team to be more vocal about training and what worked best for them which expedited the process of the coach learning about his athletes.
“It’s definitely been a different experience,” Ledwith said. “Since we’re brought in as freshman, we’re kind of taught so by the time you’re a sophomore you know what you’re doing. You’re not so much being coaches but being guided. We’ve been taught so well. We had no fears that we might suffer.”
Maybe not being listed among the favorites helped relax the team. Maybe having three seniors who have been at the meet three times before helped settle the newcomers, Sheridan, Weller and Chris Vizcaino.
“Walking around, I saw a lot of people walking around like they were going to a funeral,” Sheridan said. “We were cracking jokes in the tent before. I’ve never been stressed on this team.”
And they never doubted they could at least duplicate last year’s performance.
“I knew we were capable of it,” Sheridan said. “It’s just amazing for it to happen.”
With Fernandez out, Okla. State finishes 8th: Oklahoma State opened the door for Iona’s second place finish when standout German Fernandez dropped from the race with 1,500 meters left, hindered by what the university website called “a serious Achilles tendon injury.” (Click here for Jack Pfefier’s story on Oklahoma State coach Dick Weis)
“This was a tough break for us but this is how it goes sometimes,” coach Dave Smith said. “Ryan (Vail) German and John (Kosgei) did a great job of moving up the pack and were in good position when the injury happened. It’s very disappointing, but that’s how it goes. We were looking at a very high finish – probably second or third – but injuries are part of the sport and we have to accept that.”