By Dylan Butler
Several current and former St. John’s men’s soccer players enjoyed outstanding summers playing in various leagues.
Leading the group of current players is sophomore midfielder Chris Corcoran, who started in the midfield for the Cape Cod Crusaders of the Premier Development League.
The Marshfield, Mass. native earned PDL Team of the Week honors and was voted the Crusaders’ most valuable player by the club’s coaching staff.
Corcoran helped lead the Crusaders to a 16-4-2 record and defeated the Boulder Rapid Reserves to win the PDL national championship.
Starting for the Brooklyn Knights, also in the PDL, were sophomore Andre Schmid, junior goalkeeper Billy Gaudette, seniors Rich Bradley and Pat Lonergan and junior Angel Rodriguez. Lonergan, Schmid and Bradley were each named to the PDL Team of the Week during the season.
A pair of former Red Storm players are playing well in the A-League, one notch below Major League Soccer.
Dan Popik, one of the top goalkeepers in St. John’s history, is the starting keeper with the Milwaukee Rampage. In his third year with the club, Popik has started 20 games and has an 11-5-4 record with a 1.55 goals against average and seven shutouts.
Brent Sancho, a member of the 1996 National Championship squad and who played for the Trinidad and Tobago National Team in World Cup qualifiers, is a starting defender for the Portland Timbers and has twice been named to the A-League Team of the Week.
Several former St. John’s standouts played for the New York Freedoms in the D3-Pro League, coached by former Red Storm teammates David Price and Jon Urbom. Current St. John’s assistant coach Jesse Van Saun, Ranford Champagnie, Shalrie Joseph, Kevin Daly, Ben Hickey and Paul Cusano played for the Freedoms, who lost a first-round playoff game to the Long Island Rough Riders.
Also in the D3-Pro League were Jeff Matteo and Danny Parkin, who played for the Westchester Flames.
In other St. John’s athletics news, senior golfer Andrew Svoboda finished third at the Mittlemark Invitational earlier this month in Scarsdale, N.Y. The tournament was held at Fenway Golf Club and featured some of the area’s top amateur golfers.
Svoboda, the defending Mittlemark champion, carded a two-round score of one-over par 141. After sharing the lead after a morning round of one-over par 71, Svoboda shot an even-par 70 in the afternoon to finish three strokes behind champion Joel Lulla.
St. John’s alum Joe Salandino finished in fifth place, carding a three-over par 143, five strokes off the pace.
Svoboda qualified for the United States Amateur Golf Championships, which started Monday at Oakland Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. He is the eighth Red Storm golfer to qualify in the past six years.
Former teammate Jesse Fitzgerald qualified as an alternate at the sectional held at Long Island Golf Club in Riverhead. He carded a two round score of 153, three shots off the lead.
The St. John’s fencing team is well represented at the 2002 Senior World Championships, which started Saturday in Lisbon, Portugal.
Competing for the United States in the sabre is senior Ivan Lee, who is ranked No. 2 in the U.S. and 52 in the world. The Brooklyn native is a two-time IFA and NCAA champion and helped lead St. John’s to the 2001 NCAA national championship.
Joining Lee in the sabre is Red Storm alum Keeth Smart, the top ranked American male and 16th overall in the sabre. He was a member of the 2001 NCAA championship team and the 2000 U.S. Olympic team.
Another St. John’s alum, Jonathan Tiomkin, also from Brooklyn, was named to the World Championship Foil team. Tiomkin, who earned a silver medal in the foil at the 2002 NCAA championship and captained the Red Storm to a second place finish, is the top ranked American male in the foil and is ranked 52nd in the world.
St. John’s fencing coach Yury Gelman, who has developed St. John’s into a perennial powerhouse in seven years, will serve as coach for the U.S. World Championship team.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
