STORRS, Conn. – Five Wildcats made their way to the podium on the final day of the 2022 BIG EAST Outdoor Championships presented by JEEP with three performers earning gold to lead Villanova to a fourth-place finish at the Sherman Family Sports Complex.

Villanova finished the week with 108 points, just one point shy of Butler in third. All-told, 13 Wildcats were individuals scorers on the final day. Over the course of two days, seven Wildcats earned podium finishes, totaling three gold medals, two silver and two bronze.

Of the three gold medal wins, Sean Dolan had a dramatic one in the 800 meter that came down to a photo finish just a day after setting a facility record in the race. The final stretch of the race came down to the junior and Georgetown's Matthew Payamps who gained steady ground to run alongside him. In the end, Dolan edged Payamps by two-hundredths of a second for a 1:48.07 finish, setting yet another facility record. He has now won gold in the race in two straight seasons and the 11^th Wildcat to win it at outdoors. Miller Anderson was eighth in the event as a scorer with a 1:55.79 finish.

Haftu Strintzos became the 14^th Wildcat to win gold in the 5000 meter, posting a time of 14:13.58. He led the field by a hefty margin heading into the backstretch, winning by four seconds for his first title in the event. Two other Villanova runners landed in the top seven for points. Jack Jennings posted a sixth-place time of 14:31.96 while Ryan Cutter checked in at seventh-place in 14:33.57.

In the field events, Tristan Bolinsky turned in a 49.07 meter throw in the discus to win the first BIG EAST title of his career. The freshman out-threw the field by just over a meter and a half with his new personal best. Riley LaRiviere finished fifth with 44.31 meter throw while Shane O'Connor was seventh at 43.17 meters, both scoring points.

Nicholas Mollica earned silver in the 400 meter hurdles with a new personal-best time of 52.40. He was trailing just behind Butler's Tim Pitkin before a stumble on a final hurdle sent him tumbling, allowing Mollica to push ahead for second. Another medal came in for the Wildcats in the shot put. Shane O'Connor threw a new personal best of 15.29 meters to make it to the podium for a bronze medal. LaRiviere was another scorer in this event, along with Eduardo Perez, finishing fifth (14.38 meters) and seventh (14.20 meters), respectively.

Sosa Omuemo leapt to a fourth-place finish in the triple jump, setting a new personal best at 14.17 meters.

Villanova closed the day with a pair of top-five relays. The first of the two came in the 4x800 with three of the four legs posting split times in the 1:53 range in a fourth-place finish. Liam Murphy ran an opening leg of 1:53.77 before handing off to Anderson who was not far off at 1:53.93. Sean Donoghue took the baton third with the fastest split of the group at 1:50.31, passing off to anchor Trevor Potts who went 1:53.48, closing out the team's time at 7:31.47.

The 4x400 relay closed out the day. Richard Bush pulled the group into the lead near the end of his opening leg, handing off to Mollica. He ended up falling back into third during his lap, turning the baton to Michael Costonis on the third leg. He surged back into a neck and neck race for second right ahead of the hand-off to anchor Jacob Kunzer. His leg ended with the 'Cats taking fifth-place in 3:13.61.