The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to New York City last week to compete in the New Balance Gotham Cup at the Armory Track & Field Center. The women’s team won three events: the 60-meter hurdles, 1,000-meter run and the 4×800-meter relay. Frances Koons set a new meet record for the 1,000-meter with a time of 2:45.70 and also led off the Wildcats’ win in the 4×800-meter relay. Monique Morgan won the 60-meter hurdles for the ‘Cats third victory.

The women’s team also placed in the top three in five other events and had a total of 24 women compete in the finals. In the 500-meter dash, Arusha McKenzie and Makalia Griffith placed second and third respectively. Akilah Vargas finished six seconds behind record-setting Koons to take second place in the 1,000-meter run. Bridget Akard finished third in the unseeded 3,000-meter run. In the field events, Kourtney Marquis finished third in the pole vault with a height of 3.30 meters.

In the men’s events, Villanova had another 24 student-athletes compete in finals. The men’s team won only one event, the unseeded 5,000-meter run, but had seven other competitors finish in the top three in their respective events. Geoffrey Doody won the unseeded 5,000-meter run for ‘Nova.

While Elvis Lewis and Drew Eckman finished first and second respectively in the 500-meter dash for affiliated runners, unattached Bryan Steele edged out Lewis by .23 seconds to take first place. Kevin Okolie took third place in the 60-meter dash; Sean Tully and Mark Korich finished second and third respectively in the 800-meter run. Kevin Sives placed third in the unseeded 1-mile run. In the field events, Robert McDade had a great day, placing in two finals and finishing in second place for the shot put and in fourth place for the weight throw.