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NEW YORK - The first night of competition in the BIG EAST Championships at the New York Armory looked very similar to what a highlight reel from last year's opening day would look like. Villanova successfully defended its conference titles in three different events and scored 48.5 points as the BIG EAST meet got underway on Saturday night.

Sophomore distance runner Patrick Tiernan (Toowoomba, Australia) won the 5000 meters and senior Elbert Maxwell (Pittsburgh, Pa.) captured the title in the long jump as both tallied second consecutive titles in their respective events. In addition, the Wildcats won the distance medley relay championship for the third straight year. The winning lineup in the DMR included senior Chris O'Sullivan (Havertown, Pa.), senior Cory Serfoss (Easton, Pa.), sophomore Josh Lampron (Mansfield, Mass.) and junior Jordy Williamsz (Melbourne, Australia).

In all, eight different athletes scored team points on Saturday night and the Wildcats also qualified at least one person for the final in each of the five events that held preliminary heats. Two other athletes are on track to be scorers in the heptathlon, which completed four events and has three left to be contested.

Tiernan was competing for the first time since the cross country national championships in November but showed no signs of rust. There was little separation in the large pack of runners until there was just over 1000 meters remaining. Tiernan made a move at that point and pulled comfortably out in front, with Jonathan Green of Georgetown and Shane Quinn of Providence in pursuit. By the final 400 meters, Tiernan and Quinn had turned the race into a two-man competition. Tiernan broke away for good on his final lap and recorded a winning time of 14:18.04. He finished 1.49 seconds ahead of Quinn. Junior Robert Hurlbut (Rochester, N.Y.) came in seventh with a personal best time of 14:30.28.

Villanova has now produced the conference indoor 5000 meters champion in four of the last five years. Prior to the consecutive titles by Tiernan, former Wildcats standout Hugo Beamish was a repeat champion in 2011 and 2012. The only other Villanova runner to win an indoor 5000 meters title was John Keyworth in 1983.

By contrast, the Wildcats have won more titles in the distance medley relay than in any other event. This is the third straight year and the seventh time since 2001 that Villanova has won the event, and also the second time that the Wildcats have had a string of three straight titles. Villanova also won in three consecutive years from 2002-04 and is the only program to ever win three straight titles in the relay.

O'Sullivan ran a strong opening leg with a split of 2:59.69 and handed the baton to Serfoss, who quickly made up ground over his first 200 meters to put the Wildcats in second place. Serfoss wound up with a split of 51.85 for his 400 meters leg, while Lampron ran the 800 meters leg in 1:51.0. During the 1600 meters anchor leg, there was a three-team race featuring Williamsz, Christian Alvarado of Georgetown and Cody Haberkorn of Marquette. Williamsz was content to sit on the heels of the other two runners for most of that anchor leg.

There were 400 meters to go when Williamsz put the race away. He surged into the lead and never looked back, although that still did not foreshadow what he would during his final lap around the banked 200 meter oval. The first place finish was already in hand when Williamsz catapulted to another level at the start of the bell lap. He wound up covering the final 200 meters in 25.5 seconds to bring the race home. Villanova's winning time was 9:51.20, four seconds fast then Georgetown and more than seven seconds ahead of Marquette and the rest of the field.

Maxwell was the Wildcats third repeat champion of the night and he essentially captured the long jump title on his first attempt of the evening. He recorded a distance of 7.43 meters on his first attempt of the night, with that jump holding up and becoming the winning mark. It is the third-longest indoor attempt of Maxwell's collegiate career, trailing only his winning distance of 7.46 meters at last year's meet and a mark of 7.45 meters from the 2014 Mason Last Chance Meet. Maxwell is the only Villanova athlete to win the indoor BIG EAST long jump.

Freshman James Deutmeyer (Rye, N.Y.) led a group of four Wildcats who all scored in the pole vault. Deutmeyer was the runner-up with a height of 4.70 meters. His top-three finish makes him the third Villanova athlete to become an All-BIG EAST performer in the event indoors, while his mark of 4.70 meters also matches a season best. Sophomore Kolby Koeck (Altoona, Pa.) tied for fifth place with a successful attempt of 4.30 meters, while junior Robert Cacace (Yonkers, N.Y.) and sophomore P.J. Succi (Warminster, Pa.) each cleared 3.20 meters to place seventh and eighth, respectively. Cacace and Succi were also competing in the heptathlon throughout the evening.

In the weight throw, junior James Rowen (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) notched a seventh place finish with a mark of 14.42 meters to add two more team points to the Wildcats total.

Senior Dusty Solis (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and junior Rob Denault (Aurora, Ont.) ran in the second of two preliminary heats in the Mile and were the top two finishers in their heat. Solis crossed the finish line first in 4:19.27, while Denault was less than half a second behind him with a time of 4:19.60. The final of the Mile is the first race up on Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m.

The other Villanova qualifiers for the finals came in the 60 meters, the 200 meters, the 400 meters and the 500 meters. Junior Donald Urschel (East Brunswick, N.J.) was an automatic qualifier in both the 60 meters and the 200 meters. He came in second in his heat of the 60 meters with a personal best time of 7.05 and then later won his heat of the 200 meters in 22.38. Sophomore Vince Thompson (Pipersville, Pa.) advanced on time to the final of the 200 meters after finishing fourth in his heat in 22.60.

In the preliminaries of the 400 meters, the trio of sophomore Alex Reber (Cherry Hill, N.J.), senior Bryan Murphy (Teaneck, N.J.) and sophomore Kyle Cartwright (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) all advanced on time to the final. Reber and Murphy came in third and fourth, respectively, in the first heat with times of 49.82 and 49.88. Cartwright finished third in the second heat and his time of 49.91 set a new personal best.

Freshman Ishmael Muhammad (Mays Landing, N.J.) and sophomore Peter Winslow (Stratham, N.H.) each moved on to the final of the 500 meters. They were the second and third place finishers in the first heat of the event with respective times of 1:05.41 and 1:05.73.

Through the first four events of the heptathlon, Cacace and Succi rank fifth and seventh overall while senior Chris Gough (Winslow, N.J.) is 10th. Cacace had the top mark in the shot put out of the 10 athletes with a throw of 11.44 meters.