Randalls Island: Reebok Grand Prix - Get Your Tickets Now

The Reebok Grand Prix will be held at Randall's Island on Saturday May 30th at 3 PM. This is the one world class outdoor track meet held in New York every year.

Last year 9 friends of St John's Track and Field were treated to a world record by Usain Bolt. Details on who is scheduled to compete can be found at: A Melting Pot of Medalists Sign On For 2009 Reebok Grand Prix

I plan on buying tickets at around the 50 meter mark in the green section 104 or 204 of the stadium. Tickets will be $40.

Deadline:
If you plan on attending, please email me at nuttym@stjohns.edu before I place a ticket order on May 16. Let me know how many tickets you'll need.

Who Will Be Attending
I'll be updating the list below so you'll know who'll be attending:

1. Martin Nutty
2. Tom Celandine
3. Joe Carpenter
4. Bill Boyle
5. Les Agard-Jones
6. Glen Shane
7. Alex Long + 2

Outdoor Meet Reports

It's that time of the year:

The Mets are done and the championships is in the bag: STJ Mets report. Records tumble

Catch up on the season action with meet reports on the Red Storm Site website:

1. Opening Meet at Coastal Carolina
   
2. Some go to Texas some to Monmouth
   
3. A visit to Princeton
   
4. Monday night under the lights
   
5. A relay record goes down at the Penn Relays
   
6. Big East: Another relay record goes

Some Sad News: Artie Campbell

Bill Bakewicz (Class of 1978) notified me that Artie Campbell (Class of 76) had passed away. Artie ran the Hurdles at St John's.

I never met Artie, so it would be nice if some of his fellow alums could share some memories by adding comments to this post.

Friends and Alumni Reception Feb 21, 2009

On Feb 21 Friends and Alumni of St John's track gathered at the Armory during the first day of the Indoor Big East Championships. More then 30 alums and friends of the program attended.

A class member from each decade was respresented from the 1950's to the 2000's.

Some pictures of the event can be found at: STJ Big East Reception.

The group was joined by STJ team and staff. Our current team members were pleasantly surprised by the timespan represented by the alums and enjoyed mixing with the different generations.

Priscilla Frederick Closes out the 2009 Indoor Season

Sophomore Priscilla Frederick closed out a demanding indoor season with a 14th place finish in a highly competitive High Jump competition at the Indoor NCAA Championships in College Station. Destinee Hooker of Texas broke both the Meet and Collegiate record with a 6'-6" clearance

This indoor season saw Priscilla break the school jump record twice and make an impressive debut in the Pentathlon.Congratulations to Priscilla on a great season. More Details can be found on the Red Storm site at: Frederick Finishes 14th At NCAA Indoor Championships

Indoor ECAC 2009 Recap

The ECAC championships were held in Princeton on March 7th - March 8th. St John's again showed significant improvement over last season by scoring 15 points and finishing 20th out of 51 teams compared to 36th last season.

The Red Storm jumps squad led the way by scoring 2 athletes in the High Jump. Priscilla Frederick broke her month old school record with a 1.82m leap and is now a scant 1/4 of inch away from becoming the first St. John's women to break the 6 foot barrier. Additionally, Priscilla's jump ranks her joint 7th in the nation and so booked her ticket for the NCAA championships in College Station, Texas. Priscilla was supported by team mate Venisa Clarke-Lee who finished 5th with a 1.70m (5'-7") jump

Senior Phobay Kutu-Akoi also scored in her sprint specialties with a 7th place 7.61 second performance in the 60 meter dash and an 8th place 24.83 finish in the 200 meters.

A fuller recap can be found at the Red Storm site: Five Red Storm Athletes Earn All-East Honors At ECAC Championships. Full results of the meet can be found at: ECAC Indoor Track and Field Championship

Indoor Big East 2009 Roundup

For the second year in a row, the Indoor Big East was held at the Armory in Washington Heights, New York City.

Our young team showed significant improvement from last year when we finished in the basement - 16th out of 16 teams. This year we moved up to 11th scoring a total of 21 points. For a full break out of scoring you can visit the STJ RedStorm site: Big East Complete Results. The site also provides an excellent review of the meet: Big East Recap

The team was led by Graduate student Arina Gerasimova who racked up 10 points in taking the Triple Jump title while battling a sore achilles. Arina showed her consistency by jumping a season best of 12.36 m (40' 6 3/4") twice during the competition and had a marginal foul of a longer jump on her last attempt.

Sophomore Priscilla Frederick scored 8 points in 2 events. Competing in her 2nd Pentathlon, Frederick finished 7th scoring 3,557 points. The competition was stiff as evidenced by the fact that the first 6 finishers all achieved NCAA provisional qualifiers. Subsequently 3 of these athletes went on to compete in the NCAA Pentathlon. After a draining five event first day, the completion for Priscilla wasn't any easier in the High Jump where she finished third with a jump of 1.78m (5'-10"). The first 3 jumpers all achieved the same height, placement was decided on countback.

