St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
BIG EAST Indoor Championships
Red Storm Places Eleventh At BIG EAST Championships
2/17/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
Feb. 17, 2013
Geneva, Ohio -
The Red Storm track & field team finished tied for eleventh at the BIG EAST Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio as five St. John's athletes captured All-BIG EAST honors.
A total of 21 points tied St. John's in the eleventh position in the standings with Providence, just four points behind Rutgers.
"The BIG EAST Indoor Championships brought out our best efforts of the year led by Danette Hinton's podium performance in the weight throw," said head coach Jim Hurt. "We competed at a high level both days and closed the meet with outstanding 4x800 and 4x400 relays that rank amongst the best in program history. We are looking forward to continuing these efforts at the ECAC Championship in Boston in two weeks."
St. John's thrower Danette Hinton earned the highest performance on the team with a bronze medal in the weight throw. The junior registered a career-best mark of 19.08 meters that bested her previous personal-best of 18.31 meters. It's the fourth-best effort in program history as Sonja Fitts ranks third at 19.15 meters. The finish improved upon her fifth-place finish in the weight throw at last year's BIG EAST Indoor Championships.
The Red Storm's most decorated sprinters this season, Molly Ellis and Claire Mooney, both narrowly missed the podiums but turned in a couple of All-BIG EAST performances. The former BIG EAST 400-meter champion, Ellis, ran a season-best time of 54.60 second time to place fifth in a highly competitive field. Mooney matched her fifth-place finish from last year's BIG EAST Indoor Championships with a 1:13.70 time in the 500-meter dash.
Trudy-Ann McLean also captured points for the Red Storm with an eighth-place finish in the 500-meter dash. McLean ran a 1:16.66 in the finals to earn All-BIG EAST. Nastasya Rodriques and Shayna Presley both narrowly missed the 500-meter dash finals finishing ninth and tenth respectively. Rodriques clocked in at 1:14.98 in the preliminaries, easily a career-best, and Presley posted a career-best time of 1:15.02 as well.
Short sprinter Rikka Lovely earned an All-BIG EAST finish in the 200-meter dash, as she placed seventh with a time of 24.29 seconds. Lovely barely missed the finals in the 60-meter dash with a season-best time of 7.61 seconds.
The St. John's 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams also excelled with a couple of season-best performances. Mooney, Ellis, McLean and Presley flew to a 3:41.52 finish in the 4x400 to place sixth in the conference. Veronica Thompson, Michelle Duffy, Stephanie Van Pelt and Kerri Butler ran a time of 9:07.19. Butler, Presley, Rodriques and Duffy would also combine to run a 12:17.81 in the distance medley relay.
A trio of Red Storm freshmen also battled through their first-ever BIG EAST Indoor Championships with some solid performances. Veronica Thompson ran a career-best 2:13.88 in the 800-meters to place eleventh overall. Pariis Garcia and Shenika King both competed in the 400-meter dash with times of 58.08 seconds and 58.41 seconds.
In the field events, Natasha Amazan recorded an 11.35 meter mark in the shot put and 17.12 meters in the weight throw to place eleventh. Ann Dagrin posted a 16.30 distance in the weight throw as well to place 16th. Stephanie Barnes registered a distance of 11.25 meters in the triple jump. Gina Frisa competed in the pentathlon and finished 13th with 2411 points.
Follow the track & field program all season long through RedStormSports.com and on Twitter (@STJ_Track_XC).
