LEESBURG, Va.—The beginning of the postseason schedule for the women's cross country team will be both familiar and challenging for Villanova, which heads into Friday morning's BIG EAST Cross Country Championships presented by JEEP ranked fourth in the Mid-Atlantic Region and 27^th nationally. The women's race at Morven Park gets underway at 10 a.m. and can be seen on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports presented by Invesco QQQ. The men's race follows the women at 10:50 a.m. and the championships will conclude with an awards ceremony beginning at approximately 11:40 a.m.
 
Villanova is one of three nationally-ranked BIG EAST teams entering the conference championships. The other two ranked squads are Georgetown and Providence, who the Wildcats have squared off against in each of their last two competitions at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational and the Princeton Fall Classic. Friday's race begins the cross country postseason, with the conference championships to be followed by the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional and the NCAA Championships later in the month.
 
All five of Villanova's scoring runners from last year's BIG EAST Championships return this year, a rare position of strength for a team to be in. The top of the lineup features senior Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.), who owns two career top-five BIG EAST finishes and garnered national attention earlier this year when she was the individual champion among strong talent at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. That performance earned her National Athlete of the Week honors to go along with a BIG EAST Female Athlete of the Week accolade.
 
Despite the recognizable names in the Wildcats lineup, Friday is expected to be the first time this season that Villanova head coach Gina Procaccio has her full lineup at her disposal. Fifth year collegian Nikki Vanasse (Martinsville, N.J.) has made an immediate impact as a graduate transfer from Columbia. She has raced twice in the Wildcats singlet, winning the Main Line Invitational to open the year and then placing 11^th overall and second in the lineup to Sigfstead in Wisconsin,
 
Senior Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.) is another top returner along with Sigfstead at the top of the Villanova lineup. She posted top-five finishes at both the BIG EAST Championships and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional a year ago, and in her 2024 season debut at Princeton looked strong with a 21^st place overall finish in a field of nearly 250 runners.
 
The other returning Wildcats scorers from last season are senior Emily Robinson (Rogers, Ark.), sophomore Tilly O'Connor (Spring Lake, N.J.) and senior Margaret Carroll (Mount Wolf, Pa.). Robinson finished 18^th at the BIG EAST meet last season to join Sigfstead and McGill in earning all-conference honors.
 
Even without its full lineup in place in its first three team competitions of the season, Villanova has looked strong. The Wildcats swept the top five spots in the Main Line Invitational at Haverford, finished in the top half of a 25-team field at Nuttycombe and came in fifth against talented competition at Princeton. Friday will be the next test for Villanova, which has its eye on earning a team bid to the NCAA Championships later this Fall.
 
Villanova has finished first or second in the team standings at the BIG EAST Championships a total of 22 times over the years, including three times in the last seven seasons. Those finishes include a record 16 team titles, the most recent of which came in 2018. There have also been 18 individual conference champions from the Wildcats, including three in the last eight years (2016, 2018, 2019).