St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
BIG EAST Championship
Cross Country Claims Ninth At BIG EAST Championship
10/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Oct. 31, 2014
CARMEL, Ind. - Competing in one of the toughest conferences in the country and facing windy and wet conditions, the St. John's cross country team turned in a gritty performance to claim ninth at the 2014 BIG EAST Cross Country Championship staged at Northview Church in the Indianapolis, Ind., area on Friday morning. The Red Storm's team finish at the conference meet marks a one place improvement from last season.
"I thought our team competed well despite the difficult conditions," said St. John's head coach Jim Hurt. "Izzi and Stephanie got out into the top group early in the race and our team established good position in the race pack and ran tough races in the windy and rainy conditions. We were able to move up a notch from a year ago which was our aim going into the meet. We are looking forward to more improvements at the NCAA Regional and ECAC Championships in the weeks ahead."
St. John's tallied a team point total of 271 on Friday, 18 less than its score at last season's conference meet in Somers, Wis. The Red Storm held off 10th-place Seton Hall by six points and was just 18 points back of ninth-place DePaul.
Leading the way for St. John's for the fourth time this season was freshman Izzi Batt-Doyle, who got out aggressively in the early parts of the race before finishing 39th in 22:34.4 for 6K. Competing in her first career BIG EAST Championship, Batt-Doyle was the race's 13th freshman across the finish line and averaged 6:05 per mile on the hilly and slippery Northview Church course. Also riding a fast start to a top-50 individual finish was junior Stephanie Van Pelt, who was the 45th overall finisher in 23:07.6 after placing 59th at last year's conference meet.
St. John's third runner across the finish line was junior Kerri Butler, who was the race's 60th scorer thanks to a run of 24:06.0. Butler was followed by classmate Michelle Van Pelt, who was 63rd in 24:42.4, while fellow junior Veronica Thompson was the very next finisher in a time of 25:08.9.
Competing in her second career BIG EAST Championship, junior Tiffany Evanego was 67th in 25:55.4 while freshman Melissa Hidalgo rounded out the Red Storm effort by finishing 70th in 27:27.2.
Georgetown prevailed as the 2014 BIG EAST team champion on Friday after scoring a field-low 19 points and placing all five of its scorers in the race's top-six finishers. Hoyas senior Katrina Coogan was the women's individual champion thanks to a run of 20:31.0. Providence was the women's team runner-up with 65 points followed by championship host Butler with 82 points. In the latest women's USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Cross Country National Coaches Poll, Georgetown was ranked No. 2. BIG EAST women's teams have won four of the last five NCAA titles in cross country.
St. John's returns to action on Nov. 14 at the NCAA Northeast Regional at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y.
Players Mentioned
