The Red Storm women’s track and field team won first place out of 13 teams on Saturday, April 9 at the 2016 Outdoor Metropolitan Championships at Rutgers University. Their last first place finish in this event came three years ago in 2013.
In day one of the two day event, Sophomore Nyla Woods started it off with a second place finish in the hammer-throw with a recorded distance of 50.96 meters. Three other Johnnies participated in the event as well. Senior Ann Dagrin finished in fourth place with a total distance of 46.86 meters while Senior Patricia Clark finished in sixth place with a toss of 39.75 meters.
Freshman Jennifer Odoemene ended up in 9th place with a distance of 35.64 meters. In the javelin throw, only one member of the track and field team participated in the event. That member was sophomore Danica Wens who finished in fifth place with a throw of 34.28 meters. Sophomore Melissa Hidalgo competed in the 10,000 meter run and finished in third place with the time of 39:17.87.
To finish off day one of the competition, three Johnnies competed in the seven-event heptathlon. Freshman Eboni Birch racked up an incredible 3,585 points, which was good enough for second place in the event. Sophomore Julia Schwan followed up Birch by finishing in third, only 43 points lower than her teammate. Danica Wens finished behind Schwan in fourth place with a score of 2,640 points.
In day two of the event, the Johnnies were on fire by winning seven events throughout the day. St. John’s took first, second, and sixth place in the long jump thanks to sophomore Anointing Onoucha, freshman Winona Peace, and sophomore Erica Graham. In the other two field events of the day, the Red Storm scored six times. Woods helped by winning the shot put with a distance of 12.58 meters. Odoemene recorded a personal best 38.85 meter throw in discus while the 4 X 100 relay team finished second overall.
Jasmine Burkett, Stephanie Van Pelt and Claire Mooney all won their respective events as well, giving St. John’s a total number of 202 points, thus edging host Rutgers who finished in second with 177 points. After the two day event was completed, Coach Jim Hurt spoke about his team’s performance.
“We had so many great performances over the two days across the event spectrum. Our student-athletes were determined to bring the title back to Queens and they did so in spectacular fashion. It’ a great group and I am very proud of all that they have accomplished.”
The Red Storm will be back in action next weekend in the Princeton Outdoor Invite on April 14th, and 15th at Princeton University.
