In only their third competition of the season, at a meet consisting of 1,600 of the nation’s best collegiate competitors, both the men’s and women’s track and field teams performed impressively at the New York City Gotham Cup on Friday, Jan. 16. as nine Wildcats qualified for the Big East Championships in February.

In a field of 46 runners in the 1,000 meter run, all three Villanova entrants finished in the top four.

Senior Ellen Dougherty excelled, finishing in first place with a time of 2:50.36, and Sophomore Ali Smith polished off a strong run with a time of 2:54.95, good enough for second place.

Senior Emily McMillan was also not far behind the leader’s pace, clocking in at 2:56.97 and rounding out the first four finishers. The trio of ‘Cats runners each surpassed the conference-qualifying standard time of 2:59.04.

In the competitive one-mile run, junior Kaitlyn Tallman was narrowly edged by the winner, clocking in at 4:56.33, while sophomores Callie Hogan (4:58.78) and Sarah Morrison (5:00.09) placed third and fourth.

Along with these three, eighth place finisher Theresa Rush also managed to beat the Big East qualifying time of 5:08.44. The junior ran a determined race, clocking in at 5:07.96.

The highlight of the day for the women’s sprint group was freshman Shericka Ward, who ran both the 60-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles.

After managing to qualify for the conference championships in the hurdles on Jan. 10 at the Penn State Relays, Ward had another convincing performance on Friday. She ran times of 8.92 and 8.94 in the qualifiers and finals respectively. Both times once again beat the Big East standard.

The men’s squad entered only a select few events, but still proved its talent with numerous excellent performances. The first of two men’s qualifiersat the Gotham Cup was sophomore Jason Apwah. Apwah ran a time of 2:25.94 in the 1,000 meter run, taking home second place

Sophomore Robert Sainvil jumped to a sixth place finish in the men’s triple jump with a competitive distance of 13.94 meters. Sainvil topped the conference qualifying mark by .58 meters with his impressive showing.

The Wildcats are back in action tomorrow as they return to the Armory to compete in the University of Albany Great Dane Invitational Meet.