The young 800-meter runners for the Villanova women’s track and field team proved their worth at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Weaver Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey this weekend. 

Freshman Micah Trusty ran a time of 2:05.84, while sophomore Maya Dorer ran a time of 2:06.95 in the same 800-meter event. Trusty lowered her personal best by almost a second.

During the 800, Trusty led the field throughout the first lap as she posted a 59.88 split for the first 400 meters. She was leading most of the duration of the race until the last 100 meters. 

What makes the time even more noteworthy is that this was only Trusty’s second time competing in the 800-meter dash this season, as she is recovering from a hamstring injury. 

Dorer set a season best time with her time, which is the third fastest time of her career. Like Trusty, Dorer was making her second appearance in the 800-meter dash. She is ahead in her progression compared to this time last season. 

“That was a really great race for both of them,” head coach Gina Procaccio said. 

Senior Madison Martinez raced for the second time in as many weeks and posted a time of 2:05.59 in the 800-meter run. She finished fourth in the fastest heat of the event, which was a slight improvement from the time she posted last week in North Carolina of 2:05.75. 

Due to the poor weather conditions at Duke last weekend with temperatures in the 40s and rain, Procaccio wanted Martinez to race again this week. 

“She’s doing really well being that consistent,” Procaccio said. “That’s her third 2:05 of the season, and we’re still working through pretty heavy training loads.” 

Sophomore Alex Stasichin placed third in the third heat with a personal best time of 2:08.78. She led the field after the first 400-meter lap with a time of 1:02.46 and beat her previous best time of 2:09.61. 

“She put herself right near the front with the leaders, and then, resulted in her running a big PR,” Procaccio said. 

Most of the events on Saturday were canceled due to severe weather in the area, but graduate student Ashley Preston competed in the pole vault before the storms. 

Preston cleared the bar at 3.80 meters, which was a step back from the 3.95-meter clearance she had in Miami last week. Preston missed both of her attempts at the 3.90-meter height, and finished fourth out of the 10 competitors. Preston is now ranked 42nd on the East Region leaderboard. 

Next week, the ‘Cats are back in action with the Virginia Challenge at Lannigan Field.  

Most of the runners that competed this week will be rested to be ready for the Penn Relays starting on April 27, but other athletes will be running in the 1500-meter race and sprint events and competing in the jumps in Virginia.