STORRS, Conn. – Nine Wildcats scored points for Villanova on Friday including medal-winning javelin performances by Nick Coffey and Andrew Grinnell to land the team in fourth after the first day of the 2022 BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships presented by JEEP.

Out of the seven scored events in day one, Villanova had point-worthy showings in four events for 32 points. The group heads into Saturday just two points shy of third place Georgetown. UConn leads everyone with 101.5 points while Butler trails in second at 41.

The throwing area got the group off to a hot start, especially in the javelin throw. Three of the four Wildcats in the field ended up in the top five. Coffey and Grinnell highlighted the showing with top-three finishes that went down as personal bests. Coffey had his best attempt in his final throw that sailed 65.35 meters to earn the silver medal. At the time of his throw, Coffey sat 46^th in the region, eyeing a trip to regionals in the coming week. Grinnell's third-place distance of 64.69 came on his third attempt. Joe DiDario ended up fifth at a personal-best 64.06 meters while Jim Keys was eighth at 51.09 meters.

Both Riley LaRiviere and Tristan Bolinsky scored points for Villanova in the hammer throw, making it to the final, sitting in the top nine after their three initial throws. LaRiviere was sixth with a 56.03 while Bolinsky turned in a 52.31 meter throw. That marked a personal best for Bolinsky and put him at eighth on the program's top performer's list.

Villanova had a pair of scorers in the long jump as well. Michael Troup posted a 7.14 meter jump that was good enough for fifth while Malik Cunningham was sixth at 7.09 meters for a new personal best. Mathias Powell also added to Villanova's score toward the end of the night with an eighth-place showing in the 3000 meter steeplechase, finishing in 9:12.16.

Five Wildcats landed spots in Saturday's finals of track events. Of those, Sean Dolan did so in record-breaking fashion. The junior set a facility record at the Sherman Family Sports Complex in the 800 meter prelim with a 1:48.68, beating the previous one by nearly three-tenths of a second to lead the entire group heading into the final. He will be joined in the field by Miller Anderson who qualified on time with an eighth-place 1:50.49.

Sean Donoghue and Liam Murphy earned positions in the 1500 meter final. Donoghue ran a sixth-place 3:47.93 while Murphy was 11^th at 3:50.19. In the 400 meter hurdle prelims, Nicholas Mollica turned in the fifth-fastest time at 53.72 for a new personal best to cement a spot in the final.

The final day of competition is set to get underway for the men starting with the field events at 11:30 a.m. and the track finals begin at noon.