STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.—Graduate thrower Sade Meeks (North Babylon, N.Y.) punctuated a sensational Villanova debut by shattering a 20-year-old school record in the weight throw at the Penn 10-Team Select on Saturday evening. The first meet of the 2022 indoor track & field season was an exciting one for the Wildcats, who won seven events and tallied several performances that will land on the program's all-time top-10 lists.
 
Meeks was a double winner in the shot put and the weight throw in her first competition in a Villanova uniform. The graduate transfer from Jacksonville registered a mark of 17.98 meters in the weight throw on her first of six throws, then repeated the mark later in the competition on her fifth attempt. Meeks broke the previous Wildcats standard of 16.76 meters which Melinda Boykin set at the BIG EAST Championships on February 16, 2002.
 
The other winners for Villanova included senior Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.), graduate McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.), junior Jane Livingston (Lancaster, Pa.) and senior Trinity Hart (Scotch Plains, N.J.). Olivere swept the 800 meters and the Mile while Keegan won the 400 meters. Earlier in the meet Livingston placed first in the 60 meter hurdles and Hart finished first in the 60 meters. The strong performances helped the Wildcats top the team scores with a total of 124.33 points in the eight-team field.
 
Saturday's performance made Meeks the school record holder in the weight throw at both Villanova and Jacksonville. She set a Dolphins record with a mark of 20.67 meters in February 2020 during her junior season of undergraduate competition. It was a 1-2 punch for the Wildcats in the weight throw as Meeks came in first and graduate thrower Jul Thomson (Otterville, Ont.) placed second. Thomson set a new personal best with a mark of 16.46 meters.
 
Olivere paced a trio of Villanova distance runners who competed in the 800 meters and the Mile. She posted winning times in those of events of 2:15.99 and 4:43.81, respectively. Junior Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) was the runner-up in both races in the first indoor meet of her collegiate career. She ran the 800 meters in 2:16.25 and crossed the line in the Mile with a time of 4:44.09. Junior Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) came in third in the 800 meters in 2:17.88 and was sixth in the Mile in 4:50.87.
 
The win in the 400 meters for Keegan was highlighted by the third-fastest indoor time in Wildcats history. Keegan won with a time of 54.58 to set a new indoor PR and come within eight-hundredths of a second of matching her lifetime personal best. The only Villanova runners with faster indoor times are Michelle Bennett (54.11) in 1989 and Christie Verdier (54.20) in 2010.
 
Livingston rose to sixth on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the 60 meter hurdles by tying her lifetime best of 8.38 in the final on Saturday evening. She led a field of 20 competitors with a time of 8.48 in the preliminary heats before cutting the mark down by a tenth of a second in the final. Hart won the 60 meters with a personal best time of 7.86 in the final. It was her second PR of the day in the 60 meters, as she earlier broke eight seconds for the first time in her career with a time of 7.88 in the preliminary heats. Hart and junior Alexis Martin (Gaithersburg, Md.) each advanced to the final and Martin finished fourth in the final in 8.02.
 
Villanova record a total of 15 top-three finishes in Saturday's meet. Next up the Wildcats will return to Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex on January 22 to host their annual indoor home meet, the Villanova Invitational.