BETHPAGE, N.Y. (Sept. 6, 2008) – St. John’s three rookies, Sabine Schneider, Aryon Trujillo and Nicole Cocozza, helped lead the way in the Red Storm cross country team’s season-opening win at the Hofstra Invitational 5K on Saturday. The trio finished in the top four, with Schneider winning the event and St. John’s sophomore Sarah Sudbury finishing runner-up.
With underclassmen Schneider, Sudbury, Trujillo and Cocozza coming in one through four, and junior Sarah Fry and sophomore Kayla Regulski, finishing fifth and sixth, St. John’s won the invitational with 15 points and an average time of 20:28.65.
Schneider clocked in at 19:52.93, while Sudbury followed at 20:15.58. Trujillo and Cocozza also finished within seconds of each other with times of 20:24.11 and 20:46.89.
Sophomore Lori Dougherty was the final point-scorer for the morning with a ninth place finish of 21:33.08.
Hofstra came in second with 56 points and New Jersey Institute of Technology followed in third place with 72 points.
Senior Rakibat Abiola and junior Pamela Petruski finished 10th and 12th, while sophomores Katrina Schaefer, Kim Piard, Laura Walsh and Shakira Best came in 18th, 20th, 24th and 30th.
St. John’s was without the efforts of 2007’s cross country MVP and top-runner, senior Tyneka Greene, who did not compete in Saturday’s race.
Last season, the Red Storm finished third of four teams.
Next up, St. John’s will travel to Notre Dame, Ind., to run against the top competition from the country’s best Catholic schools at the annual National Catholic Championships 5k run, hosted by University of Notre Dame. The race will begin at 5 p.m. EST on Friday, Sept. 19. The St. John’s men’s soccer team will also be at Notre Dame the same weekend.