Dubliner Mick Byrne's Iona Gaels men's team is ranked at #3 in the most current poll (21st October). Byrne's squad competed on Friday, 31st October in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships. The Gaels had little trouble capturing its 13th consecutive MAAC team title at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York. The 13 straight team titles is the third longest cross country conference championship streak in the country, behind Arkansas and the University of Portland. Iona totaled 17 points en route to capturing the team award with Marist placed second (60 points) and Manhattan was third (80 points).

The top finisher for Iona was junior Nigel Wray, from Oshawa, Ontario, who led virtually the entire five-mile race, finishing in a personal-best time of 24.47.1. It was the ninth-fastest time in MAAC Championship history and 10th best all-time in Iona College history at Van Cortlandt Park. Following behind Wray was teammate and fellow Canadian Adam Hortian (Waterloo, Ontario) who placed second in a personal-best 25.06.6. Sophomore Stephen Chemlany (Kapsokwony, Kenya) was third in 25.08.5. Manhattan's Tyler Raymond broke up the Gael sweep, finishing in fourth place. Iona took the next four spots, with each runner setting personal-bests. Junior Chris Mammone (Valley Stream, New York) was fifth (25.56), freshman Eddie Baynes (Pine Beach, New Jersey) finished sixth (25.58.9), sophomore Frank Corrigan (East Northport, New York) placed seventh (26.14.1) and sophomore Bryan Becherini (Spokane, Washington) was eighth (26.18.6). The Gaels placed eight runners in the top 10 of the race and 12 in the top 15.

Byrne had the luxury of holding out some of his top runners keeping them fresh for the two 10k races in 10 days that they'll face in a fortnight. The three Irish runners, Mark Smyth, from Sligo, Joe McAlister (Belfast, North Ireland) and Sean Connolly (Tallaght, Co Dublin) all sat out this meet along with top runner and Richard Kiplagat (Marakwet, Kenya). Kiplagat is among the favourites for the individual title at the NCAA Championships.

Byrne has just begun a serious attempt at building a women's team that can compete at the national level. Armed with only three scholarships this season, his first goal was to win the women's team title at the MAAC Championships, a title Iona has only won once (2001) in the 19 years that women have competed. They fell just short of that goal placing second with 52 points, 6 points behind winner Loyola College (NY) and 17 points clear of third place Siena College with 69 points.

Sophomore Emmily Chelanga (Marakwet, Kenya) secured individual honours for the Gaels in her first-ever race in an Iona vest. She covered the six-kilometre course in a time of 21.26.8.

Teammate Michelle Gallagher (San Francisco, California) finished behind Chelanga in second place, clocking 21.48.2, her first 6k race since last year's Irish Inter Clubs race in February. Gallagher (Dundrum South Dundrum) ran on the Irish team at the 2002 World Cross Country Championships in Dublin and has placed third at the Inter Clubs in 2002 and 2003.

Freshman Lauren Simeson (Oshawa, Ontario) was seventh in 23.06.0, while junior Frances Russell (Mansfield, Connecticut) was 11th in 23.20.9. Sophomore Lisa Sbarbaro (Staten Island, New York) rounded out the Gael scorers in 31st place.

The Iona College men and women's teams return to action on November 15 at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship at Franklin Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Irish Runner.com will be on hand to cover the meet.