RALEIGH, N.C.—Fifth year distance runner
Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) won her section of the 1500 meters with a personal best time and sophomore
Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.) recorded a top-20 finish out of nearly 200 athletes in the 5000 meters to highlight competition for Villanova at the Raleigh Relays on Friday night. Four events total made up the schedule for the Wildcats on the second of three days of competition at Paul Derr Track.
Olivere cut nearly three seconds off her previous top time in the 1500 meters with a terrific race to open her outdoor season. The veteran member of the Villanova distance group posted a time of 4:18.03 on Friday to easily eclipse her previous PR of 4:20.99 which had been set in April 2021 in a meet at Temple. She won her heat by just over two-tenths of a second over a runner from Harvard and produced a time which ranks second in the BIG EAST and 11
th in the East region this year.
Sophomore middle distance runner
Emily Robinson (Rogers, Ark.) also ran the 1500 meters on Friday night and she recorded a time of 4:40.86. Later in the evening McGill ran the 5000 meters in 16:15.83. It is the first collegiate 5K race on the track for McGill, who was a BIG EAST scorer indoors in the 3000 meters last month. Her time in the 5000 meters on Friday currently puts her fourth in the BIG EAST and 19
th in the East region for the season.
The first event on the track for the Wildcats on Friday was the 400 meters in which freshman
Micah Trusty (Philadelphia, Pa.), senior
Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) and sophomore
Alex Stasichin (Massapequa, N.Y.) were all in action. Trusty registered a time of 56.04, Martinez finished in 56.49 and Stasichin was clocked in 59.92. Each of the three finished fourth in their respective heats.
Friday began with sophomore
Faith Haught (Payson, Ariz.) competing in the discus. She threw in the second of three flights and recorded a distance of 33.81 meters on her third and final attempt of the day. Haught will be back in action on Saturday in the hammer and Villanova will round out its schedule for the weekend with the 800 meters on the track.
