Gael Force Winds In Wisco

Much of the nation's top collegiate talent — in fact, two-thirds of the country's ranked teams — were in Madison, Wis., on Friday vying for the title at the adidas Wisconsin Invitational. And the teams from New York didn't just prove their rankings, they likely improved them.

The Iona Gaels nearly stole the show on the men's side as Scottish grad student Matthew Gillespie led the way to a close second-place finish behind surprising Stanford, which was led by Jim and Joe Rosa of New Jersey. Gillespie finished behind the Arizona duo of Lawi Lalang and Stephen Sambu and ahead of Texas A&M's Henry Lelei. Gillespie's teammate Mitch Goose was eighth overall.

"We had a good race. The guys ran very well and controlled, but there is a lot of the season left," said Iona Coach Ricardo Santos. "We will continue to keep an even keel and go race-to-race as we try to improve every time out building towards the post season."

After Iona came Oklahoma and Texas followed by the emerging Columbia Lions, led by senior Mike Murphy, who was 22nd overall. Among the teams that the No. 17 Light Blue defeated were No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 5 Portland, No. 10 Syracuse, No. 11 Princeton and No. 13 Notre Dame.

"Today was the greatest single team performance in Columbia men's cross country history," said Coach Willy Wood. "We beat many of the nation's most storied programs. Today, we took a giant step forward and have joined the ranks of the nation's very best programs. We have legitimized ourselves as one of the top-10 programs in the nation."

Speaking of top 10, another Ivy team from New York — the Cornell women — also quieted any doubters by finishing a close fifth overall, defeating 15 ranked teams along the way. Led by senior Katie Kellner, the Big Red would expect to jump a few places from the lofty No. 9 ranking with which it entered the meet. Columbia's women, on the other hand, is likely to fall from the ratings after a sub-par performance without star Waverly Neer.

But the women from Yale will likely move way up from 30th after finishing ahead of seven ranked teams. The top women's teams at the adidas Wisconsin Invitational were Iowa State, Stanford (with Aisling Cuffe finishing 25th), Arizona and Washington.

WOMEN

1. (5) Iowa State, 109; 2. (7) Stanford, 181; 3. (2) Arizona, 242; 4. (3) Washington, 252; 5. (9) Cornell, 264; 6. (28) Providence, 265; 7. (—) Duke, 364; 8. (14) Penn State, 383; 9. (10) Michigan State, 420; 10. (13) Weber State, 439; 11. (19) New Mexico, 457; 12. (16) Notre Dame, 468; 13. (30) Yale & (15) Toledo, 469; 15. (—) UCLA, 472; 16. (21) Boston College & (27) Minnesota, 482; 18. (12) Vanderbilt, 489; 19. (—) UConn, 510; 20. (20) San Francisco, 531; 21. (26) N.C. State, 551; 22. (—) Syracuse, 595; 23. (—) Harvard, 608; 24. (—) BYU, 620; 25. (—) Princeton, 626.

MEN

1. (8) Stanford, 135; 2. (5) Iona, 145; 3. (4) Oklahoma, 166; 4. (22) Texas, 267; 5. (17) Columbia & (19) Arkansas, 308; 7. (24) Michigan, 338; 8. (28) New Mexico, 350; 9. (20) Eastern Kentucky, 379; 10. (27) UCLA, 381; 11. (10) Syracuse, 402; 12. (5) Portland, 407; 13. (18) Northern Arizona, 447; 14. (11) Princeton, 449; 15. (26) Indiana, 462; 16. (—) Iowa State, 487; 17. (1) Wisconsin, 489; 18. (24) Georgia, 505; 19. (—) Texas A&M, 512; 20. (—) Kansas, 526; 21. (—) Arizona State, 528; 22. (—) Washington & (16) Minnesota, 542; 24. (—) Illinois, 545; 25. (—) Arizona, 608.