Senior Phobay Kutu-Akoi rounded out the team scoring by finishing 6th and scoring 3 points in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.55 seconds. In addition Phobay also made the 200 meter final running a PR of 24.55 seconds in the prelims.

Our team also recorded season bests in both the 4 x 400 meters and 4 x 800 meters of 3:52.31 and 9:10.93 respectively.

Why We Need Your Help: This Is Not Your Daddy's Big East

The Big East conference was founded in 1979, many readers of this blog did not have the pleasure of competing in the Big East, but for those who did, the Big East bares scant resemblance to the conference that began in 1979.

In 1984 I competed in my first indoor Big East championships in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Back then the conference was made up of a total of nine teams. Today we now have 16 teams filled with teams who are highly comepetitive on the national level! For those who are interested in the evolution of the conference you can visit the Big East Wikipedia page

How has the conference changed in the past 30 years? Well now you have to qualify just to compete in the conference and the standards aren't easy. Try and remember what your PRs were and see if you could have qualified, never mind scoring. Visit the Big East Qualification Standards

So what's the point of this post? Well we need your help to be come more competitive. This past November, Tom Farrell has graciously agreed to lend his name to a $100,000 fund raising effort. Times aren't easy right now, so your support is graciously appreciated.

If you'd like to contribute, please feel free to contact Coach Hurt at the Track Office in St John's:

Email: hurtj@stjohns.edu

Tel: 718-9906159

We won't say no to checks made out to St John's University and mailed to:

St John's University

Attn: Track Office

8000 Utopia Parkway

Jamaica, NY 11439

New Team Member Set to Make Immediate Impact

This spring, Arina Gerasimova joined the St John's track team. Arina graduated from the University of Albany last year and has enrolled in St John's for graduate studies.

While at Albany, Arina was a standout Triple Jumper and in the 2 meets she has had, since joining the Red storm, Arina has risen to the top of the Big East rankings in her favored event with a jump of 12.34m (40'-6") at the New Balance meet in the Armory last week.

St John's Big East Track & Field Reception

St. John’s Track and Field Alumni and Friends Reception

at the

2009 Big East Indoor Track and Field Championships

Come join former track and field teammates and current friends of the program and cheer on the 2009 Red Storm team as they compete in the Big East Championships at the Armory in New York City

When:
Reception: Saturday Feb 21, 2009 ----5:00pm
Meet Starts: 8:00 AM
Meet Ends: 6:00 PM

Where:
Armory Track and Field Center 216 Fort Washington Ave(one block west of Broadway between 168th and 169th streets in Manhattan) New York, NY (Our reception will be held in the HOSPITALITY ROOM on the Balcony Level of the Arena across from the main concessions stand)

Cost:
A minimum $25 donation to the St. John’s Track and Field Program is suggested to help defray the costs of the reception. (Please note that the Armory is also charging a separate meet entrance fee of $15).

Directions / Parking:
Please visit http://www.armorytrack.com/ for specific driving directions and parking information for the Armory Track and Field Center.

RSVP:
Please RSVP (required) by February 17 to Martin Nutty at nuttym@stjohns.edu or 917-415-1718.

Spread the Word:
If you are in touch with your former teammates, please forward this message to them. We look forward to building an alumni/friends network and running three events per year which will correspond with the Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Track Seasons.

St John's University Women's Track & Field Team News:
To get the latest news on the STJ track team, please visit the women's track and field team home page at redstormsports.com. In addition, if you would like to receive current women's cross country and track and field news delivered straight to your own e-mail address, send an e-mail to Kristin Duffy at stjcommunications@stjohns.edu with "XC-TF E-mail" as the subject.

Further Questions:
If you have any questions about the event, please contact Martin Nutty at nuttym@stjohns.edu or 917-415-1718.

2nd Place Finish at Mets Jan 29, 2008

St John's improved from 5th place to 2nd in the Indoor Mets in Thursday Jan 29, 2009. The team scored 125 points in finishing 2nd to Seton Hall who scored 142 points.

A full meet report can be found at the Redstorm website. A full break down of the scoring can be found at the Mets results link.

The meet saw sophomore Bintou Dibba make a big breakthrough in the long jump with a winning leap of 19-0 3/4 or 5.81 meters which also qualified Bintou for the ECAC chamionships

Phobay Kutu-Akoy Burns Up the Track

Senior Phobay Kutu-Akoi has been burning up the track in the 60 meter dash. This past weekend at the New Balance meet in the Armory, Phobay had another PR of 7.47 in the Dash which ranks her 4th in the Big East rankings.

Recently Phobay was named Big East athlete of the week for her performances earlier in the year at the Penn state invitational.

Last week Phobay finished 2nd in the Mets in 200 meters with a new PR of 24.56.

Phobay is 3 hundreths of a second off the NCAA indoor provisional qualifer . Next week at the Big East could see her over the top in the Big East where the mettion will be stiff.

One Record Down Another to Go?

