SAN JOSE, Costa Rica—Three events and three gold medals.  The results could not have been any better for the trio of Villanova student-athletes who competed at the Pan American U20 Championships in Costa Rica this weekend.  Rising sophomores Sanaä Barnes (Keller, Texas) and Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) won gold for the United States in the high jump and the 3000 meter steeplechase, respectively, while incoming freshman Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) captured a gold medal for Canada in the 1500 meters. 
 
This is the first time in the 20 editions of the Pan American U20 meet that as many as three current or incoming Wildcats student-athletes have earned medals.  The meet, formerly known as the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships, was first held in 1980 and in its current format is contested every other year.  This year marked the first time that the meet was held in Costa Rica, with three days of action taking place at Estadio Nacional in San Jose. 
 
Barnes won the high jump on Saturday night with a height of 1.83 meters (6-0) in a back-and-forth duel where she and Lamara Distin of Jamaica swapped the lead multiple times.  In two races held less than an hour apart on Sunday afternoon, Smith pulled away to win the 1500 meters in 4:25.47 and Olivere made a big surge in the final two laps of the steeplechase to set an all-seasons school record with a time of 10:12.16.  Olivere was in second place with just over 800 meters left when she made her move, which was a decisive one.  She broke away from runner-up Grace Fetherstonaugh to win by a margin of nearly 20 seconds. 
 
The present and future of the perennially successful Villanova program was on display in this weekend's three events.  Barnes and Olivere qualified for the Pan American meet by finishing in the top two of their respective events at the USATF U20 Championships in Florida last month.  Both were coming off successful freshman campaigns, with Barnes earning first team All-America honors in the high jump both indoors and outdoors.  She is the Wildcats first women's athlete to be an All-American in any of the jumps and was also the first indoor All-American from the women's program in any field event. 
 
Olivere was the BIG EAST runner-up in the steeplechase and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary in the event, which she only ran for the first time in late March.  She was also part of a BIG EAST champion distance medley relay indoors, and was both a first team All-BIG EAST and a Mid-Atlantic All-Region performer during cross country season.  Smith earned her spot at the Pan American U20 Championships for Athletics Canada by running a personal best time of 4:21.94 at the Nova Scotia provincial championships earlier this year.  It has been a successful year of competition for Smith in 2019, as she has recorded personal best times in the 1000 meters, the 1500 meters and the 3000 meters indoors as well as the 1500 meters, Mile, 3000 meters and 5000 meters outdoors.
 
Villanova has now had eight medalists all-time at the Pan American U20 Championships, based on records immediately available following the conclusion of this year's meet.  Barnes and Olivere each won gold medals this summer after competing a year of collegiate competition.  Smith joins three former Wildcats who medaled at the U20 meet in the summer entering their freshman year of college.  The others are Becky Spies (silver medal, 1500 meters, 1991); Charmaine Walker (gold medal, 100 meter hurdles, 1997); and Kelsey Margey (silver medal, 1500 meters, 2013).  On the men's side, Rodney Wilson was a gold medalist in the 110 meter hurdles in 1980 and David Cook won a silver medal in the decathlon in 1991.  Both were rising sophomores at the time they competed at the Pan American junior meet. 
 
Below are additional highlights of each of the three events from this past weekend. 

 
 
HIGH JUMP
Sanaä Barnes – Gold Medal (1.83 Meters/6-0)
 
Barnes came into the competition with the bar at a height of 1.70 meters (5-7) and easily cleared the opening height to tie for the lead with Distin, who at that point in the evening had been successful on each of her first three attempts.  The bar next moved to 1.75 meters (5-8.75), at which the field was whittled down to just five competitors.  Distin made it over the bar on her first attempt to move into the lead, with Barnes in second place after needing two tries at that height. 
 
