Led by freshman Michelle Duffy and sophomore Sarah Sudbury, the
St. John’s cross country team finished 18th out of 21 teams on Saturday at the Iona Meet of Champions in Van
Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
Coming off a victory at its first meet at the Hofstra Invitational September 5, the Red Storm struggled in its first 6K race of the season. Harvard freshman Sammy Silva won the race in 22:35.43 and led Harvard to a victory at the meet.
Duffy made a big difference in the Red Storm’s standings on Saturday. In the team’s first meet, she finished third on the team, and she placed first among St. John’s runners Saturday with a time of 25:04.10, placing 80th overall out of 186 runners.
Sudbury has been a consistently solid runner for the Johnnies so far this season. Finishing second on the team at Hofstra, she finished second for the team again on Saturday with a time of 25:34.40,
finishing 113th overall.
“The main pre-race strategy was that we needed to get out fast because it
narrowed down right away,” Sudbury said. She also noted that this strategy would be difficult to execute because of the team’s placement in a middle lane.
“It didn’t really work, but everyone ended up getting strung out in the end,” she said, “so I think it was better that we didn’t get out hard and die.”
Despite the poor team finish, however, Sudbury said that the team is drawing some positives from the race.
“Normally, we don’t run a 6K until later
in the season, so I think it was good to see where everyone was at because all of the big championship races are 6K’s,” Sudbury said.
The experience in a 6K race will prove crucial to the team’s goals. Sudbury said that the team “wants to crack the top 10 Big East, and hopefully land the
Metropolitan Championship.” With these targets in mind, Sudbury said “It will help later in the season getting through longer races…The team can be more
comfortable running as a group.”
Individually, Sudbury has goals of finishing in the top 25 runners in the Big East and continuing to improve upon her times. Sudbury said that this meet helped her towards her individual goals because when, “tackling those 3.86 miles, the more you do it, the easier it is
going to be.”
Senior Pamela Petruski finished right on the heels of freshman Stephanie Barnes. Barnes finished 121st overall in 25:54.04 while Petruski was the 123rd runner to finish with a time over 25:55.20. Junior Lori Dougherty finished 140th overall in 26:28.85.
Rounding out the field for the
Johnnies were Nicole Cocozza,
Kayla Regulski, and Katrina Schaefer, who finished 153rd, 154th, and
171st, respectively.
The Red Storm’s next meet will be October 3 at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University.