CHICAGO, Ill.—Nearly two full years since BIG EAST track & field teams last converged for indoor conference championships it made for a fitting ending to the first day of the 2022 BIG EAST Track & Field Championships Presented by JEEP to see the women's distance medley relay squad standing atop the awards podium. Villanova closed out a full day of competition on Friday afternoon with by winning the women's DMR for the 18^th time and claiming its first gold medal of the weekend.
 
With six events scored (out of 18) during the first day of competition at the Track & Field Complex at Gately Park, the Wildcats are in second place in the team standings with 39.5 points. Villanova scored in all five events it was entered in on Friday, including the first place finish in the distance medley relay as well as podium finishes in both the weight throw and the pole vault. Graduate thrower Sade Meeks (North Babylon, N.Y.) had one of the highlights of the day for the Wildcats as she became the first women's thrower in school history to make the awards podium in the weight throw.
 
The day wrapped up with a dominant performance in the distance medley relay which saw Villanova outkick DePaul and the rest of the nine-team field by more than 1.5 seconds. Junior Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark), graduate McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.), freshman Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.) and junior Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) combined for a winning time of 11:26.08. It marked the 33^rd time in 39 indoor BIG EAST Championships meets that the Wildcats tallied a top-three finish in the DMR.
 
It was a wire-to-wire performance for Villanova which started with Helwigh posting a split of 3:32.30 over the first 1200 meters and handing off to Keegan with the Wildcats in the lead. Keegan extended the gap between Villanova and the field with a 54.06 split for 400 meters before giving the baton to McGill, a newcomer to the Wildcats this year who was the only one of the four relay runners that had not also competed in the preliminaries of an individual event earlier in the day.
 
McGill split 2:17.21 over 800 meters and Smith brought home the gold medal with a strong and steady anchor leg. She ran 4:42.52 over 1600 meters and had the win safely in hand as she came out of the final turn. DePaul came in second in the race in 11:27.76, followed by Providence in third place (11:28.32) to round out the podium places.
 
Earlier in the day the first field event on the schedule was the weight throw in which Villanova had four athletes in action. Meeks and graduate Jul Thomson (Otterville, Ont.) were each among the nine throwers that advanced from three initial throws to make three more attempts in the final round. Meeks competed in a back-and-forth battle against Mikyla Rodgers of Connecticut which saw both athletes hold the lead multiple times.
 
Meeks recorded a throw of 18.44 meters on her first attempt of the day to take an initial lead, but Rodgers recorded a mark of 19.12 meters on her second try to gain the advantage. There was no change at the top of the standings after all athletes had completed their first three throws. In the final round, Meeks measured a throw of 19.30 meters on her fourth attempt of the day to regain the lead. The mark is the second-longest in school history behind only her own school record of 20.88 meters set earlier this year.
 
It has been a sensational year for Meeks, who has set school records in both the weight throw and the shot put in her first year on the Wildcats roster. She added more history on Friday by becoming the first Villanova women's thrower ever to tally a top-three finish in the weight throw. Over the last 20 years the highest finish in the event by a Wildcats athlete was Melinda Boykin's fifth place result in 2002 when she set the old school record of 16.76 meters.
 
That mark, already broken on numerous occasions by Meeks this year, was under further duress from Thompson during the final round on Friday afternoon. Thomson set a new personal best with a throw of 16.65 meters on her sixth and final attempt of the day to tally what is now the sixth-longest throw in school history. The mark also flip-flopped Thomson and senior teammate Emily Galvin (Pitman, N.J.) on the all-time Villanova performance list, with Thomson now back into third place ahead of Galvin in fourth. Galvin (14.30m) and graduate Samantha Stevens (Shelton, Conn.) also competed on Friday.
 
Senior pole vaulter Ashley Preston (Franklinville, N.J.) tied for a second place finish to make a BIG EAST awards podium for the fifth time in her career. The veteran competitor cleared the bar at a height of 3.85 meters on Friday and was successful on each of her first three attempts of the day after passing at several opening heights. Preston came into the competition with the bar at 3.65 meters and she made it easily over at that height as well as installments of 3.75 meters and 3.85 meters on her first try.
 
By the time the bar reached 3.85 meters there were only four athletes left in the field. Preston and Kalli Knott each cleared the height without having had a miss to that point in the day and they finished in a tie for second place after both missed on three attempts with the bar at 3.95 meters. Preston has finished first or second in the pole vault in all five of the conference meets she has competed in.
 
The lone individual track final on Friday was the 5000 meters in which freshman Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) and senior Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) came in fifth and sixth, respectively. Sigfstead made her BIG EAST Championships debut with a time of 16:21.25 and Olivere followed close behind her in 16:26.05 to score a combined seven team points. Both will be back on the track for the 3000 meters on Saturday afternoon.
 
Late in the afternoon on Friday saw a strong finish by two Wildcats competing in the long jump. Seniors Trinity Hart (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and Liv Morgan (Bronx, N.Y.) each scored in the event, with Hart tying for fourth place with a mark of 5.51 meters and Morgan placing sixth with a jump of 5.44 meters. It was a good day on multiple fronts for Hart, who also advanced out of the preliminary heats in the 60 meters. Her personal best time of 7.79 in the first of two heats advanced her on time to the final and also put her into a tie for 10^th place on the program's all-time performance list.
 
Villanova qualified athletes for Saturday finals in the 60 meters, the 60 meter hurdles, the 400 meters, the 800 meters and the Mile. Keegan was the fastest qualifier in the 800 meters with a time of 2:08.56 in the preliminaries. She easily moved on to the final along with junior Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) and freshman Maya Dorer (New York, N.Y.). Martinez came in second to Keegan in the opening heat of the 800 meters in 2:09.04 as the pair secured automatic qualifying spots by finishing in the top three of their heat.
 
Dorer ran in the second heat and crossed the finish line in 2:12.23 to nab the final on-time qualifying spot. She displaced freshman teammate Alex Stasichin (Massapequa, N.Y.) who had finished the opening heat in 2:12.62 and had the bubble time going into the final heat.
 
The trio of Helwigh, Smith and freshman Emily Robinson (Rogers, Ark.) advanced to the final of the Mile. Helwigh (4:56.35) and Smith (4:56.48) came in second and third with nearly identical times in the first heat to claim automatic qualifying spots, while Robinson ran 4:58.34 in the second heat to secure an on-time qualifying spot.
 
Senior sprinter Jada Thomas (Kingston, Jamaica) was an on-time qualifier for the 60 meter hurdles after posting a time of 8.87 in her preliminary heat.
 
Action begins on Saturday morning with the unseeded section of the 3000 meters at 11:20 a.m. Eastern time (10:20 a.m. Central), followed by the first track final in the Mile at 12 p.m. Eastern time. The first field event to get underway is women's shot put at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.