St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Sam Howell Invite
Track & Field Competes At Sam Howell Invite
4/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
April 6, 2009
QUEENS, N.Y. - The St. John's track & field team competed at the Sam Howell Invitational hosted by Princeton University this weekend. The Red Storm tallied five postseason qualifiers and won five events.
Despite the rainy and cold conditions, senior Venisa Clarke-Lee led the team with individual victories in the 200-meter dash and the high jump. She finished first out of 44 sprinters in the 200-meter dash with a BIG EAST qualifying time of 24.55 seconds. In the high jump, she cleared the bar at 1.70 meters (5 feet, 7 inches) to qualify for the outdoor ECAC's on May 15-17.
Clarke-Lee also anchored the winning squad of the 4x100-meter relay. Led off by Vanessa Thompson, with Phobay Kutu-Akoi, Paula Rennalls and Clarke-Lee as the final leg, the team finished first with a season-best ECAC qualifying time of 46.58. The next fastest team was Princeton, who was behind St. John's by 2.04 seconds in heat 1 of the race.
Kutu-Akoi's winning ways spilled over into her individual event, the 100-meter dash, where she came in first out of 36 sprinters with a time of 11.82 seconds, her fourth-consecutive ECAC qualifier this season. Rennalls finished runner-up with a time of 12.34 seconds. Shavone Williams finished 18th (12.99), while Marie Griffiths finished 28th (13.42).
Junior Asia Nettles also tallied an individual win for St. John's with a 57.24 second finish in the 400-meter dash. Her time qualified her for the Outdoor BIG EAST Championships on May 1-3. Nettles also placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.30. Lauren Wynter and Rene Cousins finished eighth and ninth .02 seconds apart with times of 58.16 and 58.18. Kim Piard also competed in the race. She finished 30th with a time of 1:02.81.
The foursome of Asia Davy, Piard, Kutu-Akoi and Nettles was runner-up in the 4x400-meter relay. The squad crossed the tape at 3:55.68.
Thompson finished seventh in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.22, and sixth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:05.46.
Highlighting the field events, junior Fayanne Francis was the runner-up in the long jump with a distance of 5.44 meters (17 feet, 10.25 inches). Bintou Dibba tied for fourth with a distance .20 meters (10 inches) short of Francis.
In the distance events, senior Tyneka Greene was runner-up in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.86. Her time was .82 seconds away from a BIG EAST qualifier. Sophomores Sarah Sudbury and Shakira Best finished 16th and 19th, respectively, while Nicole Cocozza placed 38th.
Freshman Sabine Schneider finished third in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:52.32. Cocozza and Aryon Trujillo finished in the top 20 with times of 5:07.47 (17th) and 5:08.18 (19th). Senior Rakibat Abiola and sophomore Lori Dougherty also competed in the event.
In the throwing pit, rookie Chanel King placed fifth in the hammer throw (42.76 meters; 140 feet, 3 inches), seventh in the shot put (12.47 meters; 40 feet, 11 inches) and tenth in the discus throw (33.64 meters; 110 feet, 4 inches).
For complete results from the Sam Howell meet, click here.
Next up, the Red Storm will host its only home meet of the season with STJ Monday Meeting I on April 13. The meet will start at 6 p.m. on DaSilva Memorial Field.
Players Mentioned
