The Red Storm Track and Field squad won its first title since 1989 by narrowly defeating Rutgers University 147-142
on Jan. 30 at the Metropolitan New Balance Armory in Manhattan.
With a meet that was close all day, the 4×400 meter relay kept both teams glued to the track as St. John’s freshman Shayna Presley ran away with the victory to give the Red Storm the deciding points.
The winning relay team of Rene Cousins, Molly Ellis, Presley and Lauren Wynter recorded a time of 3:50:60. It was a season best and also qualified them for the ECAC Championships.
By the time the meet was finished the team tallied 12 individual performances that were career-bests, six Big East and ECAC qualifiers and five first place finishes.
“I’m so proud of the way we fought throughout the entire meet. We put forth gutsy efforts in every event,” said head coach Jim Hurt. “Today was the perfect example of what college championship track and field is all about.”
Senior Priscilla Frederick was the main story on Friday. She competed in the pentathlon and placed first in all but one event for 3,612 points; a career high that puts her 13th in the nation and 1st in the Big East. She continued her performance Saturday with a win in the high jump, a seventh place finish in both the 60 meter hurdles and long jump and an eighth place finish in the shot put. Her 25 points set a new career and school high, breaking her old record.
Other personal bests on the day came from Chanel King 17.30 meter throw put her in first place while Angela Onve placed fourth with 15.97 meters in the weight throw. In the shot put, King came in second as Natasha Amazan came in fourth with a 12.68 meter throw.
There were more bests for St. John’s from Molly Ellis with a time of 56.33 in the 400 meters, which qualified her for the ECAC Championships, and a 25.42 time for third place in the 200 meters. Kim Piard posted a season best 1:15:69 in the 500 meters to qualify for ECAC and Lauren Wynter placed fourth with a personal record 1:15:81 that also qualified her for ECAC.
All St. John’s participants in the 800 meter race recorded career best times,led by Sarah Sudbury’s fourth place 2:16:71 time. In the 1,000 meters, Michelle Duffy’s second place 2:58:40, Samantha Meyerhoff’s fourth place time of 5:13:24, Nicole Cocozza was right behind her in fifth at 5:13:31.
St. Johns next competes with a split squad at Notre Dame and the New Balance Invitational this weekend.
