St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
BIG EAST Outdoor Championships
Foster Wins BIG EAST Title, Qualifies For NCAA Regionals
5/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
May 5, 2008
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's track & field senior Maxcine Foster earned an NCAA qualifying time in the 400-meter dash for the second-straight season as she raced to a BIG EAST individual championship title with a personal best time of 53.54 seconds at the BIG EAST Championships hosted by Villanova this weekend.
Foster's win marks the third time in four years the Red Storm has come away with the 400-meter crown as Kaydian Reid won it in 2006 and Kerrian Stewart in 2005.
"We've been using the word awesome about her quite a bit, and Maxcine certainly proved it on Sunday," said head coach Jim Hurt. "This is her first big race this season, and on Saturday in the preliminaries she realized she had to really step it up. In the last 150-meters of Sunday's final she really got it and rolled past everybody. It was a dominant performance on her part."
Going into Sunday's final, Foster had the fifth best time (54.40) from the preliminaries on Saturday. Foster defeated Seton Hall's Alexandra McCoy by .23 seconds for the win and earned 10 points to St. John's score. All together, Foster's win tallied the 60th BIG EAST Champion with Hurt at the helm of the Red Storm.
The senior's career-best time moves her up to No. 3 in St. John's all-time record books for the event, and sets the senior in the top 20 on the NCAA Division I 400-meter list. The top four times automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships on June 11-14 at Drake University. Foster's time gives her a chance to compete at the NCAA Regional Championships on May 30-31.
Red Storm freshman Priscilla Frederick tied her season-best distance in the high jump, finishing fifth overall. Her height of 1.75 meters (5 feet, 8.75 inches) also qualified her for NCAA Regional competition.
Frederick reached the height at the Outdoor Metropolitan Championships earlier this season, but due to inclement weather, the event was held in indoors and might not have counted toward the regional rankings.
Frederick also moves up in the St. John's record books as she is currently No. 3 in both the outdoor and indoor high jump lists with the same distance.
With both Foster and Frederick qualifying for the NCAA Regionals, it marks the 18th consecutive season Hurt will send athletes to the national competition.
As a team, the Red Storm finished 16th with 19 points.
All three relays earned points for St. John's with the 4x800-meter squad of Tyneka Greene, Pam Petruski, Sarah Sudbury and Shakira Best qualifying for the ECAC Championships on May 16-17 with a season-best time of 9:05.81. The seventh place finish earned two points for the Red Storm. Greene ran her personal best as the first-leg of the run with a time of 2:12.00.
The 4x100-meter relay team of junior Phobay Kutu-Akoi and freshmen Rene Cousins, Kate Dulmovits and Frederick also hit a season-best time of 47.69, also finishing seventh for two points. With an eighth place finish of 3:46.02, the 4x400-meter relay squad of Kutu-Akoi, Asia Davy, Foster and Asia Nettles also tallied a season-best time and another point for the Red Storm.
Davy ran her way to a season-best time of 1:03.07 in the 400-meter hurdles for a ninth place finish. Nettles also competed in the 400-meter dash finishing 18th with a time of 58.26. Kutu-Akoi ran the 100-meter dash in 12.20 seconds, finishing 17th overall. Junior Venisa Clarke-Lee finished 17th in the high jump matching her season-best height 1.65 meters (5 feet, 5 inches).
Overall, St. John's registered five All-BIG EAST accolades at the championships with Foster, Frederick, and all three relay squads earning the honor.
Players Mentioned
