Arrigoni Hall of Fame
Ricardo M. Santos '00 entered the Iona College Goal Club Hall of Fame as both an outstanding student-athlete and one of the most decorated coaches in Iona College athletics history.
As a coach, Santos accumulated 17 Coach of the Year honors. His programs achieved nine top 10 finishes at the NCAA Cross Country championship including eight for the men and one for the women in 2014, the first time the women’s team accomplished the feat; two men’s and one women’s NCAA Northeast Regional Cross Country Championships and ten men’s and nine women’s MAAC Cross Country Championships. Following the completion of his tenure as leader of the program, the Gaels won 27 straight MAAC titles, of which Santos was a part of 18, including four as a student-athlete, four as an assistant coach and 10 as head coach.
In total, 38 student-athletes achieved All-America honors under Santos’ direction. Two student-athletes were crowned NCAA champion on three occasions including Leonard Korir in the 2011 indoor 5,000-meter and outdoor 10,000-meter events and Kate Avery at the 2014 NCAA cross country event. Santos mentored 124 MAAC individual champions, 148 NCAA qualifiers in cross country & track, five All-Americans and 95 named All-East performers. Three of his former student-athletes competed as Olympians in the 2016 Rio Games: Anna Baumeister for Denmark, Leonard Korir for Team USA and Maya Rehberg for Team Germany.
As a student-athlete, Santos was a 1998 NCAA Division I Cross Country All-American. In 1996 and 1998 he was crowned MAAC Cross Country Champion. He was the 1998 New York State Collegiate Runner of the Year as selected by New England Runner. In 1999, Santos earned Iona College’s Joseph O’Connell Award as the most outstanding senior student-athlete. In total, he was a nine-time All-East selection, achieved 11 MAAC individual and relay championships, was crowned an IC4A champion three times, was an 11-time All-MAAC selection, and was named to four MAAC All-Academic teams from 1997-2000.
