St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Larry Ellis Invitational
Personal Bests Abound On Day 2 Of Larry Ellis Invitational
4/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
April 18, 2015
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Having already broken a pair of program records during Friday's first session of the Larry Ellis Invitational, the St. John's track & field team closed out competition at the two-day event hosted Princeton University on Saturday by producing a number of noteworthy personal-best efforts and claiming nine top-10 finishes.
"Our sprinters picked up where we left off last night, posting personal- and seasonal-best efforts along with BIG EAST-leading performances and ECAC Championships qualifying marks," said St. John's head coach Jim Hurt. "As the weather warms up so will our performances so we look forward to producing some hot marks net week at the Penn Relays."
Turning in the Red Storm's outstanding sprint performance of Saturday's competition was junior Pariis Garcia, who in the 400-meter dash finished third in the first heat and third overall out of 46 competitors in a new personal-best time of 54.29 seconds, the eighth-best performance in school history. Garcia entered the weekend leading the BIG EAST in the event with her time of 54.99 seconds set at last month's Yellow Jacket Invitational. Also competing in the 400-meter dash was junior Raquel Ricketts, who claimed sixth in a seasonal-best time of 55.06 seconds, and senior Nastasya Rodriquez, who posted a personal-best time of 56.00 seconds to finish ninth overall.
Garcia also set a personal best in the 200-meter dash in Princeton on Saturday, as the junior won the second of 10 heats in 24.48 seconds to finish eighth overall out of 57 finishers. In the same heat, senior LaTasha Collins was the runner-up in clocking a seasonal-best time of 24.76 seconds to claim 11th overall, while sophomore Shenika King was 14th overall in 24.80 seconds and freshman Maya Stephens 15th in a new personal-best 24.85-second clocking. Finishing 18th in the 200-meter dash and also setting a seasonal best in the event was Ricketts who posted a time of 24.89 seconds.
Setting a personal best in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles was freshman Chenoa Sebastian, who clocked a time of 14.52 seconds to finish 10th in a field of 34. In the same event, sophomore freshman Julia Schwan crossed the finish line in 15.67 seconds to place 28th while senior Radiya Buchanan was one place back in 15.82 seconds, a seasonal best. In the 400-meter hurdles, sophomore Christine Oguledo also set a personal best with a heat-winning run of 1:03.08, less than a second off of the 10th all-time performance in program history.
In the preliminary round of the 100-meter dash, Collins finished eighth in 12.20 seconds to lead a trio of Red Storm freshmen. Stephens was ninth and a heat winner in 12.23 seconds, Teresa Ehiogu was 22nd in a seasonal-best clocking of 12.48 seconds and Schwan was 30th in 12.59 seconds. In the 4x100-meter relay, the team of Collins, King, Schwan and Stephens clocked a seasonal-best time of 46.97 seconds to place fourth out of 12 teams.
Competing in the field events, freshman Erica Graham reached a mark of 4.83 meters to place 16th in the long jump, while Buchanan leapt 11.18 meters in the triple jump to set a new personal best and finishing 13th.
On Friday's first session of the meet, the Red Storm broke two school mid-distance records and recorded a trio of top-three finishes in a highly competitive field. Junior Stephanie Van Pelt broke a 31-year-old program record in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:27.10 to claim ninth, while freshman Izzi Batt-Doyle lowered St. John's 3,000-meter steeplechase record with a time of 10:19.54, good for eighth overall. In Friday's hammer throw competition, meanwhile, freshman Nyla Woods finished third with a new personal-best toss of 57.03 meters, the fifth-best mark in school history.
St. John's is back in action on Sunday as the Red Storm will send a contingent to Kings Point, N.Y., to compete in the Coach Omeltchenko Invitational hosted by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Next week, St. John's will travel to Philadelphia to take part in the famed Penn Relays set for April 23-25.
