On Friday, April 4, the Villanova men’s and women’s track and field teams competed at Weaver Stadium in Princeton, NJ.
Schools also in attendance at the Sam Howell Invitational, hosted by Princeton University, included Temple, LaSalle, Rider, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Monroe University.
Sixth-year Adria Retter highlighted the meet with a first place finish in the discus throw. Other Wildcats made debuts and set personal records in their respective events, including senior Taylor Woodeshick. She set a new personal best in the high jump, clearing the bar on her first attempt at 1.63 meters.
“I think, overall, it was a kind of a general opportunity for some of the kids that didn’t go to Raleigh [last weekend] to be able to compete at Princeton,” men’s head coach Marcus O’Sullivan said. “The meet got moved from Saturday to Friday because of weather conditions, and I think the weather prevailed for them. It turned out to be a really nice day, so they got something out of it.”
Retter’s 49.4-meter performance in the discus throw picked up Villanova’s only first-place finish of the weekend. Earlier this season, she set the second-longest discus throw in program history, on March 23 at the Penn Challenge.
Sophomore Gina Smith pulled off a personal best in the triple jump, finishing third with a jump of 11.42 meters. Smith fell just one centimeter shy of climbing into Villanova’s all-time outdoor top 10 list. She currently sits in sixth on this season’s Big East performance list.
Woodeshick and senior Alex Payne both secured second place in their respective events. Payne threw for 51.3 meters in her specialty of the hammer event, improving from her performance last weekend in Raleigh, NC.
As for the men, freshman Kai Mitchell-Reiss made his collegiate debut in the steeplechase, running a time of 9:18.67 to achieve a ninth-place finish.
“[Mitchell-Reiss] fell over one of the barriers and banged himself up pretty bad, but got up and finished,” O’Sullivan said. “But I think he was excited about looking forward to the next opportunity.”
Redshirt freshman Brian Theobold earned a personal best in the 1500-meter race. He finished in 13th place with a time of 3:52.69, achieving a personal best for the second meet in a row.
Sophomore Jonathan Evans managed to land not one, but two personal bests in Princeton this past weekend. Evans acquired a career best of 40.65 meters in the hammer throw, and a personal best in the discus, with a throw of 38.66 meters. Evans’ former hammer throw personal best was 38 meters, set at the Penn Challenge on March 23.
The men’s 4×400-meter relay earned second place with a time of 3:12.82. The team is made up of sophomores Ethan Walls and Matthew Griffin and juniors Luke Rakowitz Jr. and Jimmy Milgie.
“It’s very important because a lot of these kids will be at conferences in a few weeks, and so whilst they may not travel to the bigger meets, it’s important to make sure that they’re developing, and the performances are getting better, and they’re getting opportunities to compete,” O’Sullivan said.
Two women’s distance runners recorded stellar times in the 1500-meter race. Senior Emma McGill had a time of 4:23.09 to earn second place. Junior Kinsey Pogue acquired a personal best at 4:44.24.
Villanova track and field will split up to compete in North Carolina and Virginia next weekend.
“From a men’s standpoint, we’re off this weekend,” O’Sullivan said. “Some of the distance people next week will go to Wake Forest. So there’ll be a small divide next week. You’ll have a large group going to the University of Virginia, and then you’ll have a small group going to Wake for us.”
Several members of the men’s team will compete in the Wake Forest Invitational, alongside the best collegiate athletes in the country. The meet is a two-day competition in Winston-Salem that begins with the women’s pole vault at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 17.
Starting on Friday, April 18, both the men’s and women’s teams will compete in the Virginia Challenge, another two-day meet.
Both competitions can be broadcast live on FloTrack.
