University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Judi St. Hilaire 1981 - Cross Country, Track and Field
A 1991 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee and arguably the greatest distance runner to compete for UVM track and field, Judi St. Hilaire had gone on to rack up even more impressive achievements as one of the United States' top road racers.
A top candidate for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team, St. Hilaire was most recently named to the U.S. Track and Field team, which competed in the International Amateur Athletic Federation World Championships in Tokyo earlier last month. St. Hilaire finished 7th in the women's 3,000-meters in a personal best 8:44.02, her first venture into international waters in a major championship.
Still UVM's record holder of five indoor and six outdoor track and field marks, she capped her collegiate career with a first-place finish in the 10,000-meters at the AAU Nationals in 1980. That fall, her senior season, she would win the Eastern Conference cross country individual championship and finish 4th at the nationals. The Vermont Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, originally from Lyndonville, named St. Hilaire, Vermont's Athlete of the Year in 1981 as selected.
A recipient of both the Wason Athletic Prize ("combining academics and athletic skills") and the Semans Trophy ("leadership, loyalty and athletic achievements") at UVM's Senior Letterwiners dinner in 1981, St. Hilaire didn't hesitate to jump into the rigors of professional road racing. Competing for the Nike International Team since graduating from UVM in 1981, St. Hilaire has posted some heady achievements including setting American records in the ten and 15 kilometers. She also finished 5th - among women runners - in the 1984 New York City Marathon and has won several major road races including an upset in the 1989 Peachtree Classic (10k) and a win this year at the Crescent City in New Orleans (10k).
St. Hilaire is also the American 5k road record holder, setting marks in the distance in 1989 (15:26 at Albany, N.Y.) and in 1991 (15:25 at Ft. Myers, Fla.). For the last two years, she has been listed No. 2 in the AT&T Road Race rankings in the Runners rankings in the Runners World magazine.
In 1999, Sports Illustrated ranked St. Hilaire 35th in its Top 50 Sports Figures From Vermont (1900-2000).
