NEW YORK—Villanova won three field events in Friday action at the BIG EAST Championships at Icahn Stadium.  Senior thrower Jack Judge (Palisades, N.Y.) defended his conference crown in the javelin, junior Thomas Conboy (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) tied a personal best in winning the pole vault for the second time in three years, and sophomore Jacob Kelly (Longmeadow, Mass.) won the high jump to claim his first conference title. 
 
Villanova had 12 different scorers on Friday, led by its three champions along with sophomore Nick Steele (Harvard, Mass.) who was the runner-up in the 3000 meter steeplechase.  Rounding out the day, the Wildcats qualified 10 athletes for the finals of their respective events. 
 
Kelly improved his lifetime best mark in the high jump by one centimeter and cleared the bar at 2.11 meters.  He is only the third athlete in school history and the first in 23 years to have a jump of 2.11 meters or higher.  Kelly was one of four scorers from Villanova in the high jump.  Sophomore Ryan Tompkins (Farmingdale, N.J.) came in fourth (1.96 meters), while freshman Peter Willis (St. Charles, Ill.) and senior Michael Morrow (Danbury, Conn.) each cleared the bar at 1.86 meters to come in sixth and seventh.
 
It was business as usual for Judge in the javelin, as he won the BIG EAST title for the second straight year with a throw of 62.62 meters.  He has now made the awards podium in the javelin all four years of his collegiate career.  Conboy won the pole vault with a height of 4.85 meters, tying the personal best mark that he recorded the first time at the Penn Relays only two weeks ago.  He and Cameron Jemison of Marquette were the only two competitors to have successful attempts with the bar at 4.85 meters, and Conboy earned the win by clearing the bar on his first try at that height.
 
Freshman Jim Keys (Herndon, Va.) scored in both the pole vault and the javelin, which were being contested simultaneously on opposite ends of the infield.  He came in fifth in the pole vault with a height of 4.30 meters and finished sixth in the javelin with a throw of 49.94 meters.
 
The two other scorers for Villanova in the field events were sophomores Michael Troup (Doylestown, Pa.) and Vincent Sengelmann in the long jump.  Troup came in fourth with a jump of 7.03 meters, while Sengelmann was right behind him in fifth place with a personal best mark of 6.99 meters.
 
Steele came in second in the steeplechase with a time of 9:02.12 and graduate student Dylan Tarpey (Freehold, N.J.) placed 11^th in 9:39.85.
 
The preliminary heats of the sprint and middle distance events were contested on Friday afternoon.  Junior Logan Wetzel (Saline, Mich.) was the top qualifier for the final in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:52.82, while classmate Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) was an automatic qualifier in 3:53.03 and senior Zach Swenson (Boulder, Colo.) advanced on time in 3:54.62. 
 
Sophomore sprinters Amir Brock (Egg Harbor Twp., N.J.) and Richie Bush (Lawnside, N.J.) each moved on to the final in both the 200 meters and the 400 meters.  Brock posted times of 21.94 and 48.73 in his preliminary races on Friday, while Bush tallied times of 49.11 and 21.87.  In addition, sophomore Keegan Hughes (Malvern, Pa.) and junior Konrad Bayer (Naperville, Ill.) advanced to the final of the 400 meter hurdles.  Senior Harry Purcell (Dublin, Ireland) is a qualifier for the final of the 800 meters.