Riverdale, NY- Iona College men's cross country senior Richard Kiplagat (Marakwet, Kenya) shattered a meet record with a time of 23:54.4 and finished first at the 11th Annual Br. John “Paddy” Doyle Meet of Champions. Kiplagat finished ahead of Arkansas' Shawn Forrest by more than seven seconds and fell just 3.4 seconds shy of the Van Cortlandt Park 8k collegiate record. The seventh ranked Gaels finished behind Arkansas, whose scorers finished from second through sixth place.

Kiplagat's time was 23 seconds faster than Sammy Myamongo's 24:17 during the 1997 Meet of Champs. Myamongo ran for Life TC. Former Gael standout Peter Riley's time of 24:31 was Iona's previous best finish at the MOC. Kiplagat fell three seconds shy of the 8k Collegiate record at Van Cortlandt Park. Penn's David Merrick set the mark of 23:51 in 1975 and was matched by Penn State's Eric Carter in '86. The senior harrier's time topped his own school record by 32 seconds at Van Cortlandt Park.

Forrest's time of 24:01 also came in under Myamongo's in one of the fastest races in the meet's 11-year history. The top seven finishers in the race each earned a Top 30 time in the Meet of Champs record book.

Senior Stephan Chemlany (Kapsokwony, Kenya) was the Gaels second finisher, coming in seventh place (24:59.5) and setting a personal best at VCP. Junior Frank Corrigan (East Northport, NY) also set a personal record and finished 16th with a time of 25:16.3. Freshman Mohamed Khadroui (Patterson, NJ) and junior Adam Hortian (Waterloo, Ontario) finished back-to-back in 26th and 27th place to round out the Gael scorers.

The Gaels failed to finish first at their own meet for just the second time in the last four years.

Iona returns to action in two weeks at Van Cortlandt Park at the Metropolitan Championships on Oct. 7.

Other Gael Finishers: 46. Chase Pizzonia, 26:12.