JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Junior high jumper Roschell Clayton (Montego Bay, Jamaica) and fifth year distance runner Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) are headed to the NCAA Championships after terrific performances in their respective events during the final day of the NCAA East Preliminary at Hodges Stadium on Saturday. Clayton recorded a lifetime best in the high jump and Olivere was an automatic qualifier for the national meet in the 3000 meter steeplechase. This is the first time in their careers that each athlete has advanced to the NCAA Championships in an individual event.
 
Saturday's event schedule featured five Villanova athletes in action on the last of four days of competition on the University of North Florida campus. Clayton got the day started with the high jump during the afternoon, while Olivere and senior Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) were first on the track for the 3000 meter steeplechase early in the evening. Later in the night the duo of senior Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) and freshman Micah Trusty (Philadelphia, Pa.) competed in the national quarterfinal round of the 800 meters.
 
Clayton turned and gave the high jump bar a quick double take after she cleared 1.82 meters, two centimeters higher than she had previously jumped in competition. Three straight successful attempts to start the day – at 1.67 meters, 1.72 meters and 1.77 meters – had already put Clayton in excellent position to be among the 12 qualifiers from the initial field of 47 athletes who began Saturday's round. Through the first three heights the bar was set at Clayton was one of only eight athletes without any misses on the day.
 
There were 16 athletes remaining when the bar raised to 1.82 meters. Clayton's previous top career mark had been 1.80 meters indoors as a freshman in March 2021. Her best jump of 2023 had come in her last outing however, when she cleared 1.78 meters to win her first career BIG EAST title on Villanova's home turf two weeks ago. Clayton celebrated her winning jump at the conference meet after a performance which gave her some added momentum coming into the East Preliminary meet.
 
All but three of the 16 athletes who advanced when the bar moved to 1.82 meters on Saturday missed their initial attempt at that height, including Clayton who was jumping late in the order (there was only one more jump taken on the first tries at 1.82 meters following her miss). Although it was probable that Clayton might advance to the NCAA Championships without another clearance, based on tiebreakers related to fewest misses at earlier heights, she left nothing to chance with her made attempt on her second try at 1.82 meters. It took just that one quick glance back at the bar before she jogged off the infield to accept the congratulations of her coaches, teammates and family members who had cheered her on.
 
Later in the night Olivere similarly took control of her own destiny by grabbing an automatic qualifying spot for the national championships in the 3000 meter steeplechase. The top three finishers in each of three quarterfinal heats and the next three fastest times moved on to NCAAs from Saturday's competition. Olivere had the benefit of running in the final heat and knowing the times from the earlier sections, although it need not have mattered. She ran with the lead pack for the entirety of the race, looked clean on all of the water jumps throughout and crossed the finish line in third place with a time of 9:59.50. Olivere is the sixth-fastest qualifier coming out of the East region for the NCAA Championships.
 
By the second half of the race the lead pack in Olivere's heat consisted of Ceili McCabe from West Virginia, Olivere, Angelina Ellis from Butler and Olivia Morganti from Penn. McCabe went wire to wire with the lead, and when the ball rang for the final lap Olivere and Ellis had pulled nearly two seconds ahead of Morganti in second and third place. It was the second time in two weeks that Olivere and Ellis had dueled against each other. They nearly came down to a photo finish at the BIG EAST Championships when Ellis narrowly finished in front of Olivere, whose runner-up time of 9:54.20 was nevertheless the second-fastest mark in school history behind only Olivere's own school record.
 
This time around there was a furious finish between the trio of Morganti, Olivere and Ellis in the final 25 meters after the last barrier. Morganti nipped both of her opponents at the line by less than one-tenth of a second, but Olivere held off Ellis by an even smaller margin of three-hundredths of a second to claim the final qualifying spot. Ellis and fifth place finisher Kristel Van Den Berg from Ole Miss eventually occupied two of the three on-time qualifying spots. Olivere's time in Saturday's race – 9:59.50 – comes in as the sixth-fastest in the Villanova record book. She owns the four fastest times in school history in the steeplechase, while she and Helwigh have combined for each of the 15 fastest races in the Wildcats record book.
 
Helwigh ran in the first heat of the steeplechase on Saturday and came in eighth in her heat with a time of 10:32.55. She held her position for nearly the entire race and wound up finishing 27^th overall in the field of 48 runners. That matched her finish at this same meet last season. Helwigh qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary in the steeplechase for the third straight year and is the only other runner in school history aside from Olivere to break 10 minutes in the event.
 
Saturday night closed with the national quarterfinal heats of the 800 meters. Martinez reached the quarterfinal round for the second time in three career appearances at the NCAA East Preliminary, while Trusty was one of only four freshmen from the initial field of 48 competitors in the 800 meters. Both Villanova runners had advanced out of the first round heats on Thursday night.
 
Martinez finished fifth in her heat in Saturday's race with a time of 2:05.97. Michaela Rose from Louisiana State went out to an early lead in the race and ran ahead of the rest of the pack for the duration. The rest of the runners in the heat were tightly bunched through the first 600 meters. Martinez went out in 59.93 on the opening lap and made a move to try and get into the top three with 200 meters to go before finishing just a second outside of an advancing spot.
 
Trusty finished seventh in the second heat with a time of 2:07.65. A lead group of four runners broke away from the rest of the heat and all wound up moving on, including the three automatic qualifiers and the top on-time qualifier. Trusty wound up placing as the third best freshman in the East region in the 800 meters after a season in which she earned All-BIG EAST honors and lowered her lifetime best in the event.
 
The NCAA Championships take place in Austin, Texas on the University of Texas campus from June 7-10. Women's competition is slated for Thursday, June 8 and Saturday, June 10 during that week. The meet will be broadcast live on ESPN2, with additional streaming coverage to be found on ESPN+.