The St. John’s cross country team headed over to Old Westbury for the first NYIT Invite this past weekend and came away with the top four individual placers. Sophomore Antonia Howard placed first overall at the meet with a 5K time of 19:26.56. The following three runners were all Johnnies: Melissa Hidalgo, Stephanie Gerland and Therese Gallagher.
“Our team was awesome today,” head coach Jim Hurt said to RedStormSports.com. “Having Melissa Hidalgo back with us gave our team a big boost and she was sensational as she cruised to a second-place finish.”
Hidalgo finished with a time of 20:30.17 to earn her personal record. Gerland and Gallagher followed in at almost the same time behind Hidalgo, 20:33.45 and 20:33.90 respectively, to capture 3rd and 4th place overall. Jackie Gallagher and Shannon Page also finished in the top-12 to score a few points for the team with times of 20:59.30 and 22:33.37 respectively. J. Gallagher took 7th and Page grabbed 11th.
St. John’s runners also claimed the 13th, 14th, 18th, and 19th places. Sophomores Eboni Birch and Nicole McCarthy ran closely with one another taking 13th and 14th respectively, while freshman Melissa Greaves and sophomore Bailey Brewer took the last two Red Storm finishing spots.
Altogether, the Johnnies put together a strong performance at the Old Westbury campus course, bringing home the first NYIT Invite title and some impressive times.
The SJU Cross Country team’s next race will be in the Bronx at Van Cortlandt Park for the Metropolitan Championships on October 7.
