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Women's Track and Field

Jim Hurt
Jim Hurt
  • Title:
    Track and Field/Cross Country Head Coach
  • Email:
    hurtj@stjohns.edu
  • Phone:
    6159

Jim Hurt is in his 33rd year as the head coach of the St. John’s cross country and track & field teams, and in his 39th season overall with the Red Storm. Since becoming head coach in 1988, Hurt’s teams have made an impact at the national, regional, and conference levels. His athletes have appeared in NCAA Championships for 28 consecutive years, in 17 USA National Championships, and five USA Olympic Trials while winning 35 Metropolitan Conference titles.

Under Hurt’s leadership, Red Storm teams finished second at the 1996 IC4A Cross Country Championships, second at the 1989, 1996, and 2016 ECAC Indoor Championships and second at the 1993 Cross Country ECAC Championship. The Red Storm has finished as the runner-up at four BIG EAST Championships and produced hundreds of All-BIG EAST individual honors.

Since 1988 ten Red Storm athletes and coaches have appeared in five Olympic Games, 2016 (Rio de Janeiro), 2012 (London), 2004 (Athens), 2000 (Sydney) and 1996 Atlanta). Twelve Red Storm athletes have competed in five USA Olympic trials. Seventeen athletes and coaches have gone to fifteen World Championships in Sweden, Japan, Ireland, Poland, Canada, Spain, Doha, and the United States.

Hurt’s student-athletes have excelled in the classroom as well as in the athletic arena consistently earning Academic All-American honors in cross country and track & field and a top 10% national ranking with 1000% APR ranking.  His teams have posted 3.50 & higher GPA’s regularly and has one of the highest graduation rates in the nation.
His athletes have won NCAA and numerous BIG EAST post graduate scholarships and a Fullbright scholarship and have gone on to Law, Med, and graduate schools as well as successful careers in all walks of life.  His teams are active in the community through numerous community service opportunities and were ranked 8th in the nation for women’s track & field teams in 2020.

St. John’s athletes have participated in World University Games (Spain), Commonwealth Games (England & Australia), Pan American Games (Argentina, Canada, Peru), CAC Games (Barbados & Guatemala), Asian Games (Singapore), and the Francophone Games (Africa). 

Red Storm athletes have won 18 individual national titles since 1988, producing 13 USA champions, two Irish national champions, a Jamaican national champion, a Dominican Republic national champion and a CAC champion. 23 Johnnies have won NCAA All-American honors in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track & field. 

Hurt has kept St. John’s committed to a total team philosophy that recruits and develops quality athletes in all event areas. He utilizes a national schedule that has Red Storm teams competing across the country at top venues that afford the highest levels of competition. Historic Van Cortlandt Park is the home for the cross country team, while the world class facility at the 168th Street Armory is home for indoor practice and competitions. The outdoor team uses DaSilva Memorial Field on the Queens Campus, which boasts a state-of-the art 400-meter oval. 

Hurt was a prep All-American in 1972, clocking a 4:10 mile at Proviso West High School in Hillside, Ill. At the University of Notre Dame, he captained the cross country and track & field teams and established school records in the three mile run and the 4 x 1 mile relay. Following graduation in 1976, Hurt competed for the University of Chicago Track Club and the Oregon Track Club. After attending graduate school at the University of Oregon, Hurt served three years as head track & field coach at Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore.  In 1982, Hurt moved to St. John’s to become the cross country and assistant track & field coach.

Currently, Hurt serves as the secretary-treasurer of the IC4A Coaches Association and was once president of the BIG EAST Coaches Association. In 1995, he served as distance coach for the East team at the USOC Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, Colo. That same year, Hurt and his staff were also named Staff of the Year in the BIG EAST Conference. In 1996, he was honored as NCAA Region II Cross Country Coach of the Year.

In 1989, Hurt earned his master’s degree in government and politics from St. John’s.

Hurt currently resides in Glen Cove, N.Y., with his wife Ann. He has two daughters, Kathleen Urtnowski and Cynthia, and a son, James. He is also the proud grandfather of Cassandra Anne Urtnowski.