St. John's University Athletics
Red Storm Qualifies Four for NCAA East Regional
5/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
- NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Preliminary Championships - East Region Participants
- NCAA East Preliminary Round Information
- Schedule of Events
QUEENS, N.Y. - Following stellar spring seasons that saw the group finish at or near the top of the BIG EAST in their respective events, four St. John's student-athletes have been selected to compete in the NCAA East Regional, it was announced this morning.
Pariis Garcia will compete in the 400m dash, Stephanie Van Pelt will take part in the 1500m run, Izzy Batt-Doyle will run the 3000m steeplechase and Nyla Woods will participate in the hammer throw.
"We are very excited to have four athletes qualify to the NCAA East Regional and appreciate all the hard work they put in to reach this elite level of competition," said Head Coach Jim Hurt. "This will mark the 24th consecutive year that St. John's cross country, track & field has competed in NCAA competition and I would like to thank Coach Pompey, Coach McCree, Coach Cola, Coach Farrell, our trainer Natasha Miller, manager John Kuehn, grad assistant Trudy McClain, intern Tiffany Taylor, Secretary Kathy Lally, and our strength & conditioning staff, for all their good work with these athletes and our program in extending the great SJU track & field tradition."
The preliminary championship competitions will be held May 28-30 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The qualifiers out of the region will then compete in the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships to be held June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon.
Garcia enters regional action seeded 39th following a time of 53.69 at the ECAC Outdoor Championships this past weekend en route to earning a silver medal. This time was also good enough for the seventh-best in school history at the event. The Staten Island native is no stranger to success in the 400m dash, taking the BIG EAST Outdoor title in the event just over two weeks ago.
Van Pelt will be seeded 43rd in the preliminary round of the 1,500m run, qualifying with a time of 4:23.67. The Staten Island product registered her qualifying effort in a bronze medal finish at the BIG EAST Championship, taking more than three seconds off her own school record set earlier this season at the Larry Ellis Invitational.
Batt-Doyle is the highest seeded of the four Red Storm student-athletes at the NCAA East Regional, checking in at 23rd with a time of 10:13.29 in the 3000m steeplechase. The freshman from Adelaide, Australia, registered her record-shattering run at ECAC Outdoor Championships, lowering her own program-best mark by over six seconds.
After finishing runner-up at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championship with a toss of 56.13 meters, Woods enters the regional as the 39th seed. Woods' top throw of the season did not come at the conference title meet; however, as the freshman from Fayatteville, Ga., will instead rely on her toss of 57.03 meters from the Larry Ellis Invitational in April.
To keep up to date on all team news this outdoor season, follow on Twitter @StJohnsXCTF and by using the hashtag #sjutf. To be added to the St. John's women's track & field fans e-mail list send a message to Edouard.boulat13@stjohns.edu with the subject: "St. John's women's TF e-mail."
Players Mentioned
