In its only home meet of the season, the Villanova women’s track and field team had a strong performance, having 10 athletes place in the top five over the course of the day’s nine events. 

Standout athletes of the day were sophomore Jada Thomas and junior Sarah Jones, who both posted new PRs and broke 8.50 in the 60m hurdles. Thomas set a PR of 8.51 in the preliminary rounds, only to shave off a tenth of a second in the finals, posting a time of 8.41. Jones tied her previous PR of 8.58 in the preliminaries, coming in second place to Thomas’s first. Jones went on to set a new PR of 8.45 in the finals. By breaking the 8.5 mark, Jones and Thomas now sit at first and second place on the Big East list for best times this season. 

Junior Amanda McNelis came in first place in pole vault, setting a season-high of 3.75 meters. She was the only other Wildcat to win an event on the day, along with Thomas. 

Four Villanova athletes were each able to place in multiple events during Saturday’s meet. Senior Amari Onque-Shabazz placed sixth in the 200 meters with a time of 25.71 and fourth in the 400 meters with a time of 55.17. Freshman Faith Robinson placed seventh in both the 60m and the long jump, with a time of 7.99, and a distance of 5.23m. Junior Jennifer Barbour finished eight in the 60m, right behind Robinson, with a time of 8.02, and tied with Robinson for seventh in the long jump with a distance of 5.23m. The last multi-event athlete for the Wildcats was senior Gloria Donou, who placed ninth in the long jump with a distance of 5.18m and fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 11.32m. 

Anna Helwigh was the only member of the Villanova distance team to compete in the meet, placing fourth in the 1000m with a time of 2:50.87. 

The Wildcats will return to action at Penn State next Friday, Feb. 7.