The Iona men’s and women’s cross country teams raced in the Brooks Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pa., on Oct. 1.

Senior Josh Hibbs led the men’s team with a 75th place finish in the men’s gold race. Hibbs covered the 8k course in 25:05, while sophomore Christopher Stogsdill placed 129th crossing the line in 25:22. Junior Steve Wood finished 173rd and ran 25:38 in the race that included 365 runners.

The junior pair of Bronson Venable and Colin Culhane were the other scorers for Iona. Venable ran 25:43 and teammate Culhane ran 26:04 for the Gaels. The sixth man for Iona was sophomore Giovanni Signoretti who placed 267th with a time of 26:17.

As a team, the Gaels finished a disappointing 29th out of 42 teams in the gold race. Virginia won the meet with 132 points compared to Iona’s 765 points. 115 teams and more than 1,000 competitors competed in three sections of the men’s event this year at the Brooks Paul Short Run.

On the women’s side, sophomore Marion Joly-Testault made her season debut and placed 49th in the women’s gold race.

Joly-Testault ran well on the 6k course that fielded 366 runners.

In her first collegiate race, freshman Kirsten Stewart was spectacular finishing 61st running 21:40 becoming Iona’s second runner. 

A trio of seniors rounded out the scoring for Iona as Siobhan Dwyer was 126th in 22:21, Kristen Peluso was 128th in 22:22 and Chelsea Brisman was 290th in 23:47.

As a team, the Gaels finished tied for 20th out of 41 teams. Georgetown took the team title dominating the deep field of runners. The Hoyas managed to get 34 points, while second place Virginia only had 98 points. This year 118 teams and more than 1,000 runners competed in three sections of the women’s event.

On Oct. 8, the Gaels continued the season at the New York Metropolitan Championships in Van Cortlandt Park.

The men were led by senior Dave Grange and red shirt freshman Michael Hickey who both finished in the top ten for Iona.

Grange finished the 8k course in 26:18 and placed eighth. Fellow Gael, Hickey, was close behind and finished 10th running 26:24.

Hickey was followed by junior Doug Holt who crossed the line in 26:45 for 24th place. Freshman Brendan Farrell was 45th, while senior John Badolato was 62nd.

The Gaels were able to place fifth out of 14 teams in the race.

Columbia won the meet for the third straight time and took the team title by taking five of the first seven places in the race. NYU, Fordham, Rutgers and Iona completed the top five.

The women’s team was led by a pack of freshmen that included Tara Jameson, Katie Niblock and Courtney Veilleux. Their performances on the 5k course helped lead Iona to a fourth place finish in a strong field of runners.

Jameson and Niblock each made their debuts for the Gaels and were impressive by placing in the top 25.

Jameson finished in 13th place at 19:23, while teammate Niblock was 25th place in 19:35. Veilleux raced in her third race of the year and crossed the line in 19:46 for 32nd place.

Head Coach Ricardo Santos was very satisfied with the team’s performance at Van Cortlandt Park and said, “I was very pleased with the performances of both the men’s and women’s teams. We held out most of your top runners, and let the younger runners gain some experience and they really took advantage of that at METS.”