CHICAGO, Ill.—Graduate thrower Sade Meeks (North Babylon, N.Y.) became the first Villanova thrower to be named the Outstanding Field Performer at the BIG EAST Championships and the Wildcats finished second with 116.5 points over two days of competition at the indoor 2022 BIG EAST Track & Field Championships Presented by JEEP inside the Track & Field Center at Gately Park this weekend. Meeks won the gold medal in the shot put on Saturday to go along with a silver medal in the weight throw on Friday afternoon. The team result marked the 20^th time that the Wildcats have finished first or second in the women's team standings at the indoor conference meet, which returned this weekend after a nearly two-year absence.
 
Villanova won event titles in the 800 meters, the distance medley relay and the shot put while recording a total of 11 podium finishes during the weekend. Meeks and graduate middle distance runner McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.) were the individual champions on Saturday, with Keegan winning the 800 meters in 2:06.02 and later anchoring the Wildcats to a bronze medal in the 4x800 meter relay. Villanova added silver medals in the 60 meter hurdles, the 3000 meters and the high jump on Saturday to go along with bronze medals in the 800 meters and the Mile.
 
Meeks is the Wildcats first thrower – men's or women's and indoors or outdoors – to earn an Outstanding Field Performer award at the conference championships. She surpassed 15 meters for the second time this season in the shot put and recorded a winning mark of 15.07 meters in her second event of the weekend on Saturday. She was previously in action on Friday when she came in second in the weight throw with a distance of 19.30 meters. That performance marked another first for Meeks, as she became the first women's thrower in school history to make the awards podium in the weight throw. Meeks and graduate Samantha Stevens (Shelton, Conn.) each scored in the shot put; Stevens came in eighth with a mark of 12.76 meters.
 
"It feels really good," Meeks said of winning the shot put title. It's my first time winning [a conference title] so I feel very blessed. I think I was leading from the beginning, but I respect my competitors so every throw I knew that I could be passed. I was respecting that and trying my hardest on every throw. I am extremely excited for our team. Like our head coach says, these are the stories that are made when people win so I am really proud of all my teammates today."
 
The shot put ended shortly before the final of the 800 meters in which Keegan and junior Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) each made the awards podium. Keegan won her third career 800 meter title and second indoors with a margin of victory of more than a second at the finish line. She previously was the indoor BIG EAST champion in the 800 meters in 2019 but redshirted the 2020 indoor campaign and did not have a chance to defend her title that season. Keegan has since become a two-time first team All-American in the 800 meters and is ranked fifth on the Division I qualifying list this year.
 
Martinez had an impressive kick in the final 100 meters of Saturday's final to finish in third place with a time of 2:07.80. She surged ahead of the chase pack and crossed the finish line more than two seconds ahead of the fourth place finisher to earn her third career All-BIG EAST honor in the 800 meters. Martinez was also third at the 2020 indoor meet as a freshman and the 2021 outdoor conference championships last Spring. Freshman Maya Dorer (New York, N.Y.) gave Villanova three scorers in the final with a seventh place finish and a personal best time of 2:10.48.
 
Saturday started off strong for the Wildcats with juniors Maggie Smith (Halifax, N.S.) and Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) each scoring in the final of the Mile. Smith won a bronze medal with a third place finish and a time of 4:48.81 in the final while Helwigh finished fifth in 4:49.56. In the other finals on Saturday afternoon, senior sprinter Jada Thomas (Kingston, Jamaica) was the silver medalist in the 60 meter hurdles with a season-best time of 8.62 and senior Trinity Hart (Scotch Plains, N.J.) ran 7.80 to place eighth in the final of the 60 meters.
 
The last individual event before the relays was the 3000 meters in which senior Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) and freshman Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) came in second and seventh, respectively. Olivere closed hard over the final 200 meters to nearly erase a big lead for eventual champion Sami Corman, with only half a second separating the top two runners at the finish line. Olivere won the silver medal with a time of 9:17.04 while Sigfstead crossed the line in 9:27.42.
 
All eyes would later turn to the women's high jump which was the final event of the entire meet to conclude. Senior Sanaä Barnes (Keller, Texas) cleared the bar at 1.81 meters to finish second in the competition and freshman Taylor Woodeshick (Nescopeck, Pa.) set a new personal best with a height of 1.61 meters to tie for seventh place. Barnes came in when the bar was raised to 1.71 meters, at which point only three other athletes were still competing. She went 2-for-2 to start her day, easily making it over the bar at 1.71 meters and 1.76 meters on her first try.
 
Barnes and Patricia Mroczkowski eventually went head-to-head at the final two heights after they were the only two competitors with successful clearances at 1.76 meters. The next bar raise was to 1.81 meters and Barnes made it over on her third and final attempt, while Mroczkowski cleared the height on her first try. Both athletes were eliminated with three missed jumps at 1.84 meters. Woodeshick, meanwhile, also started 2-for-2 at the opening heights of 1.51 meters and 1.56 meters before establishing her new lifetime best mark with a clearance at 1.61 meters on her second try.
 
A lineup consisting of junior Nikki Merrill (Portsmouth, R.I.), Smith, Martinez and Keegan combined for a third place finish in the 4x800 meter relay with a time of 8:49.01. Villanova has finished on the awards podium in the 4x800 relay in 35 of the 39 years that the indoor BIG EAST Championships have been held. The 4x400 meter relay squad of junior Alexis Martin (Gaithersburg, Md.), Dorer, freshman Alex Stasichin (Massapequa, N.Y.) and Helwigh came in sixth with a time of 3:55.05.