St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Unveils 2017 Cross Country Slate
8/23/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
QUEENS, N.Y. ââ'¬" St. John's cross country and track & field coach Jim Hurt unveiled the 2017 Red Storm cross country schedule on Wednesday, a schedule with six meets held in the state of New York, three visits to historic Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and a trip to the Badger State for the BIG EAST Championships in Kenosha, Wis. in October.
"We once again have put together a quality cross country schedule that will have us running on historic courses and against the top cross country teams in the country," Coach Hurt stressed. "We will have a young team this fall headed up by senior Melissa Hidalgo, junior Elizabeth Costantino, and sophomores Stephanie Gerland, Jackie Gallagher, and Therese Gallagher. We will be without our top runner from a year ago, Antonia Howard, as she will redshirt this season."
The Johnnies will also host the SJU XC Fall Festival at Cunningham Park in Queens for the third-consecutive year, where the home side finished with the top spot in each of the last two seasons.
The season begins on Saturday, Sept. 9, when St. John's makes its first visit to Van Cortlandt Park as the Red Storm will compete in the 37th annual Ed Joyce Fordham Fiasco XC Meet. After taking over a decade off from the 5K race, the Johnnies finished fifth overall at the event last season.
"The Fordham Fiasco honors St. John's alumnus and longtime Fordham Coach Ed Joyce, and will test our team over the vaunted hills of Van Cortlandt Park," said Hurt on the team's first meet of the season.
September continues to roll along for St. John's with another New York area meet when the Red Storm heads to Nassau County for the NYIT Invite on Saturday, Sept. 16. After competing in the inaugural event last season, St. John's will return to the NYIT Old Westbury campus to defend its first-place finish last season.
Adding a new meet from last season, the Red Storm will travel to Bethlehem, Pa. for the Paul Short Invite on Friday, Sept. 29. Hosted by Lehigh University, the 44th annual Paul Short Invite sits as the largest intercollegiate cross country race in the nation. St. John's will make its first appearance at the event since 2010, where the Johnnies finished 16th out of 41 teams.
The intensity continues to rise when the calendar turns to October as the Red Storm runs in its first championship meet of the season. St. John's will make its second trip to Van Cortlandt Park for the Metropolitan Championships on Friday, Oct. 13. Led by Howard, the Red Storm took fourth-place at the 2016 event. Howard won the individual title in the 5K, finishing in a time of 18:27.0, which shattered her previous personal-best time of 19:07.6.
Just two days later, St. John's will look to continue its recent dominance of the team's home event, the SJU Fall Festival at Cunningham Park in Queens. The Red Storm narrowly defeated Fordham for the top spot last season, as the home side finished with five runners in the top-15 led by Howard, Costantino, and Gerland each recording top-8 finishes.
The Red Storm will make its furthest trip of the season to compete in the 2017 BIG EAST Championships in Kenosha, Wis. on Saturday, Oct. 28. After hosting the event last season, St. John's will make the trek to the Badger State looking to improve on its eighth- place finish last season.
As the calendar shifts to November, St. John's will close its season with a trio of championship meets. The first of these championships is the NCAA Northeast Regional; set for Friday, Nov. 10 in Buffalo, N.Y, hosted by the University of Buffalo. This year's NCAA Championships are set for Saturday, Nov. 18 at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky, hosted by the University of Louisville. This year's meet will mark the 37th annual championship on the women's side. Last season, the Oregon women topped Michigan for its own 2016 team title and Missouri's Karissa Schweizer captured the women's individual title
For any runners not in Louisville, the Red Storm will close out the 2017 season with its final trip to Van Cortlandt Park for the ECAC Championship on Saturday, Nov. 18. Last season the Johnnies finished with a ninth-place team result thanks to All-East honors by Costantino and Howard.
"The schedule will test our team each week and prepare us to run well in the Big East, NCAA regional, & ECAC championships at the end of the season," said Hurt.
Coach Hurt hopes that his team will draw on their experiences from a season ago to propel the Red Storm to the top of the BIG EAST standings. "The experience from a year ago should be valuable in knowing how to race at the top collegiate level," Hurt stated. "Each of our top five has talent and competes well so we are looking forward to a very successful season."
For all the latest news on the St. John's cross country team, log on to RedStormSports.com and follow the team (@StJohnsXCTF) on Twitter. You can join the conversation with #SJUXC. If you would like to be added to the St. John's cross country mailing list, send an email to stjcommunications@stjohns.edu with the subject line "CROSS COUNTRY Mailing List".
Players Mentioned
