VILLANOVA, Pa.— For the second straight year nine women's teams and eight men's squads will converge on the Dr. Conrad Worrill Indoor Track and Field Center at Gately Park for the 2023 BIG EAST Indoor Track & Field Championships presented by JEEP. The conference meet takes place on February 24-25 and will be streamed live on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports.
The Villanova women will be looking for their 18
th indoor BIG EAST title all-time and their sixth in the last 10 years over the two days of competition this week. Entering the meet, the Wildcats own the top BIG EAST marks of the season in two different events and are nearly even with the conference lead in a third event. Villanova also has four individual medalists returning from last year's indoor championships.
Senior middle distance runner
Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) is the BIG EAST leader in the 800 meters this season and ranks 15
th nationally with a time of 2:03.68 recorded at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet & White Invite in Boston earlier this month. The time stands as the sixth-fastest indoor mark in school history. Martinez is a returning All-BIG EAST performer in the 800 meters after a third place finish at the 2022 indoor conference meet. She also ran the third leg of the team's All-BIG EAST (third place finish) 4x800 meter relay a year ago.
Villanova has consistently gotten big performances from fifth year
Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) during her stellar collegiate career. Olivere leads the BIG EAST in the 3000 meters this season with a time of 9:02.81 run at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational two weeks ago. That mark is a personal best and the eight-fastest indoor time in the Wildcats record book. Olivere was the BIG EAST runner-up in the 3000 meters last season. She is slated to compete in both the 3K and the 5K this weekend.
Senior sprinter
Jane Livingston (Lancaster, Pa.) owns a season-best mark of 8.32 in the 60 meter hurdles which is just one-hundredth of a second off the conference lead. Livingston's top time of the year came in her most recent race, a semifinal heat in the Tiger Paw Invite at Clemson earlier in the month. She is entered in both the 60 meter dash as well as the hurdles this weekend.
Livingston is a two-time All-BIG EAST performer and the defending conference champion outdoors in the 100 meter hurdles. This weekend marks the first time in her career that she is competing at the indoor conference meet. Fifth year sprinter
Jada Thomas (Kingston, Jamaica) was the runner-up in the 60 meter hurdles at last year's indoor BIG EAST Championships. Her top time this season is 8.72 and came at the Penn State National Open on January 27.
The other individual medalist who returns from last season is fifth year
Ashley Preston (Franklinville, N.J.) in the pole vault. Preston tied for second at the 2022 indoor BIG EAST meet and is one of the most accomplished performers in the pole vault in school history. She is a three-time BIG EAST champion and six-time All-BIG EAST performer during her career.
Two other student-athletes to watch for this weekend are senior
Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) and sophomore
Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.). They ran the 1200 meters and the 800 meters, respectively, on last year's All-BIG EAST distance medley relay squad. Helwigh will run the mile and McGill is entered in the 3000 meters.
Villanova kicks off competition on Friday morning with the women's weight throw. Sophomore
Faith Haught (Payson, Ariz.) will be in action for the Wildcats in that event starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time (9:30 a.m. CT). Friday's event schedule for Villanova features two field events, finals in the 5000 meters and the distance medley relay, as well as preliminaries in the mile, 60 meter hurdles, 400 meters, 60 meters, 800 meters and 200 meters. Saturday kicks off with the shot put at 11:30 a.m. Eastern (10:30 AM CT).
