St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
NCAA Northeast Regional
Antonia Howard Takes Home 36th-Place at 2016 NCAA Northeast Regional Championships
11/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
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2016 Cross Country Schedule
Results
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's cross country star Antonia Howard put in a career-performance on a windy but sunny Friday morning as the sophomore finished 36th-overall at the 2016 NCAA Northeast Regional Championship held at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y. The Sydney, Australia, native ran perhaps the best race of her career as she competed with the top collegiate talent in the northeast, and crushed a personal-best time for 6K by almost 30 seconds (21:26.90).
Overall, the Johnnies finished 27th of 37 teams, the same finish the team accomplished at last year's Northeast Regionals. The team finished with 713 team points and held scoring finishes in 36th, 123rd, 153rd, 186th and 221st. There were 254 runners who finished the race.
The Red Storm entered seven runners into the championship meet, of which seven crossed with personal-best times for 6K including Antonia Howard, Melissa Hidalgo, Elizabeth Costantino, Therese Gallagher, Stephanie Gerland, Jackie Gallagher, and Shannon Page.
"I was very pleased that our team held our scoring place from a year ago despite returning only two runners from last year's meet. The NCAA Regional meet is an unique meet that takes experience to get right," said Head Coach Jim Hurt. "[Antonia Howard] was exceptional in taking 36th after being 137th last year as a freshman and Melissa Hidalgo dropped 5:30 from her freshman time of 28:02 to 22:36 as a junior today. We posted seven out of seven personal best times for the 6k course, so our team came ready to run."
Melissa Hidalgo finished as the Red Storm's second-runner as she came close to cracking the top-100. The junior took home a 123rd-place finish in a personal-best time of 22:36.30. Hidalgo improved upon a 225th-place finish from a year ago.
The final three scoring finishers for the Red Storm were Johnnies competing in their first-ever NCAA Northeast Regional meet. Sophomore Elizabeth Costantino finished 153rd in a time of 22:54.20. She was followed by freshmen Therese Gallagher and Stephanie Gerland. T. Gallagher crossed in 23:24.20 for 186th and Gerland came in at 24:11.40 for 221st.
Jackie Gallagher and Shannon Page were the final two Red Storm runners to finish as the pair finished 225th (24:23.90) and 250th (26:20.80), respectively.
"Sophomore [Elizabeth Costantino] continues to impress after missing her freshman year last year and [Therese Gallagher], Jackie Gallagher and Stephanie Gerland just need more training time and race experience at this level. Shannon Page dropped another two minutes today so our entire teams returns next year and the future looks bright," added Hurt.
Keep up to date on all St. John's cross country news by following on Twitter @StJohnsXCTF and by using the hashtag #SJUXC. To be added to the St. John's women's cross country fans e-mail list send a message to Adam.mcKillop15@stjohns.edu with the subject: "St. John's women's XC e-mail."
Players Mentioned
