PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Junior sprinter Nicholas Mollica (Jackson, N.J.) finished first in the 400 meter hurdles and Villanova produced eight personal best marks during competition at the Big 5 Invitational hosted by Penn at Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon. The competition featured six top-three finishes by the Wildcats and a strong performance by freshman Amiri Prescod (Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago) who recorded PRs in both the 100 meters and the 200 meters.
 
Prescod, a walk-on to the Villanova roster this season who scored in the 60 meters at the indoor BIG EAST Championships, opened his outdoor season with Saturday's meet. He finished third in the 100 meters with a time of 10.78 and came in fourth in the 200 meters in 21.85. Prescod is the Wildcats only sprinter who has competed in either of these events to this early point in the outdoor campaign.
 
The lone event winner for Villanova was Mollica, who ran the 400 meter hurdles for the second time this year and paced a field of nine runners with a time of 53.52. He cut nearly seven-tenths of a second off his time from the Penn Challenge (54.20) two weeks ago, while senior Mac Costonis (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) finished in seventh place with a time of 56.26.
 
Freshman sprinter Jimmy Milgie (Wildwood, Mo.) was the runner-up out of 15 competitors in the 400 meters with a time of 48.55, while two other Wildcats tallied personal best times in the race. Junior Jakob Kuzner (George Town, Grand Cayman) placed fifth with a time of 49.05, freshman Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas) posted a PR of 49.37, freshman Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.) crossed the line in 50.23 and junior William Seijas (Shrewsbury, N.J.) recorded a personal best time of 50.90.
 
Villanova combined to go 2-3-4 in the 1500 meters with the trio of fifth year Evan Addison (Collegeville, Pa.), redshirt freshman Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) and senior Miller Anderson (West Hartford, Conn.). Addison recorded a time of 3:48.39, while Comber (3:49.46) and Anderson (3:49.51) each posted personal best times. Fifth year Henry Myers (Portland, Ore.) came in seventh in 3:50.39 and fifth year Ben Seiple (Westport, Conn.) had a PR of 3:51.86.
 
One other middle distance event was on the Wildcats event schedule for the day, as fifth year Trevor Potts (Sparta, N.J.) produced a time of 1:54.38 in the 800 meters.
 
In the field events, freshman Daelyn Nwaobasi (Nashville, Tenn.) tallied a personal best mark in the long jump for the second time in as many outings with a distance of 6.65 meters. Sophomore thrower Tristan Bolinsky (Gordon, Pa.) and freshman Liam Anderson (Lebanon, N.J.) competed in the throwing events, with Bolinsky finishing third in the hammer with a throw of 50.33 meters and coming in seventh in the discus with a mark of 45.36 meters. Anderson registered marks of 13.23 meters in the shot put and 31.23 meters in the discus.
 
Villanova's schedule for the coming week includes competition at both the Duke Invitational and the Miami Alumni Invitational.