Kristi Licursi: Walking into Marist track history

Thanks to very alert (and extremely loyal) blog follower Peter Van Aken for pointing out that I made reference to freshman Kristi Licursi and her qualification for USA Juniors in the 10,000-meter racewalk, but I did not provide any more details in that post from last week. Peter, being a huge fan of the sport on all levels, and a huge fan of under-appreciated track events such as the hammer throw (one of his specialties) and the racewalk, wanted more details on this. Here you go ...

First of all, in the interests of accuracy, the photo above (taken by Dan Asaro) is from Kristi at the Stony Brook "Wolfie" Invitational in the 1,500-meter run (not walk!) about a month ago. Anyway, Kristi qualified at the New Jersey Racewalk Series 5-kilometer event on May 3 in Whiting, N.J. Kristi racewalked 5,000 meters in 28:12, bettering the USA Junior standard of 28:30 for that distance, which qualifies her to racewalk at 10,000 meters out in Oregon on Saturday, July 5; we believe she is the first racewalker to represent Marist at the USA Juniors -- without question, she is the first female walker for us at the meet. Kristi won the race in New Jersey, which was held on a 1,250-meter loop.

For those keeping score at home, here are her splits: 6:48, 14:02 (7:14), 21:07 (7:05), 28:12 (7:05). Nicely done, Kristi!

Kristi came to us from Somers High School in Westchester County, where she was on the track team and did the racewalk in high school. Since racewalking is not a recognized event or sport in the college track ranks, Kristi is a good sport and trains for and races cross country and occasional track meets. We are proud of her racewalking exploits, skills and toughness, and we look forward to her competing out in Oregon with the red-and-white of Marist in the early summer.