Senior Jane Livingston began the two-event weekend for Villanova’s women’s track and field team by vaulting herself up the Big East standings.

Livingston competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the 95th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on Friday, posting a time of 13.65.

This time, while only coming sixth in the second heat of five, Livingston positioned herself second in the Big East in the 100-meter hurdle category. She sits six hundredths of a second behind Connecticut’s A’liyah Thomas.

“It’s always been a big meet, but even more so now, because the national championships are gonna be held on that track, so you’re going to get the best of the best,” head coach Gina Procaccio said, referring to the strong competition.

Livingston is looking to add to her championship pedigree as she was the Big East champion in the 100-meter hurdle event last year and won the 60-meter dash in the Indoor Big East Championships this season, which she was not expected to win. She also claimed a silver medal in the 60-meter hurdles.

Livingston’s personal best came at last year’s Outdoor Big East Championships, where she posted a time of 13.47.

With this being her first meet of the outdoor season, Livingston proved she could handle the tough race as she hit a hurdle and still produced a solid time.

Junior Roschell Clayton did not move past the first stage of the high jump, as the bar was set at 1.70 meters. Clayton placed fourth at the Outdoor Big East Championships last year when she cleared a height of 1.69 meters.

In the Big 5 Invitational on Saturday, freshman Myonica Jackson raced well in both the 200 and 400 meter events. In the 400 meters, she posted a personal best time of 57.53 to take fourth out of the 15 runners and added a time of 25.34 in the 200-meter dash later in the day.

“That was fantastic,” Procaccio said. “And for a freshman to come out there and, you know, run her PR, that says really good things about her future.”

Senior Alexis Martin made a time of 59.88 in the 400-meter dash and 26.08 in the 200-meter event. Fifth-year Jada Thomas recorded a time of 26.15 in the 200-meter dash.

The 1500-meter run was led for Villanova by senior Anna Helwigh as she ran a time of 4:27.86 to finish in second place out of 28 runners. Helwigh is a steeplechaser and used this event as a tune-up for next week’s meet in the steeplechase.

“I like them to get out and run a hard 1500-meter beforehand, and she should be ready to go post a time next week to get her into the regional meet at the end of May,” Procaccio said.

Helwigh was out for almost a week due to illness, but has bounced back to turn in a respectable time.

Fifth-year Ariana Gardizy cemented a time of 4:29.32 to finish in fourth, and this time established a personal best for her in the 1500-meter event.

Freshmen Amelia Arrieta and Kinsey Pogue ran for the first time in the 1500-meter event, and posted times of 4:48.37 and 4:49.56.

Other action included junior Kate Flynn in the 800-meters with a time of 2:27.30. Junior Caroline Carlson completed the 100-meter dash in 12.78 and jumped to a mark of 5.14 meters. Senior Faith Robinson recorded a jump of 4.99 meters, and sophomore Taylor Woodeshick cleared the bar of 1.56 meters in the high jump.

With the throws, sophomore Faith Haught created a personal best in the hammer throw with a mark of 38.26 meters and registered a throw of 38.84 meters in the discus to come in fourth. Junior Teresa Rotolo placed third in the javelin with a throw of 39.60 meters and fifth-year Liv Morgan placed sixth with a throw of 37.64 meters. 

Next week, Villanova will travel to North Carolina for the Duke Invitational and Miami for the Miami Alumni Invitational to compete in its continued quest towards the Big East Championships.

The steeplechase will be the event to watch out for next week as fifth-year Lydia Olivere and Helwigh will both be competing. Olivere will come into the race with momentum as she lowered her 1500-meter personal best by almost three seconds at the Raleigh Relays two weeks ago.

Other events to pinpoint include the 800-meter dash as Indoor 800-meter Big East champion Madison Martinez is back in action, and some of the younger 800-meter runners will get a chance to improve their times.