GENEVA, Ohio—A loaded lineup that produced points in nearly event led Villanova to its third consecutive team title at the 2020 indoor BIG EAST Track & Field Championships presented by Jeep at SPIRE Institute on Monday afternoon.  This is the record 17^th indoor team title all-time for the Wildcats women's program and the team's fifth BIG EAST crown in the last seven years.  Villanova finished with 134 points and had a margin of victory of 22 points over runner-up Marquette and the rest of the eight-team field. 
 
Head coach Gina Procaccio and her staff were named the women's BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year.  Seniors Katie Ciccarone (Freehold, N.J.), Gloria Donou (East Brunswick, N.J.) and Amari Onque-Shabazz (Plainfield, N.J.) – who each scored team points in their individual events on Monday – accepted the team championship trophy during the awards ceremony after the meet.  Procaccio is now a 16-time BIG EAST Coach of the Year, including six times indoors to along with four times outdoors and six times in cross country. 
 
The depth of the Wildcats roster was the difference for this particular championship team.  Villanova claimed at least one spot on the awards podium (top-three finish) in 11 of the 18 events that made up the meet program and had three individual champions.  Sophomore Ashley Preston (Franklinville, N.J.) repeated as the pole vault champion during the opening day of competition on Sunday, while senior Trudy-Ann Williamson (Kingston, Jamaica) and sophomore Jada Thomas (Kingston, Jamaica) were champions in the 60 meter dash and 60 meter hurdles, respectively, on Monday. 
 
Williamson had an incredible meet and broke two school records on the final day of competition.  She broke her own record in the 60 meters with a winning time of 7.35, lowering the previous standard of 7.37 which she had accomplished on two occasions.  Williamson also broke the indoor school record in the 200 meters with a runner-up finish and a time of 23.72 in Monday's final.  That eclipsed the previous Wildcats standard of 23.85 which Shericka Ward set at the BIG EAST Championships in 2010.  Williamson now owns the 20 fastest times in the Villanova record book in the 60 meter dash and has won 21 of her 26 collegiate races in the event, including both preliminary and final rounds. 
 
Thomas and junior Sarah Jones (Sewell, N.J.) went 1-2 in the final of the 60 meter hurdles to maintain their positions from the preliminary heats a day earlier.  Thomas, who competed at Liberty as a freshman last year, was the BIG EAST champion with a winning time of 8.52 and Jones was on her heels in second place with a time of 8.55.
 
The first track event of the day on Monday set the tone for a successful day to come.  True freshmen Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) and Brynne Sumner (Canton, Ga.) came in second and third in the final of the Mile with respective times of 4:56.50 and 4:57.28.  Sumner initially appeared as a fourth place finisher in the Mile results before another team's protest of an impeded runner and subsequent re-scoring of the event moved her up a spot into third place and onto the awards podium. 
 
Continuing with the freshman theme, the first-year duo of Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) and Nikki Merrill (Portsmouth, R.I.) had strong races in the 800 meters.  Martinez, an Ohio native who ran her high school state meets at SPIRE, came in third to earn All-BIG EAST honors with a time of 2:12.30.  Merrill ran a tough race and led the field of eight competitors early in the 300-meter bell lap before eventually crossing the line in sixth place with a time of 2:14.27. 
 
Sophomore Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) had a furious closing kick in the 3000 meters and surged to a third place finish with a time of 9:33.87.  The emerging distance runner and outdoor steeplechaser had placed fourth in the 5K a day earlier.  All that was left in the meet after the 3000 meters was the 4x400 and 4x800 meter relays, and by that point the Wildcats had the team title all but secured. 
 
Villanova led Marquette by a 19-point margin (122-103) after the 3000 meters and needed only to score two total points in the relays to clinch the championship.  The 4x800 team did that and more, as the quartet of Onque-Shabazz, Sumner, Helwigh and Merrill posted a time of 8:54.09 to finish in second place and earn eight team points.  With the outcome decided, the Wildcats still ran a strong 4x400 relay to close out the meet.  Villanova was fifth in that relay with a time of 3:48.36.  Williamson led off the relay and was followed by Jones, Martinez and freshman Alexis Martin (Gaithersburg, Md.). 
 
In the first field event contested on Monday morning, Donou came in third in the triple jump with a mark of 11.55 meters.  It is the second straight year that the veteran member of the team's jump group has recorded an All-BIG EAST performance.  She was the third place finisher in the triple jump at the 2019 outdoor conference meet. 
 
The team performance was a remarkable one for a Wildcats team which had just 21 athletes in competition over two days at the conference championships.  Of those 21 competitors, 12 are in their freshman or sophomore year of indoor eligibility and 10 were competing at a BIG EAST track championship for the first time in their careers.