UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—Villanova enjoyed a successful day on all fronts while competing in the Sykes & Sabock Challenge at Penn State on Saturday afternoon. Among the team's highlights were freshman
Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) posting the third-fastest time in school history in the 600 meters and sophomore
Ashley Preston (Franklinville, N.J.) clearing a height of 3.98 meters in the pole vault. There were 15 athletes in all competing for the Wildcats during the meet at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.
Martinez came in fourth in the 600 meters and crossed the finish line in 1:31.95 to put herself onto Villanova's all-time performance list in the event. She is the Wildcats third athlete to break 1:32 in the 600 meters. Five of the 10 fastest times on the Villanova list have been recorded in the past five years in the event, which is almost exclusively run indoors and only in a handful of meets during the season.
The indoor campaign has been a strong one for Martinez, who has recorded strong marks in the 500 meters (1:14.80), 600 meters and 800 meters (2:11.54) in her rookie season. Another freshman member of the Wildcats middle distance unit opened her season on Saturday.
Nikki Merrill (Portsmouth, R.I.) finished seventh in the 600 meters in 1:34.88 in her first competition since the cross country NCAA Championships in November.
Preston led three Villanova athletes who competed in the pole vault and finished fifth overall out of 26 entries. Only the top five competitors made it over the bar at 3.98 meters, with Preston succeeding on her third and final attempt. She missed on three tries at 4.08 meters which would have set a new personal best. Junior
Amanda McNelis (Commack, N.Y.) notched the top indoor mark of her career with a height of 3.83 meters. She finished ninth and junior
Cala Lejman (Ambler, Pa.) was 17
th (3.53 meters).
Senior
Amari Onque-Shabazz (Plainfield, N.J.) and freshman
Brynne Sumner (Canton, Ga.) each placed in the top three of the 800 meters on Saturday afternoon. Onque-Shabazz was the runner-up out of 21 competitors with a time of 2:12.76, with Sumner right behind her in third place with a time of 2:13.19. Sophomore
Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) was also in action for Villanova and tallied a first place finish in the 3000 meters with a winning time of 9:38.59. She came in more than 15 seconds ahead of the runner-up from Penn at the finish line.
In the 400 meters, freshman
Alexis Martin (Gaithersburg, Md.) and senior
Adrianna Letros (North York, Ont.) each tallied personal bests for the second time this year. Martin was clocked in 58.80 to lower her time from a meet at Navy last month by 0.36 seconds, while Letros crossed the line in 59.22 to cut three-hundredths of a second off her previous season and lifetime best mark.
The meet concluded with Martin, Martinez, Onque-Shabazz and Merrill combining to run the 4x400 meter relay in 3:52.32. Martinez and Onque-Shabazz had splits of 56.74 and 55.98, respectively, on the middle two legs of the race.
Sophomore multi-event athlete
Liv Morgan (Bronx, N.Y.) competed in the 60 meter hurdles, the 200 meters and the long jump. She registered a personal best time of 8.92 in the hurdles, ran the 200 meters in 25.96 and notched a season-best mark of 5.39 meters in the long jump.
The duo of junior
Jennifer Barbour (Middletown, Conn.) and freshman
Faith Robinson (St. Louis Park, Minn.) competed in the 60 meters and the long jump. Barbour posted a time of 8.07 in the preliminaries of the 60 meters and established a personal best in the long jump for the second straight week with a measurement of 5.25 meters. Robinson had a time of 8.16 in the 60 meters and a long jump of 5.17 meters. In the triple jump, senior
Gloria Donou (East Brunswick, N.J.) measured a jump of 11.09 meters and senior
Katie Ciccarone (Freehold, N.J.) had a season-best mark of 10.76 meters.
Villanova returns to action next week when the team splits up for meets in New York (FastTrack National Invitational) and Boston (David Hemery Valentine Invitational).
