The St. Johns Track and Field team competed in the Lafayette-Rider Winter Games on Friday at the New York City Armory. It was the Red Storm’s last meet before the Big East Indoor Championships at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio on Feb. 16.
“I feel as the season progressed so did our team and we performed better and better through out the season,” said St. John’s head coach Jim Hurt. “We are really looking forward to participating in the Big East Indoor Championships this weekend and at the USA Championships, The ECAC Championships and The NCAA Indoor Championships that are upcoming in the next few weeks.”
Trudy-Ann McLean and Veronica Thompson had standout performances on Friday, as they both qualified to compete at next weekend’s Big East Championships. McLean qualified for the 400m after running a 56.21on Friday.
Thompson, who had previously qualified to compete in the 800-meter event next weekend, also ran in the 500m on Friday, running a 1:15.64. Her time guaranteed that she will be competing in both the 800m and 500m at the Big East Championships.
“I’m very happy with the performance of our athletes,” Hurt said. “Trudy-Ann McLean and Veronica Thompson performed very well and added to our athletes that will be participating in this weekends Big East Championships. We were also very happy to see Senior Rikka Lovely return to the track on Friday.”
Kerri Butler also had a successful meet, winning her second individual title of her collegiate career, after running a 2:59.92 in the 1000m. However, she missed qualifying for the Big East Championships by under a second.
Overall, Hurt is confident heading into the latter stages of the season.
“I feel that our team is strong with Rikka Lovely running the 60 and 200 meters, strong with the athletes we have in the 4×400 relay and we have sprinters like Claire Mooney and Molly Ellis that I feel confident in,” he said. “I also feel Danette Hinton will be a very competitive thrower for us and Stephanie Barnes will be competing in the triple jump for us. Overall I feel we can do very well this weekend.”
