St. John's University Athletics
Cross Country Closes Out Season At ECAC Championships
11/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 21, 2014
- 2014 ECAC Cross Country Championships Central
- Follow St. John's cross country and track & field on Twitter
QUEENS, N.Y. - Looking to cap a campaign full of positives and build momentum for the Red Storm heading into the indoor track & field season, the St. John's cross country team will compete for the last time in 2014 this Saturday at the ECAC Division I Women's Cross Country Championships at historic Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y. The Red Storm will participate in the University 5K Race scheduled for 11:30 a.m.
"The ECAC Championships will conclude a successful season for our cross country team and we look to continue to record our best times over the 5K distance at Van Cortlandt Park," said St. John's head coach Jim Hurt. "With our entire team returning for the 2015 season the ECAC meet will give us an early look at what we can accomplish in the year ahead."
The Red Storm is one week removed from finishing 31st out of 40 teams at the highly-competitive NCAA Northeast Regional Championships at Van Cortlandt Park, where freshman Izzi Batt-Doyle turned in the best performance of her young St. John's career by finishing 83rd out of 273 runners. Batt-Doyle became the first St. John's student-athlete in three years to crack the top-100 at the NCAA Northeast Regional and her 6K time of 21:52.32 was a personal best. On Saturday, Batt-Doyle will make her first-career appearance at the ECAC Championships and will look to dip under her career-best 5K time of 18:23.5 set in a winning effort at the season-opening SJU Hofstra Fall XC Festival.
Returning to the ECAC Championships following a pair of top-10 finishes at last season's event will be junior twins Stephanie Van Pelt and Michelle Van Pelt. The duo out of Staten Island, N.Y., finished ninth and 10th, respectively, in last season's Coaches' Association 5K race at the 2013 ECAC Championships to cap an injury-plagued campaign for the Red Storm. Stephanie Van Pelt has set personal bests at both the 6K and 5K distances this season, including finishing eighth overall at the Metropolitan Championships on Oct. 10 in a career-best 5K time of 18:57.7.
Also looking to close out 2014 well is junior Kerri Butler, who successfully returned from injury this season to record a number of scoring finishes for St. John's. Butler is coming off her best run of the current campaign at the Northeast Regional, where she clocked a time of 23:29.20 for 6K, just five seconds off of her career best. Also set compete for the Red Storm in Saturday's season finale are senior Chelsea Trant, back from injury after over a month out, as well as juniors Veronica Thompson and Tiffany Evanego, and freshman Melissa Hidalgo.
To keep up to date on all team news, follow on Twitter @StJohnsXCTF and by using the hashtag #stjohnsxc. To be added to the St. John's women's cross country fans e-mail list send a message to Edouard.boulat13@stjohns.edu with the subject: "St. John's women's XC e-mail."
Players Mentioned