The standings flipped at 1.78 meters (5-10), with Barnes successful on her first jump and Distin making it over on her second attempt.  Each of the other three remaining athletes – Shelby Tyler from the United States, Janique Burgher from Jamaica and Alexa Porpaczy from Canada – also cleared the bar at 1.78 meters.  Another swap of the lead occurred at 1.81 meters (5-11.25) when Distin made her first attempt and Barnes cleared on her second try.  The other three athletes all missed on their three attempts to set up a 1-on-1 finish between Barnes and Distin.  
 
They each missed their first two attempts at 1.83 meters (6-0), but Barnes made it over the bar on her third and final attempt to notch the decisive jump.  Distin missed on her third try at 1.83 meters, while Barnes continued in the competition and missed on three attempts to set what would have been a new personal best at 1.86 meters (6-1.25). 
 
The winning height of 1.83 meters was nevertheless Barnes' best jump of the 2019 outdoor season.  She had previously cleared 1.82 meters (5-11.5) in a runner-up finish at the Penn Relays, made it over the bar at 1.81 meters at both the BIG EAST Championships and the NCAA Championships, and recorded a height of 1.80 meters to tie for first place at the NCAA East Preliminary.  Barnes' best jump of 2019 was a school record of 1.84 meters (6-0.5) at the indoor NCAA meet, while her lifetime best of 1.85 meters (6-0.75) came at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships last year. 
 
1500 METERS
Maggie Smith – Gold Medal (4:25.47)
 
Smith went wire-to-wire with the lead in the 1500 meters, which was originally scheduled to have a preliminary round on Saturday before becoming a final-only event.  She eased to the front of the pack on the first lap around the track and then steadily pulled away from Canadian teammate Jocelyn Chau, a rising sophomore at Yale who had been a quarterfinalist in the 1500 meters at the NCAA East Preliminary this spring and the ECAC champion in the Mile during the 2019 indoor season. 
 
After running with a lead that was as much as 50 meters at one point during the race, Smith crossed the finish line with a winning time of 4:25.47.  She held off rising sophomore Rachel Hickey of Illinois State (4:26.83) and Chau (4:27.20), with the rest of the field of 12 runners an additional three seconds behind. 
 
3000 METER STEEPLECHASE
Lydia Olivere – Gold Medal (10:12.16)
 
Olivere lowered her personal best in the 3000 meter steeplechase by more than 11 seconds to set a new absolute school record with a winning time of 10:12.16.  Her previous PR of 10:22.93 had put her fourth on the all-time Villanova performance list in the steeplechase, while the previous school record of 10:12.4 had been held by Sarah Morrison who established that standard on May 2, 2009 at the BIG EAST Championships.  That mark remains the top collegiate-season mark by a Wildcats runner. 
 
Sunday's steeplechase race quickly became a two-person race between Olivere and Grace Fetherstonhaugh of Canada, who had set an Oregon State school record with a time of 10:03.13 in the steeplechase at the NCAA West Preliminary as a true freshman this spring.  Fetherstonhaugh took the lead at the start of Sunday's race and held it until the water jump with two-plus laps remaining.  Olivere caught her just after that water jump and the two runners were even with each other when they cleared the next barrier with just over 800 meters left. 
 
Olivere then moved into the lead at the start of the penultimate lap around the track and quickly put distance between herself and Fetherstonhaugh with a decisive kick over the final two laps.  Her winning time of 10:12.16 put her nearly 20 seconds ahead of Fetherstonhaugh (10:32.13), while rising sophomore Megan Worrel from Michigan was third (10:48.04). 
 
Olivere has made remarkable progress in the steeplechase in just a few short months since being a newcomer to the event at the start of the collegiate outdoor season.  Her first race was at the Florida Relays on March 29 when she showed her promise with a fourth place finish and a time of 10:28.73.  Olivere was the BIG EAST runner-up in a PR of 10:22.93 on May 10 and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary meet where she recorded a time of 10:24.48 to place 21^st in a field of the top 48 steeplechase runners in the eastern half of the country.