Hofstra men's cross country wins elusive CAA title behind Kenya's Freddie Kipkosgei
Hofstra's Freddie Kipkosgei at the 2025 NCAA cross country championships. Credit: Hofstra Athletics/Andrew Weitzel
A pipeline that spans over 7,000 miles helped end the drought in Hempstead.
Hofstra’s men’s cross country program is relatively young, with not much history attached to it. Its record book only goes back to 1999. Throughout the program’s existence, it had never reached the top as a team — until now. With some homegrown talent infused with three stars from Kenya, the Pride won the CAA championship.
Led by freshman Freddie Kipkosgei, Hofstra scored 44 points to win the title at the conference’s championship meet at Ocean County Park in Lakewood, N.J. on Halloween.
Kipkosgei is one of three Kenyans who helped steer the Pride to their first team conference title. He won the individual championship on the 8-kilometer course in 23 minutes, 1.6 seconds.
Though Kipkosgei’s native city of Eldoret is around 7,200 miles from Hofstra, he has found himself a home away from home on Long Island. And he is proud to have brought that new home a title.
“Being here opens up a lot of opportunities [for] me; I get to learn a lot,” Kipkosgei said. “Also being in class and balancing academics and athletics has been so good to me, and I’m happy to be at Hofstra.”
Kipkosgei’s individual glory continued at the NCAA Northeast Regional on the 10-kilometer course at Hopkinton State Fairgrounds in Contoocook, New Hampshire on Nov. 14. He won that race in 29:12.7 to qualify for the NCAA Division I Championships at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Missouri on Nov. 22, where he was 38th out of 259 finishers in 29:04.9, earning All-America honors.
Coach Vince Giambanco, an Oyster Bay native, has eyes and ears for this kind of talent. Shortly after graduating from Miami in 2009, Giambanco met two Kenyan distance runners at a road race, Stephen Sambu and Lawi Lalang. The pair went to Arizona and explained how they were recruited by coaches from American colleges.
Soon thereafter, Giambanco traveled to Kenya with them, and they introduced him to several local coaches and trainers, allowing him to build a strong network. Since taking the Hofstra job in 2014, Giambanco has been able to tap into those connections in Kenya and bring in several stars, such as Alex Masai — who won the program’s first individual CAA championship in 2018 — and Meshack Kipchirchir, who once held the school’s 8K record.
Kipkosgei landed on Giambanco’s radar several years before he graduated high school. But while he was developing in Eldoret, patience was beginning to wear thin in Hempstead. In 2022, Stony Brook moved into the CAA and won the team title in each of its first three years in the conference. The Pride entered 2025 with zero team titles in 24 years of CAA action.
That bothered senior Abraham Longosiwa, another Eldoret native who rose through Hofstra’s ranks to become its team captain this year. He spent his first three years watching the Pride’s rival win the CAA. He knew of Kipkosgei from training with him in Kenya. Realizing that Kipkosgei was about to graduate high school, Longosiwa made his voice heard.
“We were behind Stony Brook all the time, and I was like, what’s going on here?” Longosiwa said. “I told Coach that I think we need to do something for us to get this title . . . I think we need to be on top.”
So, Giambanco courted Kipkosgei through WhatsApp, talked to him over the phone and got him to come to Hempstead. He also brought in a second freshman from Kenya: Abel Kipkemboi of Kapsabet.
The three Kenyans helped bring home what Longosiwa wanted. Not only did Kipkosgei win at the CAA championship, but Longosiwa took second in 23:25.6 and Kipkemboi placed 11th in 24:06.5.
Between Longosiwa and Kipkemboi was a familiar face: Teammate Jason Kerber of Oceanside. Now a sophomore, Kerber improved throughout the year to become the team’s third runner. He placed ninth at the conference meet in 24:03.1. Freshman Noah Zeitzer took 21st place to secure the team win.
“It felt great to do it for the guys who have been here for a while, like Abraham or Coach,” Kerber said. “I thought more about them while running because this has been a long time coming for them.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
