STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.—Graduate transfer Troy Gallen (Glen Mills, Pa.) tied the second-fastest time in school history in the 60 meter dash and increased his lead atop the BIG EAST performance list during competition at the FastTrack National Invitational on Friday afternoon.  Gallen posted a time of 6.82 in the final of the 60 meters to match a mark that no Villanova runner had approached in the past decade.  Sophomore jumper Jacob Kelly (Longmeadow, Mass.) increased his personal best in the high jump and became only the fifth athlete in program history to clear a height of 2.09 meters indoors. 
 
Gallen has been a revelation for the Wildcats this season as a transfer from Delaware, where he was a wide receiver on the football team.  The former all-state track performer at Malvern Prep is using his final year of collegiate eligibility at Villanova and making good on his potential on the track.  Gallen entered Friday's meet at the Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex leading the BIG EAST performance list in the 60 meters and ranked eighth in the 200 meters. 
 
In the preliminary heats of the 60 meters on Friday afternoon, Gallen posted a time of 6.91 to match the previous season and personal best that he had originally recorded at the Columbia Challenge two weeks ago.  He was the runner-up out of 86 total competitors in the preliminaries, then stepped up to finish first in the final.  Gallen tied the time of 6.82 which had been registered by former Wildcats sprinter Kevin Okolie in the preliminary heats of the BIG EAST Championships on February 23, 2008.  The only faster time in school history is the Villanova record of 6.65 set by former All-American and two-time Olympian Salaam Gariba in 1992. 
 
Kelly continued his own strong season in the high jump and was the runner-up out of 14 athletes in the high jump.  His height of 2.09 meters (6-10 ¼ feet) is second in the BIG EAST this season and puts Kelly into a tie for fourth place on the Wildcats all-time performance list.  He and Malick Diomande of Cornell were the only competitors to clear the bar at 2.09 meters, with Diamande finishing first as a result of having only one miss at the height compared with two misses for Kelly.  Both athletes were eliminated when the bar was raised to 2.14 meters. 
 
After comping into the competition with the bar at 1.94 meters, Kelly was successful on his initial attempts at that height and at 1.99 meters.  He cleared 2.04 meters on the second try and 2.09 meters on his final attempt to surpass the previous personal best of 2.05 meters which he had recorded at Navy in the season opener last month.  Kelly is the first Villanova jumper to clear 2.09 meters indoors since Elbert Maxwell on January 23, 2015 during the Mero Challenge.
 
Sophomore Michael Troup (Doylestown, Pa.) and junior Steve Testa (Warminster, Pa.) competed in the invitational section of the long jump at the FastTrack meet.  They each recorded season-best marks, with Troup's distance of 6.99 meters representing the best jump of his collegiate career.  He came in fourth out of 20 in the section, while Testa recorded a jump of 6.64 meters and placed 17^th overall.  Those marks were third and seventh, respectively, on the season's BIG EAST performance list as of the end of the meet. 
 
It is a busy weekend of competition for the Wildcats, who sent delegations of athletes to the FastTrack meet and the Husky Classic in Seattle on Friday afternoon.  Still to come is a group of the team's middle distance runners who will be in action at the David Hemery Valentine Invite in Boston on Saturday afternoon.