Chris Dougherty is in his second season on the Villanova coaching staff in 2019-20 and works with the Wildcats men’s and women’s pole vaulters. Dougherty is himself a former two-time All-BIG EAST performer in the pole vault who still ranks sixth on the all-time Villanova performance list.
Several of the Wildcats pole vaulters enjoyed success during the 2018-19 campaign in Dougherty’s first year on the coaching staff. Among them was Ashley Preston who was the BIG EAST indoor and outdoor champion as a true freshman. Preston became the fourth women’s athlete in program history to clear a height of four meters and she finished her freshman year by qualifying for the NCAA East Preliminary meet outdoors.
Villanova continued to be the top performing BIG EAST program in the pole vault last season, as the women’s team had five scorers at the conference meet outdoors and four scorers indoors. As the calendar turns to 2019-20, Preston ranks fourth in school history in the pole vault and rising junior Amanda McNelis is fifth.
On the men’s side, Dougherty helped Thomas Conboy become a BIG EAST champion for the second time in his career when he won the conference title outdoors. Conboy increased his personal best mark twice during the 2019 outdoor season and recorded his current top mark of 4.85 meters in each of his final two meets of the year. Conboy and rising sophomore Jim Keys were each All-BIG EAST performers at the indoor conference championships. Conboy ranks fifth on the Wildcats all-time performance list and Keys is 10th after one collegiate season.
