RIVERDALE, NY – Iona College men’s cross country senior Jake Byrne earned the individual title at the 2014 NCAA Northeast Regional Championship in leading the Gaels to a third place team finish in the race. Byrne finished three seconds ahead of Providence’s Benjamin Connor for first place honors.
With 60 points, the No. 5 Gaels were narrowly defeated by both No. 3 Syracuse (45) and No. 19 Providence (48) in the team standings. For the second straight year, Iona will await the event selection announcement for the NCAA Championship on Sunday in hopes of an at-large berth into the 31-team race field in Terre Haute on Nov. 22. Columbia, last year’s runner up was fourth while Cornell finished fifth in the race.
Byrne completed the 10k course in 30:26.12. Rookie Gilbert Kirui was the Maroon & Gold’s second finisher in 10th place with a time of 30:38.50. Junior Michael O’Dowd and sophomore Kieran Clements followed in 11th (30:39.11) and 12th place (30:39.12), less than a second behind Kirui and one-hundredth of a second apart. Red shirt freshman Brandon Allen finished 26th (31:05.37) to round out the Gael scorers.
Race results here.