Priscilla Frederick took down the 24 year old record of Michele Holly at the Mets championships with a jump of 1.80 m (5-10 3/4). She did this while also debuting with a first place finish in the Mets Pentathalon. Priscilla also scared Theresa Jaeger's 29 year old STJ Pentathalon recod with a score of 3,684 points compared to TJ's 1980 mark of 3,803 points.

Priscilla followed up her Pentatalon win with a High Jump win the following day in addition to a fourth place finish in the Shot Put giving her a scoring tally of 25 points of the team's 125 points second place score at the Mets

For her recent efforts, Priscilla was named one of the Big East athletes of the week

Look out for Priscilla at the Big East early on Satuday morning Feb 21 at the Big East

Calling All Stanners - Tom Farrell to be Honored Feb 7th

A Stanner Track & Field Celebration
Saturday Februrary 7th 4 PM
Cost $30
With Tom Farrell '61
On the 40th Anniversary of his Olympic Bronze Medal

Stanner Wall of Honor Class of 2009
Richie Rodgers ’65 Coach
Matt Nazaruk ‘63
Richie Stuart ‘75
Don Cotter ‘76
James Bermudez ‘80
Wendell Bonhomme ‘85
Phil Hemery ‘89
Chris Lopez ‘91
Tony Pough ‘91
William Vespe ‘92
Kawan Lovelace ‘94
Joe Dombrowski Coach

Please contact jdombrowski@molloyhs.org For more information or to reserve your place

Great Dane Results Friday January 23

The STJ team turned in another good performance today at the Great Dane Meet on Friday at the Armory. The team finished 6th out of 30 scoring teams.

STJ packed a one two punch in the High Jump with Priscilla Frederick winning with a new PR and Provisional NCAA qualifier of 1.78 m (5'-10"). Finishing right behind Priscilla, Venisa Clark-Lee jumped 1.70m (5'-7") which qualifies Venisa for both the Big East and ECAC championships.

Sophomore Bintou Dibba backed up the jumps squad with a 4th place finish and Big East qualifier in the long jump with a leap of 5.64m (18'-6")

Leading the way on the track, Senior Tyneka Greene won the 800 in a Big East qualifying time of 2:15.76. Paula Rennalls improved her season best in the 200m with a 3rd place 24.75 finish. Fellow senior Phobay Kutu-Akoi followed Paula home with an 8th place 25.01 performance. Kim Piard followed her Big East qualifier last week in Penn State with a 9th place Big East qualifier in the 400 in a time of 57.73. Kim was followed by 3 other STJ athletes in cracking the 60 second barrier. The 400 meter relay squad teamed up to crack open an ECAC qualifier of 3:52.60.

In the field Freshman Chanel King continued to improve in the weight throw with an 8th place finish and another PR of 14.48m (47'-6 1/4")

Next up is the Metropolitan championships also at the Armory on Thursday at 4 PM. The meet promises to be a heavily contested event with strong teams being fielded by Rutgers, Manhattan College, Columbia and St John's

Penn State Results

The 2nd meet of the New Year is over and the STJ continues to show good progress with Big East and ECAC qualifiers at the Penn State Open.

Leading the way was Senior Phobay Kutu-Akoi with a Big East and ECAC qualifier of 24.77 in the 200 meters to go with her 60m qualifer at Yale last weekend. Phobay finished 7th in the 200 and 4th in her specialty 60m dash with a time of 7.58. Phobay was closely followed by fellow classmate Paula Rennalls who also qualified for the Big East and the ECAC in the 200 in a 9th place finish with a time of 24.82. In addition, Paula qualified for the Big East in the 60m dash with a time of 7.80.

Sophomore Kim Piard made also got her Big East and ECAC qualifiers in the 500 meters while finishing 6th in the 500m with a time of 1:15.98

The middle distance squad also showed their metal with senior Tyneka Greene getting her Big East and ECAC qualifiers with a 2nd place finsh of 2:54.75. Tyneka was joined in Big East qualification by Junior Pam Petruski in the 800m with a 3rd place finish in a time of 2:16:05.

In the field, Priscilla Fredricks repeated her High Jump win of last year and broke her meet record with with a jump of 1.74m (5-8 1/2). Priscilla has already comfortably qualified for the Big East and ECAC, she's now hunting for an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 1.78m (5-10.)

Freshman Chanel King continued to show good progress in Weight and the Shot Put with PRs of 14.08m (46-2 1/2) and 12.47m (40-11) respectively

Millrose Games Tickets

The 102nd Millrose Games will be held at Madison Square Garden on Friday January 30th starting at 6 PM. As usual we have purchased a block of 25 tickets in the green seat 300 section of The Garden. Tickets cost $30.00 which is a $10.00 discount on face value.

Currently 11 have been already been requested. If you'd like to attend, please contact Coach Hurt at 718 990-6159 or via email hurtj@stjohns.edu to reserve your tickets. Please specify the number of tickets you'll need.

Yale Meet Results

First meet of the New Year is in results can be found at the Yale Classic