JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Senior middle distance runner McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.) advanced to the NCAA Championships and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the 800 meters on an exciting final day of action at the NCAA East Preliminary meet at Hodges Stadium. Keegan and junior high jumper Sanaä Barnes (Keller, Texas) will each represent Villanova at the national championships in Eugene, Ore. next month after advancing out of the East preliminary meet in their respective events on Saturday. Keegan recorded a blistering time of 2:01.25 in the national quarterfinal heats of the 800 meters and Barnes cleared the bar in the high jump at a height of 1.82 meters. Both athletes will be competing at the outdoor NCAA Championships for the second time in their careers.
 
The last of four days of competition at the NCAA East Preliminary was a busy one for the Wildcats, who had athletes competing in the high jump, discus, 3000 meter steeplechase, 800 meters and 4x400 meter relay. The evening closed with Villanova running in the national quarterfinal heats of the 4x400 relay for the first time in 10 years. Senior thrower Grayce French (Ridgeland, S.C.) provided another highlight for the day with her 17^th place finish in the discus; it is the first top-20 finish for a Wildcats thrower in the 12 years that the current NCAA preliminary round format has been in place.
 
Keegan ran a sensational race in the second of three heats in the 800 meters. Her time of 2:01.25 is the third-fastest in school history and the best time that a Villanova runner has ever posted within the boundaries of the collegiate indoor or outdoor seasons. Keegan lowered her lifetime best from earlier this season by more than two seconds, punched her ticket for the NCAA Championships after previously qualifying in the 800 meters as a sophomore in 2018, and came in more than a second below the standard for the Olympic Trials which begin in Eugene, Ore. just one week after the NCAA Championships are held there at Hayward Field.
 
"Qualifying for any NCAA Championship is super exciting and the time to go with it made it even better," Keegan said of her performance on Saturday evening. "It was a good day today. I am so excited and I can't believe I did it. I've had so much support, such good coaching and my teammates have been great this season. It's just been an incredible season so far and I'm super excited to keep it going and see what happens the next couple of weeks."
 
The top three finishers in each of three quarterfinal heats in the 800 meters plus the next three fastest times made up the field of 12 qualifiers for the NCAA Championships in both the East and West Preliminary meets held this weekend. Keegan watched the first quarterfinal heat just before her own race and saw the first five finishers all come across the line below 2:03. The last of the three on-time qualifying spots wound up being 2:02.81 from the opening heat. After seeing those times Keegan knew it would take a top-three finish in her own heat and likely an Olympic Trials standard (2:02.50) to continue her season.
 
"Coming into my freshman year the thought of making the Olympic Trials has been an idea in my head," Keegan said. "Last year before COVID hit Gina told me my goal for the end of the year should be making the Olympic Trials standard. Obviously everything got pushed back a year but I never forgot that. It's still such an incredible feeling. I've just been counting down the months because outdoor is my favorite season and I had been so excited this whole year leading up to it. I've had good momentum going so I had a good feeling for the season."
 
Keegan's time of 2:01.25 is the fifth-fastest in the 12-year history of the NCAA East Preliminary meet and the third time among the top-five which was recorded on Saturday night. Her previous personal best was 2:03.56 from the Raleigh Relays earlier this season and she ran 2:03.59 in the national first round heats on Thursday evening to advance to tonight's quarterfinal round.
 
Earlier in the day, it took just three successful jumps for Barnes to earn a return trip to the NCAA Championships in the high jump. She is already a three-time All-American in the event, including earning first team honors both indoors and outdoors as a freshman in 2019. She finished fifth among the 48 competitors in two flights on Saturday, while freshman Roschell Clayton (Montego Bay, Jamaica) had a successful debut at the meet with a tie for 15^th place after clearing the bar at 1.77 meters. Barnes spoke about the patience it takes to wait out the early days of the meet before being ready to go on the final day.
 
"There is a lot of anxiety that goes on but I kind of try to stay relaxed the entire time going through it," Barnes said. "When it's time to focus, get your mind right and go in and do what you have to do. The biggest thing once in is getting my mind right and realizing where I stand here because if I do everything I'm supposed to do I'll be fine and that's exactly what I did to execute today."
 
Barnes passed at the opening height of 1.67 meters before coming into the competition and making it over the bar on her first two jumps at 1.72 meters and 1.77 meters. The original field of 48 athletes had been whittled down to just 17 when the bar was raised to 1.82 meters, which is the highest that Barnes has jumped outdoors during the collegiate season. She missed on her first try at 1.82 meters on Saturday before easily making it over the bar on her second attempt. Only nine athletes had successful jumps at that height.
 
"I have been struggling through a lot of injuries this year, especially with my hamstring," Barnes said. "It's been an up and down roller coaster, so it was great to come here and make it through and know that I'm still at full capacity. It feels great and I am excited to see what the rest of the season has for me."
 
The top 12 finishers advanced to the NCAA Championships, including the nine athletes who made it over the bar at 1.82 meters and three who were over at 1.77 meters without any misses that that height. Clayton cleared the bar at 1.77 meters on her third and final attempt to tie for 15^th place. Like Barnes, she passed the opening height and was successful on her first jump of the day at 1.72 meters. It was a strong debut season for Clayton, who earned All-BIG EAST honors with a tie for third place in the high jump at the conference meet earlier this month. She was one of five BIG EAST athletes who qualified for either the East or West preliminary meets this weekend.
 
French became the first Villanova thrower to qualify for the NCAA East Preliminary in the discus since the current NCAA postseason format was introduced beginning with the 2010 season. She came into the weekend ranked 31^st among the 48 qualifiers in the East region but beat that seeding by 14 spots to finish in 17^th place overall. French threw for 51.91 meters on her second of three attempts on Saturday. She competed in the second of three flights and was in seventh place overall after recording her best throw of the day. She also threw for 50.94 meters on her opening throw.
 
French had quite the year of competition in her first year with the Wildcats as a graduate transfer from Clemson. She broke the Villanova record in the discus multiple times during the season, including winning the BIG EAST title with her latest personal best mark of 52.35 meters earlier this month. French also set new Wildcats standards in the shot put both indoors and outdoors.
 
Junior distance runner Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) and sophomore Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) ran in the national quarterfinal heats of the 3000 meter steeplechase on Saturday evening. Running in the same heat they posted times of 10:14.38 and 10:40.82, respectively. Olivere ran a particularly gutsy race after suffering a fall on one of the early laps; she caught the runners in the chase pack by the bell lap and was still chasing down the runners in front of her at the finish line. She and Helwigh are the top two runners in school history in the steeplechase and have traded ownership of the school record this season. Olivere holds the current mark of 9:57.34 which came in a first place finish at the BIG EAST Championships just 15 days ago.
 
The evening, and the meet, concluded with the 4x400 meter relay. A lineup that included senior Danielle Burns (Phoenix, Ariz.), sophomore Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio), senior Amari Onque-Shabazz (Plainfield, N.J.) and sophomore Brynne Sumner (Canton, Ga.) recorded a time of 3:39.68 to finish sixth in the first of three heats and 20^th overall. Villanova last had a 4x400 team at the NCAA East Preliminary in 2011; after entering as the final team of 24 accepted into this weekend's meet, the Wildcats beat three teams ranked ahead of them in a satisfying finish to the team's big weekend.
 
The NCAA Championships return to Hayward Field in Eugene for the first time since 2018. The competition takes place from June 9-12, with the women's events slated for Thursday, June 10 and Saturday, June 12.