PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—The first day of competition at the 127^th running of the Penn Relays got underway with the Villanova women competing in the 3000 meter steeplechase, the 5000 meters and the 10000 meters on distance night at Franklin Field. Senior distance runner Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) ran the eighth-fastest time in the steeplechase and fifth year Ariana Gardizy (Lansdale, Pa.) recorded a personal best time in the 10000 meters to close out the night. In between, sophomore Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) posted a personal best time in the 5000 meters in her Penn Relays debut.
 
It was the 3000 meter steeplechase which was first up and Helwigh crossed the finish line in 10:03.51 to register the second-fastest time of her career. She improved her top time of the 2023 season by nearly two seconds and currently sits at 16^th on the East Region performance list pending the outcome of other meets around the country this weekend. Helwigh's time on Thursday is the eighth-fastest in the Wildcats record book and she now owns four of the 10 best times in the steeplechase in school history. Each of the top 12 times on the Villanova all-time performance list have been run by either Helwigh or her teammate and school record holder Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.).
 
Sigfstead ran her first-ever race at the Penn Relays and made it a memorable one with a personal best time of 16:17.19 in the 5000 meters. She lowered her previous top time by more than four seconds and finished 18^th out of 69 runners. Sigfstead already ranks on the East Region descending order list in the 10000 meters this season, while her time in Thursday night's 5K race puts her at seventh on this year's BIG EAST performance list. Her old personal best in the 5000 meters had been 16:21.25 from the 2022 indoor BIG EAST Championships.
 
Thursday evening concluded with Gardizy back on the Franklin Field track that she called home for four years while competing for Penn during her undergraduate career. She powered her way to a time of 34:25.62 in the 10000 meters to shatter her lifetime best in the event. Gardizy cut her top mark down my nearly 20 full seconds from the standard of 34:45.57 she ran on the same track in the Penn Twilight meet on May 1, 2021. Her new PR in Thursday's race puts Gardizy into seventh place on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the 10K, ironically one spot behind Sigfstead who also broke into the Villanova top-10 earlier this season. Gardizy ranks sixth in the BIG EAST this season with her time at the Penn Relays, with Sigfstead currently sitting in fourth place on the conference performance list.
 
There are two women's events on the Wildcats schedule for Friday at the Penn Relays, including the Championship of America race in the distance medley relay which goes off at 1:50 p.m. Later in the afternoon senior sprinter Jane Livingston (Lancaster, Pa.) will race in the preliminary heats of the 100 meter hurdles at 3 p.m.