JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Competition gets underway on Thursday afternoon at the NCAA East Preliminary for the 18 members of the Villanova men's and women's track & field teams who qualified for the early rounds of the NCAA championship meet. This year's NCAA East Preliminary meet runs from Thursday through Saturday at Hodges Stadium, with the top performers from the meet advancing to the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas next month.
Villanova will have 11 of its athletes in competition on a busy day Thursday, which begins with the first round of women's javelin at 12 p.m. and ends with the national semifinal heats of the men's 10000 meters at 9:40 p.m. In between is the first round of the women's high jump, along with first round heats of the 400 meter hurdles, 1500 meters and 100 meters.
This week's meet will stream live on Flotrack for PRO subscribers, while the links at the top of this release access live results and related meet information. Below is the Wildcats schedule of events for Thursday's action at the NCAA East Preliminary.
12:00 PM – Women's Javelin First Round
Taryn Ashby (Sophomore; Pittston, Pa.)
Ashby is making her second straight appearance at the NCAA East Preliminary after being a qualifier for the meet as a freshman last season. She is in the midst of a strong sophomore campaign, which includes defending her BIG EAST title from a year ago and setting the school record for the current javelin implement. Ashby threw for 48.03 meters (157'7") at the Florida Relays in March and is ranked 27
th among the 48 accepted entries to the preliminary meet.
3:30 PM – Women's High Jump First Round
Sanaä Barnes (Freshman; Keller, Texas)
Barnes will be looking to return to the NCAA Championships after earning first team All-America honors in the high jump indoors. She is came in fourth at the indoor national meet to become Villanova's first women's All-American in any of the jumps and also the team's first indoor All-American in a field event. In just her first year of collegiate competition, Barnes has set the school record in the high jump both indoors and outdoors while claiming both the indoor and outdoor BIG EAST titles. Her best mark of the outdoor season came at the Penn Relays on April 27 when she cleared a height of 1.82 meters (5'11 ½"), while her indoor school record is 1.84 meters (6'0 ½") and her lifetime best is 1.85 meters (6'0 ¾"). Barnes is one of eight qualifiers for the NCAA East Preliminary to have cleared 1.82 meters or higher for the outdoor season.
4:30 PM – Women's 400 Meter Hurdles First Round
Danielle Burns (Junior; Phoenix, Ariz.)
Burns is making her debut at the NCAA East Preliminary after a strong season of competition. She recorded a personal best time of 59.99 in the 400 meter hurdles at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Miami on April 13 and is ranked seventh in school history with that time. Burns earned All-BIG EAST honors earlier this month in both the 400 meter hurdles and the 100 meter hurdles, while running a leg of the Wildcats conference champion 4x100 meter relay. There are six heats in the national first round of the 400 meter hurdles, with the top three finishers in each heat and the next six fastest times advancing to the quarterfinal. Burns will race on Thursday in the last of the six first round heats.
5:00 PM – Men's 400 Meter Hurdles First Round
Keegan Hughes (Sophomore; Malvern, Pa.)
Hughes has made steady progress during the first two seasons of his collegiate career and will be competing at the NCAA East Preliminary for the first time. He posted a then-lifetime best mark of 52.68 at the Penn Relays in April, then lowered his time by another three-tenths of a second to his current top mark of 52.37 at the BIG EAST Championships two weeks ago. Hughes has been the BIG EAST champion in the 400 meter hurdles in each of the last two seasons, and at this year's conference meet he also anchored Villanova to an All-BIG EAST finish in the 4x400 meter relay. There are six heats in the national first round of the 400 meter hurdles, with the top three finishers in each heat and the next six fastest times advancing to the quarterfinal. Hughes will race on Thursday in the first of the six first round heats.
5:30 PM – Women's 1500 Meters First Round
Nicole Hutchinson (Senior; West Vancouver, B.C.)
Rachel McArthur (Sophomore; Bristow, Va.)
Hutchinson and McArthur are ranked second and third, respectively, among the accepted entries to the East preliminary in the 1500 meters. Hutchinson tallied her lifetime best mark of 4:13.71 in the 1500 meters at this meet two years ago, when she advanced to the NCAA Championships and went on to earn honorable mention All-America honors. Her best time this season is 4:14.01 from the Sam Howell Invitational on April 6. Hutchinson is no stranger to national competition, as she followed up her appearance at the 2017 national meet by earning second team All-America honors in the 5000 meters last year. She is also a three-time indoor All-American, including earning second team honors in the Mile and the 3000 meters over the past two seasons.
