Informed collegiate cross country fans and athletes alike anticipated an epoch battle between Providence College's Fagan and Iona's Richard Kiplagat the Northeast Region Championship in Boston on 12th November. Both athletes had brilliant performances on the historic trails of Van Cortlandt Park in New York this fall.

Kiplagat smashed the Iona College Meet of Champions record in September running 23:54.4 while Fagan broke the 27-year old course record running the 23.48 to win the Big East title a fortnight ago.

Competing against each other on Boston's Franklin Park course over 10-kilometres created a quandary for Fagan and Kiplagat.

Both athletes wanted to win the individual honours but will be also be hoping for a top 10 finish at the upcoming NCAA Championships which takes place in just ten days and they don't want to jeopardise their chances with a draining race.

The race began predictably with Fagan going to the front with Kiplagat hiding in his shadow on the tree-lined portion of the course. The surprising news was that Fagan didn't blast away from the field but instead ran at a relaxed pace. The rest of the athletes expecting a mercuric pace allowed the pair to create a measurable gap. During the race the duo could be seen chatting as they ran together. There was no injection of pace; no gauntlet was thrown down, just a hard run between two runners that share mutual respect.

The 10-kilometre race came down to a 200-metre sprint. Kiplagat pulled a way from Fagan who was a bit more fatigued being the workhorse for most of the race. Both athletes were relieved that they could do battle without leaving next week's race on the course.

Competing in a series of tough races is nothing new to Fagan who this summer two 5k races and a 10k in a 10-day period culminating with his first individual Irish Track Championship in the 5,000m.

The maturation of Martin Fagan continues. Fagan did everything right at the Regional race except win as he was unable outsprint Kiplagat to the finishing line. The Mullingar man was in good spirits after the race commenting, "The race felt easy. We were both relaxed. I just couldn't get away in the end. I'm not upset losing to him [Kiplagat], he's a great runner."

Iona's Andrew Ledwith, from Co Meath, placed 12th overall with a time of 30.25.8 and PC's Liam Reale placed 27th in 31.05.3.

In the team competition, Mick Byrne's Iona College men's team finished first with 33 points ahead of Dartmouth (50) and Providence with 67 points for third place. The Iona Gaels won the regional title for the third time in the last four years. Despite not qualifying as team, Providence will have three representatives at the Championships. In addition to Fagan, Max Smith (Dunedin, New Zealand) and Ahmed Haji (West Hartford, Connecticut) each automatically qualified based on their 5th and 8th place performances respectively.

The women's race was nothing like the men's dual. In the race was Columbia's Caroline Bierbaum, who won silver in the 10k at last season's outdoor 10k and placed third at the 2004 Cross Country Championship. She was picked by Track & Field News to win this years NCAA individual crown and with the prediction wears a target on the back of her light blue racing vest. Also competing was Yale's Lindsay Donaldson who was 6th in last season' NCAA cross country event and 6th in the outdoor 5k and Harvard's Lindsey Scherf who placed 4th in the outdoor 10k). Add Friars Fiona Crombie who was 6th in the 3,000m steeplechase and the competition would be fierce.

The women's race was a more like a buzzing swarm of bees than a parade of athletes. The top five finishers were within 7-seconds of each other.

Providence's Fiona Crombie used a gear that she doesn't look like she has to propel herself away from the pack of five runners in the final straightaway winning the 6k event in 20.27. Columbia's Lisa Stublic wasn't fazed by the lofty competition outkicking them to place second just two seconds behind Crombie.

Ray Treacy's Providence women placed third and received an At-Large bid to the Championships. They will be competing in their 17th consecutive NCAA Championships. The Friars were led by senior Fiona Crombie (Christchurch, New Zealand) who captured the individual title in a time of 20.27.

Byrne's Iona women's team had its best finish ever at the Northeast Regional Championship placing 6th overall with a 221 point tally. They were led by Michelle Gallagher who after a tumultuous sophomore season is back in fine form. Gallagher (Dundrum South Dublin) placed 20th in 21.36.1, a personal best on the Franklin Park course and was Iona's number one runner as well. Tracey Williams, from Tallaght, placed 23rd in 22.15.2.

Stony Brook coach Andy Ronan from Wexford narrowly missed having Leonora Joy qualify as an individual for the Championships. Joy, a senior from Auckland, New Zealand ran 21.12.1 to place 12th overall.