RIVERDALE, N.Y. - The No. 27 Iona University men's cross country team captured the 2023 NCAA Northeast Regional Championship with its first-place team finish at Van Cortlandt Park. All five scorers for the Gaels finished in the Top 15 as the program captured its ninth-ever regional title and first since 2012, upsetting No. 8 Syracuse and No. 15 Harvard for the top spot in the Northeast. Junior Damien Dilcher and senior Joshua DeSouza crossed second and third to pace the Maroon & Gold to an automatic berth into next weekend's NCAA Championship.

THE RUNDOWN

Dilcher and DeSouza finished the 10k event within a second of each other at 29:40.1 and 29:40.8 respectively. Harvard's Graham Blanks was first in 29:31.6. Sophomore Lachlan Wellington (29:55.4) and junior Nick Soldevere (29:57.4) also finished back-to-back in 10th and 11th place as the squad's third and fourth scorers. Sophomore Matt Rankin was the team's fifth scorer in 14th place with his time of 30:00.5. Sophomore Tadhg Donnelly and senior Jonathan DeSouza were 36th and 44th respectively.

TEAM SCORES

With a team score of 40, the Gaels beat favorites Harvard by 17 and Syracuse by 57 in the event.  Providence (145) and Cornell (161) rounded out the top five in the 37-team race field.

REGIONAL/NCAA HISTORY

Iona's previous Northeast Regional titles came in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2012.  They return to the NCAA Championship as a team for the first time since the 2020-21 championship.  From 2002-2016 the program finished in the top ten nationally 14 out of 15 seasons and finished on the podium five times from 2003-2008 with two second place, a third place and two fourth place finishes.

UP NEXT

The 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championship takes place in Charlottesville, Virginia next Saturday, November 18.

IONA PERFORMERS

Pl.	Name	Year	Time
2.)	Damien Dilcher	JR	29:40.1
3.)	Joshua DeSouza	SR	29:40.8
10.)	Lachlan Wellington	SO	29:55.4
11.)	Nick Soldevere	JR	29:57.4
14.)	Matt Rankin	SO	30:00.5
36.)	Tadhg Donnelly	SO	30:24.3
44.)	Jonathan DeSouza	SR	30:32.3

TOP 15 FINISHERS

Pl.	Name	Team	Year	Time
1.)	Graham Blanks	Harvard	JR	29:31.6
2.)	Damien Dilcher	Iona	JR	29:40.1
3.)	Joshua DeSouza	Iona	SR	29:40.8
4.)	Perry Mackinnon	Syracuse	SR	29:43.4
5.)	Acer Iverson	Harvard	SR	29:48.9
6.)	Michael Morgan	Providence	JR	29:51.2
7.)	Benjamin Godish	Northeastern	JR	29:51.7
8.)	Ben Rosa	Harvard	JR	29:54.5
9.)	Abdel Laadjel	Providence	JR	29:55.0
10.)	Lachlan Wellington	Iona	SO	29:55.4
11.)	Nick Soldevere	Iona	JR	29:57.4
12.)	Sam Lawler	Syracuse	SO	29:57.9
13.)	Sean Kay	Yale	JR	29:58.2
14.)	Matt Rankin	Iona	SO	30:00.5
15.)	Damian Hackett	Cornell	JR	30:04.4

TEAM SCORES

Pl.	Team	Score
1.)	Iona	40
2.)	Harvard	57
3.)	Syracuse	97
4.)	Providence	145
5.)	Cornell	161
6.)	Yale	165
7.)	Columbia	244
8.)	Northeastern	253
9.)	Stony Brook	257
10.)	Boston University	290
11.)	Army	330
12.)	UMass Lowell	375
13.)	Central Connecticut	425
14.)	Umass	434
15.)	Maine	435
16.)	Dartmouth	460
17.)	Boston College	504
18.)	Hofstra	558
19.)	Binghamton	563
20.)	Rhode Island	573
21.)	Buffalo	580
22.)	Fordham	621
23.)	Brown	646
24.)	Canisius	660
25.)	New Hampshire	699
26.)	Siena	742
27.)	Merrimack	751
28.)	Bryant	776
29.)	Marist	807
30.)	Vermont	825
31.)	Colgate	833
32.)	St. Bonaventure	840
33.)	LIU	1002
34.)	Niagara	1016
35.)	Sacred Heart	1039
36.)	Quinnipiac	1115
37.)	Fairfield	1139

SOCIAL MEDIA

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