In the past few weeks, Villanovans have competed in the Big East Championships, the Alex Wilson Invitational and the World Indoor Track and Field Championships. The Big East Championships did not go as well as some hoped, but there were several outstanding individual performances despite the disappointing final team standings.

The most notable performance at the Big East Championships was Villanova’s Carlos Bedoya’s first place finish in the 200-meter dash in a time of 21.46 seconds. This was a provisional qualifying time for the NCAA championships, although it will not be fast enough to take him to the championships in Arkansas. Freshman Drew Eckman placed fourth in the 500-meter dash with a time of one minute, 3.43 seconds, while Paul Moser was second in the 800-meter run in 1:51.15. In the 1000-meter run, freshman Bobby Curtis was fifth in 2:27.23, while Mark Carberry was right on his heels in 2:27.48, finishing sixth, and Andrew Keino was close behind in 2:28.04 for eighth.

“Carberry has really stepped it up this year,” head coach Marcus O’Sullivan said. The men’s distance medley relay team was first in 9:47.25 with Jason Jabaut, Dan Marzluff, Marc Pelerin and Tom Parlapiano. The men placed sixth in the overall team standings with 56 points.

Rebecca Mitchell ran 2:48.44 to place second in the women’s 1000-meter run. Yolanda Malcolm ran a time of 8.49 to finish third in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles. Other top finishers for Villanova were Holly Cosnett who placed fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:13.7, and Zita Mezei who was fourth in the 1000 meter run in 2:51.02. In addition, the women’s 4×800-meter relay team of Colleen Taylor, Mezei, Mitchell and Cosnett placed third in 8:59.12. Unfortunately one of the Wildcat’s top performers, Marina Muncan, was sick and unable to participate in the Championships. The women placed fifth overall in the team standings with 55 points.

Several wildcat men and women traveled to Notre Dame for the Alex Wilson Invitational and one last chance to qualify for the NCAA championships. Some came frustratingly close to their marks, but none were able to earn automatic qualifying times, or provisional times fast enough to get them to Arkansas for the Championships. Moser ran the 800-meter in 1:49.37, a provisional qualifier. Bedoya finished the 200-meter dash in 21.54, and Jabaut ran the mile in 4:04.62, also a provisional qualifier. For the women, Taylor ran the 800-meter in 2:08.19.

On March 12 the men’s and women’s teams will both be taking their distance medley relay teams to Fayetteville, Ark., for the NCAA Championships. The men, defending their title in the DMR, hope to bring home another championship.

Former Villanova track star and current Villanova women’s assistant track coach Carmen Douma-Hassar competed at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Budapest, Hungary last Saturday. She traveled to Budapest to run the 1500-meter for Canada, her native country. Douma placed second in 4:08.18, bringing home the silver, and setting a Canadian national record. The gold medal was won by Kutre Dulecha of Ethiopia in 4:06.40. While at Villanova, Douma was a star on the team. She was a nine-time All-American, three-time NCAA individual champion in the indoor mile, the outdoor 1500-meter and the indoor mile, 15-time Big East individual champion, and was a member of three Championship of America teams at the Penn Relays.