PHILADELPHIA (02/10/03) - The 4x400 relay team for the Saint Joseph's men's track team had quite a month of January. For their efforts, they have been named the NovaCare Athlete of the Month. At the Fordham Invitational on January 10, the quartet of junior Nick Carras, freshman Andrew Thomas, senior Jerry Puryear, and sophomore Doug Rick ran a time of 3:13.81, breaking the school record set last season. With the race, they also met IC4A qualifying standards. After not breaking the mark in their next meet, the USTCA at Penn State, the Hawks returned the next week to improve their time by .08 seconds and snap the school record yet again. Individually, the relay members didn't have a bad month either, as Rick and Carras earned the Atlantic 10 Performer of the Week and Thomas was honored with two Rookie of the Week awards. Previous winners of the NovaCare Athlete of the Month include: men's soccer goalie Kevin Dougher (September), women's tennis player Katie Bobish (October), freshman harrier Andre Laboy (November) and men's basketball player Jameer Nelson (December).