St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Metropolitan Coaches Invitational
Freshman Paces Red Storm In Armory Debut
1/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
Jan. 8, 2010
Complete Results | Photo Gallery 
NEW YORK - The Red Storm put together an impressive showing in its debut meet of 2010 as St. John's amassed top 10 finishes in seven different events at the Metropolitan Coaches Invitational in the Armory Track & Field Center in Manhattan.
Freshman Rikka Lovely, running in her first-ever meet at the Armory, qualified for the BIG EAST and ECAC Championships with a first-place time of 7.66 seconds in the 60-meter dash. Although Lovely was manually clocked at 7.4 seconds in last month's Fordham Opener, both Championship meets require an automatically timed finish in the sprint events.
Lovely crossed the line in 7.78 seconds in the sixth heat of the preliminaries, before taking control in the finals and edging out a runner with a final push to win the event.
The Red Storm continued its slew of strong performances in the sprint events as senior Asia Nettles and junior Lauren Wynter finished fourth and fifth overall in the 400-meter dash. With marks of 58.99 and 59.03, Nettles and Wynter placed tops in their heat. Senior Asia Davy also competed in the 400-meters, placing 11th overall and clocking in just under a minute at 59.93 seconds.
Freshman Molly Ellis won her heat in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:22.63. Lovely turned in another top 10 finish with a time of 25.65 in the 200-meter dash, while junior Vanessa Thompson ran a 26.61.
Nettles, Thompson, Lovely, and junior Kim Piard all teamed to lead the Red Storm's top relay group in the Sprint Medley, which consists of a 400-meter leg, two 200-meter legs, and a 800-meter anchor leg. That relay squad finished first overall in the event with a time of 4:09.95. They were closely followed by the St. John's secondary team consisting of Davy, junior Bintou Dibba, freshman Molly Ellis, and junior Sarah Sudbury who finished in 4:13.30.
"Overall I was very pleased with our first meet action of 2010," said head coach Jim Hurt. "Our goal was to get our team going again after the holiday break and get our legs back into a routine. Today's meet and tomorrow at Yale will certainly help to accomplish that."
In the mile race, sophomore Nicole Cocozza put together a time of 5:38.18, placing 20th. Senior Sarah Fry finished in 5:47.06.
In the field events, sophomore Chanel King continued to excel as she set a new personal-best toss of 16.76 meters in the weight throw, finishing second overall and qualifying for the ECAC Championships. She also finished in the top five of the shot put finalists with a distance of 12.97 meters.
Junior Courtney Kolinsky notched 7.98 meters in the shot put and 9.94 meters in the weight throw.
The Red Storm fielded a strong trio of specialists in the long jump as Dibba came in second overall with a distance of 5.40 meters in the finals. Freshman Stephanie Barnes made her career debut in the long jump pit, finishing 11th overall with a distance of 4.99 meters. Senior Fayanne Francis also made her season debut but was disqualified by foot foul.
No overall team scores were kept for the meet.
The Red Storm will be competing again tomorrow, Jan. 9, at the Yale Invite in New Haven, Conn.
