CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—Redshirt freshman distance runner Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) broke the school record in the 3000 meter steeplechase in her first collegiate race in the event and junior thrower Taryn Ashby (Pittston, Pa.) eclipsed her won Villanova standard in the javelin on an exciting day of competition for the Wildcats at the Virginia Challenge on Friday. There were seven individual events on the schedule for Villanova on the first of two days of action at Lannigan Field.
 
Helwigh posted a winning time of 10:05.86 in the steeplechase to lead a field of 25 runners and lower her previous personal best in the event by more than 10.5 seconds. She ran in the same section of the race as junior Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) who set the Wildcats previous steeplechase record of 10:12.16 at the Pan American U20 Championships during the 2019 summer season. Olivere came in fifth in Friday's race with a time of 10:24.17 in her first steeplechase race since that Pan American race on July 21, 2019. Helwigh's time puts her into the BIG EAST lead this season and the mark ranked seventh on the East Region performance list pending the outcome of other meets taking place this weekend.
 
Villanova now has the top two steeplechasers in program history on its roster at the same time, and both have international pedigree. Prior to coming to the Wildcats, Helwigh represented her native Denmark at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Finland in July 2018. She was previously the gold medalist in the 2000 meter steeplechase at the European U18 Athletics Championships in 2016 and came in fourth in the same event at the IAAF World U18 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in July 2017.
 
The first school record to fall during Friday's competition was in the javelin where Ashby threw for 49.01 meters on her first attempt of the day. Ashby has now broken the Wildcats standard in the javelin three times during her career, including twice this season. Her latest mark is three centimeters further than the throw of 48.98 meters she recorded last month at the Raleigh Relays in her first competition this year. The current javelin implement was introduced beginning in 1999 and has a different center of gravity than the previous implement.
 
Ashby came in third out of 16 competitors on Friday and measured her best mark of the day on her first throw. Her second-longest attempt of the day came on her sixth and final throw when she recorded a distance of 48.97 meters. Ashby began the day leading the BIG EAST performance list in the javelin this season by a margin of more than two meters. She was also ranked 23^rd on the East Region qualifying list at the start of the day.
 
The other field events on Friday's schedule were the long jump and the hammer throw. Junior Trinity Hart (Scotch Plains, N.J.) registered a mark of 5.29 meters in the long jump and junior Emily Galvin (Pitman, N.J.) threw for a distance of 47.45 meters in the hammer.
 
Senior sprinter Trudy-Ann Williamson (Kingston, Jamaica) ran the 100 meters on Friday afternoon and recorded a season-best time of 11.97. Sophomore middle distance runners Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) and Nikki Merrill (Portsmouth, R.I.) posted times of 4:30.43 and 4:41.76, respectively, in the 1500 meters.
 
The first four events of the heptathlon were contested on Friday and freshman Caroline Carlson (Miami, Fla.) currently has a score of 2,514 points. She began the day with a time of 15.83 in the 100 meter hurdles before going on to record a personal best mark of 1.49 meters in the high jump. Carlson also threw the shot put for 9.39 meters and closed the day with a time of 27.40 in the 200 meters.