McArthur will be competing in the 1500 meters at the NCAA East Preliminary for the second straight year. Her season and lifetime best mark of 4:14.91 was recorded in the Cardinal Classic at Stanford on April 20, where she lowered her previous top mark by more than five seconds. McArthur posted a time of 4:19.99 in the national first round heats at the NCAA East Preliminary a year ago, then ran in the quarterfinal round during a torrential downpour. She built on a strong freshman campaign by running at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Finland last summer, and earlier this year was a part of the Wildcats first team All-America performance indoors in the distance medley relay.
There are four heats in the national first round of the 1500 meters, with the top five finishers in each heat and the next four fastest times advancing to the quarterfinal. Hutchinson will race in the first heat on Thursday and McArthur will be in the fourth heat.
6:00 PM – Men's 1500 Meters First Round
Casey Comber (Junior; Maple Glen, Pa.)
Logan Wetzel (Junior; Saline, Mich.)
Comber is one of the top qualifiers in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:42.54 from the Joe Walker Invite at Ole Miss earlier this season. He won the BIG EAST title in the 1500 meters two weeks ago in a tune-up performance for the NCAA East Preliminary, which he made his debut at last year when he competed in the national semifinal heats of the 5000 meters. Comber joined the ranks of the top middle distance runners in Villanova history earlier this year when he ran his first career sub-four minute mile (3:57.80) in Boston on February 9. He is the 41
st member of the Wildcats "sub-four" club and went on to be the runner-up in the Mile at the NCAA Championships.
Wetzel will be competing in the 1500 meters at the NCAA East Preliminary for the second time in his career after advancing to the quarterfinal round as a redshirt freshman two years ago. He has been in top form during the current outdoor campaign, including posting a lifetime best mark of 3:44.73 at the Stanford Invitational on March 29. Wetzel earned All-BIG EAST honors in the 1500 meters with a third place finish at the conference meet, while he and Comber teamed up to run the second half of Villanova's champion 4x800 meter relay.
There are four heats in the national first round of the 1500 meters, with the top five finishers in each heat and the next four fastest times advancing to the quarterfinal. Wetzel will race in the first heat on Thursday and Comber will be in the fourth heat.
6:30 PM – Women's 100 Meters First Round
Trudy-Ann Williamson (Sophomore; Kingston, Jamaica)
This is the first appearance at the NCAA East Preliminary for Williamson, who in her third year at Villanova and her second season of outdoor competition after a redshirt season two years ago. She is the school record holder in the 100 meters with a mark of 11.58 which she set at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Miami last month, and Williamson holds four of the eight fastest times in the Wildcats record book overall. She won the BIG EAST title in the 100 meters two weeks ago and led off the team's conference champion 4x100 meter relay. Williamson is a four-time BIG EAST champion and a seven-time All-BIG EAST performer during her Villanova career. There are six heats in the national first round of the 100 meters, with the top three finishers in each heat and the next six fastest times advancing to the quarterfinal. Williamson will be in the final heat on Thursday evening.
9:00 PM – Women's 10000 Meters Semifinal
Caroline Alcorta (Graduate Student; Springfield, Va.)
The national semifinal round of the 10000 meters will wrap up Thursday's action, with the top 12 finishers in the race advancing to the NCAA Championships. Alcorta is ranked third among the 48 qualifiers for the NCAA East Preliminary with her time of 32:53.26 which was recorded at the Stanford Invitational earlier this year. That is the second-fastest time in school history and was nearly a full minute faster than Alcorta ran at the NCAA Championships last season, when she finished 14
th and earned second team All-America honors while running for North Carolina. This is the fourth time that Alcorta will be running at the NCAA East Preliminary and the second year in a row that she will be competing in the semifinal round of both the 5000 meters and the 10000 meters.
9:40 PM – Men's 10000 Meters Semifinal
Andrew Marston (Junior; Wayne, Pa.)
Marston will run in the national semifinal round of the 10000 meters for the second straight year. He recorded a personal best time of 29:21.46 at the Stanford Invitational earlier this year, with that time ranking as the 10
th fastest in school history and putting Marston sixth overall on Villanova's all-time performance list in the event. He came in 19
th at the NCAA East Preliminary last year and is ranked 25
th among the qualifiers this season. Marston is coming off an All-BIG EAST performance in the 5000 meters two weeks ago. The top 12 finishers in Thursday's semifinal race will advance to the NCAA Championships.
