Iona College men's indoor track junior Leonard Korir won the 2011 NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field 5,000-meter national championship this evening at Texas A&M University. Korir becomes the first national champion in Iona athletics history.

"That was phenomenal," said an ecstatic head coach Ricardo Santos. "Lenny has worked extremely hard this year and it has paid off. Both the coaching staff and Lenny believed he could do it and he went out there, gritted his teeth and wouldn't give up the lead, simply awesome."

Korir blazed a time of 13:26.01 setting a new NCAA Championship and Iona College record in the 5k event. The previous championship standard was 13:28.93, set on Mar. 14, 2003 by Arkansas' Alistair Cragg. Iona's record was held by standout graduate Richard Kiplagat, a time of 13:39.87 set at the Tyson Invitational in 2006. Korir's time was nearly four seconds faster than Craig's mark and nearly 14 seconds faster than Kiplagat's time.

Korir finished nearly a second faster than the No. 2 competitor in the race, Liberty's Sam Chelanga. Arizona's Stephen Sambu was third in 13:28.48. In the fall, Korir finished fourth at the NCAA Cross Country Championship behind both Chelanga and Sambu.

The junior from Iten, Kenya has had a historic 2010-11 campaign thus far. Korir was the MAAC Champion, NCAA Northeast Regional Champion and All-American during the cross country season this fall. On the indoor track, he ran the fastest 3000-meter time in the world at the time at the BU Terrier Invitational in late January. Three weeks later, Korir ran now the third fastest 5k time in school history at the UW Husky Classic to qualify for the NCAA race. Korir was named the MAAC's Most Outstanding Performer on Feb. 18 after finishing first in the mile and anchoring the distance medley relay quartet to a championship.

Korir will attempt to win a second NCAA title tomorrow when he competes in the 3000-meter event. The race takes place at 7:55 pm ET at Texas A&M.