After a disappointing 2005-2006 campaign, the St. John’s men’s basketball team is preparing for a big year in its upcoming season: their recruiting class is ranked No. 5 in the country by recruiting services.
The new recruiting class consists of Derwin Kitchen, Avery Patterson, Larry Wright, Rob Thomas and early-signee, Qa’rraan Calhoun.
“We’re very excited about our recruiting class,” said head coach Norm Roberts. “We feel that we have addressed a lot of our program’s needs, improving our overall athleticism and our ability to score the basketball.”
He added: “The players we recruited bring a lot of versatility to our program both offensively and defensively.”
Men’s Tennis
The St. John’s men’s tennis team defeated No. 35 Concordia 7-2 Thursday night in Bronxville, N.Y. It was an impressive night for the Storm as they easily handled the Clippers.
Junior Louis Desmarteaux paced the Storm, teaming with freshman Alex Svetlakov to defeat Kirill Azovtsey and Vladimir Malkin 8-2 in doubles action. Desmarteaux then defeated Division II No. 47 ranked Rodrigo Teixeria (6-7, 6-1, 10-5) in singles play.
In other doubles play senior Morgan Bauer and junior Claudio Halim beat John Cassas and Josep Molet 8-5. Other singles matches saw senior David Nylen beat Azovtsey (6-1, 6-2) and Svetlakov defeated Malkin (6-3, 6-1).
The only victories for Concordia came at the expense of Nylen and Tom Green as they fell to Teixeria and Marcelo Froes 8-4 in doubles play. Green also fell to Molet (6-3, 6-4) in a singles match.
The Red Storm improved its record to 10-4 while Concordia dropped to 11-7.
Women’s Tennis
For the first time in team history, the St. John’s women’s tennis team defeated Big East rival Syracuse. They won the match 4-3 on Friday afternoon in Syracuse’s Drumlins/Skytop Tennis Complex.
In doubles action the Storm’s Alison Adamski and Nataly Tumsevica led the way by defeating Victoria Vaynberg and Catherine Zawadzki, 8-5. Gabija Gasiunaite defeated Katie Bramante (6-4, 7-5) in singles.
St. John’s improved to 11-6 overall, including 7-2 vs. the Big East. Syracuse fell to 14-5 on the season, including 6-1 in the Big East.
Track & Field
Blessing Egwu was selected for the Nigerian national team. She will participate in the World Cup at Athens, Greece. During the season, she won gold in the Big East championships.
