UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—In a steady downpour and soggy conditions on Friday morning graduate runner Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) raced to a ninth place finish at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional and earned all-region honors for the fourth time in her standout career. Villanova came in sixth in the team standings at the regional meet which was held at the Penn State Golf Courses for the first time since 2018. Olivere is the Wildcats seventh women's athlete to be a four-time all-region performer.
 
The women's 6,000 meter race was the first of the day at the Mid-Atlantic Regional and got underway at 10:30 a.m. just as the rain was starting to pick up in intensity. Olivere covered the course in 20:32.7 and continued a season which has seen her be the top Villanova finisher in all four of her starts. Her career all-region honors have come in four straight seasons (2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022) – there were no regional meets contested in 2020 – and she becomes the Wildcats first women's athlete to earn four consecutive all-region accolades since Emily Lipari did so from 2010-13.
 
Villanova scored 152 points to finish sixth out of 26 teams at the regional meet. Four of the team's five scorers placed among the top 34 runners in a field of 194 competitors. Olivere was followed by junior Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) who came in 30^th overall in 20:19.2. Graduate Ariana Gardizy (Lansdale, Pa.) was one spot back in 31^st place (21:20.5) and sophomore Emily Robinson (Rogers, Ark.) finished 34^th (21:21.9). The fifth scoring runner was freshman Amelia Arrieta (Kansas City, Mo.) who placed 53^rd with a time of 21:45.3 in her regional debut. The spread between the Wildcats scoring runners 1:13, with the team's second through fifth finishers separated by only 26 seconds at the finish line.
 
Sophomore Margaret Carroll (Mount Wolf, Pa.) and freshman Kinsey Pogue (Danville, Calif.) rounded out the Villanova lineup. Carroll placed 108^th with a time of 22:53.7 and Pogue was 115^th in 22:59.0.