BOSTON, Mass.—Senior middle distance runner Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) finished off a sensational weekend with one of the best performances of her career in the 800 meters to highlight four individual races for Villanova during competition at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet & White Invite on Saturday afternoon. Martinez posted a lifetime best mark of 2:03.68 in the 800 meters to crack both the national leaderboard for this season and the Wildcats all-time indoor performance list.
 
The event schedule for the Wildcats on Saturday at the Track & Tennis Center featured Martinez and freshman Micah Trusty (Philadelphia, Pa.) in the 800 meters along with graduate student Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) in the mile and sophomore Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.) in the 3000 meters. That quartet had run the distance medley relay on Friday night and posted the nation's 12^th-ranked time of 11:01.21 in a third place finish.
 
Martinez had a split of 2:03.94 on the 800 meter leg of the race; it is the fastest known split in school history of an 800 meter relay leg and one of 14 known splits below 2:04 in the Villanova record book (relay splits in the program's all-time archive are considered to be incomplete based on available data). She beat her split in the open race on Saturday afternoon with a lifetime best of 2:03.68, cutting more than two seconds off her previous PR for an open 800 meter race.
 
The time by Martinez ranked eighth in the nation at the time of the race and now puts her ninth on the national descending order list as well as first in the BIG EAST Conference following the close of competition at meets around the country on Saturday. The mark of 2:03.68 is the sixth-fastest ever run indoors by a Wildcat and Martinez jumped into third place on Villanova's all-time indoor performance list in the 800 meters. She is 10^th overall in school history in the event.
 
McGill had a big race in the 3000 meters in the Wildcats final event on Saturday afternoon. She joined Martinez as a BIG EAST leader on the year by running 9:19.35 to move to the top of the conference performance list. The time cut more than 22 seconds off McGill's personal best in the 3K and continued her impressive start to the 2023 indoor season. Two weeks ago at the Villanova Invitational, McGill posted a PR of 4:40.38 in the mile which led the BIG EAST at the time of the race (currently fourth in the conference) and earned her BIG EAST Women's Track Athlete of the Week honors.
 
The first athlete on the track for the Wildcats on Saturday was Olivere, who ran in the fastest section of the mile and recorded a time of 4:42.60. She finished 10^th in her heat and 11^th overall on the day while posting the seventh-fastest time in the BIG EAST this season. Olivere anchored the DMR on Friday night with a split of 4:36.20 for her 1600 meter leg.
 
Trusty ran the 800 meters on Saturday and produced a time of 2:07.19 which ranks third in the BIG EAST this season.
 
Villanova is gearing up for three meets on the schedule next weekend when members of the team will travel to Boston (David Hemery Valentine Invitational); New York (Big Apple Invitational) and Clemson (Tiger Paw Invite).