St. John’s Races to First Place at The Metropolitan Championships

Saturday, October 7

Newark, N.J.

10 a.m.

St. John's University

Metropolitan Championships

St. John’s Races to First Place at The Metropolitan Championships

10/7/2023 12:18:00 PM | Women's Cross Country

Results

The Red Storm recorded its best finish at the meet in program history

NEWARK, N.J. – The St. John's cross country team raced to first place at the Metropolitan Championships at Branch Brook Park, on Saturday morning.

Despite the cloudy skies, the Red Storm put up 68 total points against many other Tri-State Area schools. The squad outpaced Manhattan by nine points and finished ahead of nine other teams.

All eight runners for the St. John's recorded top 50 finishes, seven of which recorded career-best 5K time at Branch Brook Park.

The Johnnies' first-place finish is the program's best mark at the Metropolitan Championships in its history, which dates back to 1985. The program has now secured three top-two finishes at the meet over the last three seasons.

"Total team effort today. I'm really proud of the way we raced as a unit," said Head Coach Elliott Blount. "A lot of personal bests because of the work they've been putting in at practice. We will look to carry this momentum into the BIG EAST Championships in three weeks."

Claire Cushing finished the meet by improving on her personal-best time from last week by 32 seconds, recording a new best 5K time of 17:44.93 to go along with a third-place overall finish.

Nia Holden and Gabriella Caronia finished in the same pack at the meet with career-best times. Holden finished the 5K in 18:29.05, en route to an 11^th place finish, while Caronia ended the race in 18:35.48 which was good for 15^th overall. Egzi Yasar notched a time of 18:51.18 with a 19^th-place result.

Hannah Huleatt improved her 5K pace by a minute, finishing the race in 19:00.38 for 20^th at the meet. Ana Dobsa registered a time of 19:17.54, ending the race in 28^th place.

Cristina Stanescu and Jenna D'Onofrio posted their best finishing times of the season to round out the Red Storm's first-place finish. Stanescu logged a 5K time of 19:39.67, which improved on her time of 20:41.0 at the Battle in Beantown last weekend. D'Onofrio registered a collegiate-best time of 19:50.69. The two athletes finished the meet 40^th and 48^th respectively.

St. John's will get three weeks of rest before they return to the course for the BIG EAST Championships, in Milwaukee on Oct. 28. The conference championship will be hosted by Marquette.