NEW YORK—For anyone that was inside Icahn Stadium for the final day of the BIG EAST Outdoor Track & Field Championships presented by Jeep on Saturday afternoon, no vantage point was better than any other to see all the action from.  Regardless of where in the stadium or on what section of the track or field fans may have been focused on, most likely they were watching one or more Villanova athletes compete at a championship level.  A dominant team effort led the Wildcats to a familiar place as BIG EAST champions.  It is the second straight year, fourth time in the last six seasons and 12^th time overall that Villanova has won the BIG EAST trophy outdoors.  It is also the sixth consecutive conference title and second straight "triple crown" for the Wildcats spanning cross country, indoor and outdoor competition over the last two academic years. 
 
"I am so proud of the total team that we have," head coach Gina Procaccio said.  "I really am.  It just makes me incredibly proud to walk around the track or the field and constantly see Villanova with such a dominant presence in almost every event." 
 
Even by their own lofty standards, this particular Wildcats championship team had a little bit of everything.  Villanova had entries in 16 of the 19 individual events that were contested over the two-day meet and scored points in every one of them while producing multiple top-eight finishes in 11 of those events.  Add in podium finishes in both of the relay races the Wildcats ran and eight event titles in all, and you should have a pretty good idea of the meet's outcome.  Villanova scored 217 points to easily outdistance runner-up DePaul (159) and the rest of the eight-team field.  The margin of victory of 58 points marked only the fourth time in the 37-year history of the meet that the team champion won by more than 55 points.  Three of the four champions to win by such a dominant margin – all three coming in the last six years – have been Wildcats teams. 
 
"You have to have something to shoot for," Procaccio said of the team concept at meets like the conference championships.  That's when you see the athletes compete a little tougher, run a little faster, jump a little further.  It happens when they know they have a job to do, which is to score points for the team.  You saw it definitively with the way we stepped up in so many different areas today."
 
Villanova opened the BIG EAST meet with wins in the pole vault, the javelin and the 10000 meters on Friday afternoon.  The wait to see where the Wildcats would claim their next title was a short one.  A team consisting of sophomore Trudy-Ann Williamson (Kingston, Jamaica), sophomore Sarah Jones (Sewell, N.J.), junior Danielle Burns (Phoenix, Ariz.) and freshman Trinity Hart (Scotch Plains, N.J.) opened Saturday's program by winning the 4x100 meter relay in 46.42.  It is the first time since the inaugural BIG EAST women's meet in 1983 that Villanova has won the 4x100 relay. 
 
Williamson was an individual champion later on Saturday afternoon when she won the 100 meters in 11.78.  Graduate student Caroline Alcorta (Springfield, Va.) completed a 5K/10K double by winning the 5000 meters with a time of 15:51.13.  She posted a victory in the 10000 meters to wrap up action on Friday evening.  The other event titles on the second and final day of action came from freshman Sanaä Barnes (Keller, Texas) in the high jump and freshman Liv Morgan (Bronx, N.Y.) in the heptathlon. 
 
The 4x100 relay is one of the less frequent events for the Wildcats, but the team ran two 4x100 races at the Penn Relays last month.  That experience helped build some momentum for the team, although St. John's also competed at the Penn Relays and posted two faster times than Villanova at the meet.  On Saturday however, Hart got the baton with the lead and then did all she could to will herself across the finish line in front of DePaul, St. John's and the rest of the field.  Hart held off a challenger from the Blue Demons by 0.13 seconds, with the Red Storm just over half a second off the pace. 
 
Some of the Wildcats top performers for the weekend made up the 4x100 relay team.  Williamson added to her title in the 100 meters by finishing second in the 200 meters with a time of 24.42.  She had recorded a personal best time of 24.06 in the preliminary heats on Friday.  Burns and Jones finished second and third in the final of the 100 meter hurdles, with Burns also placing third in the 400 meter hurdles later in the afternoon. 
 
Alcorta was followed across the finish line in the 5000 meters by senior Nicole Hutchinson (West Vancouver, B.C.) in third place (16:19.17) and sophomore Lauren Ryan (South Yarra, Australia) in fourth (17:00.60).  Ryan also led Villanova with a third place finish in the final of the 1500 meters (4:36.26).  Junior Sammy Bockoven (Hudson, Ohio) was fifth (4:36.94) and senior Ann Campbell (Mission Hills, Kan.) sixth (4:39.31). 
 
Sophomore middle distance runner Rachel McArthur (Bristow, Va.) came in second in the 800 meters with a time of 2:07.05, while junior Amari Onque-Shabazz (Plainfield, N.J.) was fifth (2:09.78) and freshman Reilly Siebert (Syosset, N.Y.) seventh (2:17.42). 
 
There was plenty in store for the Wildcats in Saturday's field events.  Barnes cleared the bar at 1.81 meters to win the high jump, while junior Sofia Calabrese (Edwards, Colo.) was seventh with a height of 1.60 meters.  Villanova also had two scorers in the triple jump, with junior Gloria Donou (East Brunswick, N.J.) placing third (11.76 meters) and senior Alex Patrick (Media, Pa.) coming in fourth (11.16m).  Senior thrower Alex Zimmerman (Lititz, Pa.) finished seventh in the discus with a distance of 39.48 meters.
 
Saturday began with the final three events in the heptathlon, where Morgan staged a come-from-behind victory over Niki Ezeh of Butler.  When the group of multi-event athletes broke for the day on Friday, Ezeh led Morgan by a margin of 282 points.  It took two of the three remaining events on Saturday for Morgan to make up the gap.  She started the day with a long jump of 5.18 meters, instantly cutting into the deficit and getting to within 152 points.  The real game-changer was the javelin, in which Morgan threw for 40.89 meters and Ezeh for a distance of 31.19 meters.  That was a big enough margin to change the scoreboard, as Morgan surged to a 33-point lead (4,177 points to 4,144) with only the 800 meters left.  She then came in second among the heptathletes in the 800 meters – behind only Calabrese – and wound up finishing ahead of Ezeh by 86 points (4,901-4,815) in the final overall tally. 
 
Calabrese followed Morgan with a fifth place finish (4,291 points), while senior Niki Cleary (Flemington, N.J.) was seventh (4,170) and junior Ava Coleman (Southington, Conn.) was ninth (3,892).