PRINCETON, N.J.—Sophomore thrower Jonathan Evans (Springfield, Va.) and redshirt freshman middle distance runner Brian Theobald (Wall, N.J.) each posted personal bests in their respective events as Villanova had a successful day of competition at the Sam Howell Invitational on Friday afternoon. It is the second straight meet to begin the outdoor season that Evans and Theobald have tallied personal best marks.
 
Evans competed in the discus and hammer at Weaver Stadium at Friday's local meet which was moved up a day due to the threat of inclement weather on Saturday. He recorded distances of 38.66 meters in the discus and 40.65 meters in the hammer to surpass the previous PRs in each event that he had set at the season-opening Penn Challenge two weeks ago. It is the first time in his career that Evans has thrown further than 40 meters in the hammer.
 
Freshman thrower Joe D'Adamo (Nanuet, N.Y.) finished fifth out of 10 throwers in the hammer with a mark of 46.77 meters, followed by Evans and junior Liam Anderson (Lebanon, N.J.) who threw 36.28 meters. Anderson also recorded a mark of 14.19 meters in the shot put. Freshman Chris Coulter (Philadelphia, Pa.) had throws of 13.61 meters in the shot put and 36.54 meters in the discus.
 
The only other field event on the schedule for the day was the long jump in which junior Sanjay Persaud (Bloomingburg, N.Y.) had a jump of 5.51 meters.
 
Theobald lowered his PR in the 1500 meters to 3:52.69 and finished 13^th out of 55 competitors. He had run 3:57.50 at Penn two weeks ago before cutting nearly five full seconds off that time in Friday's race. The performance moved him into eighth place on the young outdoor season's BIG EAST performance list.
 
Redshirt freshman distance runner Kai Mitchell-Reiss (Portland, Ore.) had a notable result from the meet as he competed in his first career 3000 meter steeplechase race. He recorded a time of 9:18.67 which sits fifth on the BIG EAST performance list.
 
Senior sprinter Connor Dunning (Nashua, N.H.) opened his outdoor season with times of 11.34 in the 100 meters and 22.62 in the 200 meters. Sophomore Matthew Griffin (Whippany, N.J.) posted a time of 50.40 in the 400 meters.
 
Villanova closed the day by recording a time of 3:12.85 in the 4x400 meter relay.