PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Junior distance runners Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.) and Margaret Carroll (Mount Wolf, Pa.) along with senior Elizabeth Vaughn (Dayton, Ohio) were the stars of distance night for the Villanova women on an all-around great first day of competition at the 128^th running of the Penn Relays. McGill broke 4:20 in the 1500 meters for the first time in her career, Carroll posted a big-time PR in the 5000 meters and Vaughn surged into eighth place on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the 10000 meters.
 
Only eight women in school history own a 10K time below 35 minutes. Vaughn is the latest member of that list after her time of 34:43.53 under the Franklin Field lights late on Thursday night. She had run two previous 10K races in her career and both came during the 2021 campaign. Vaughn shaved nearly two minutes off the better of her two times from 2021 and slides into the eighth spot on the Villanova program's top-10 list. She is the fifth runner among the eight Wildcats who own sub-35 minute times whose fastest race has come since the 2017 season.
 
McGill had a terrific race in the 1500 meters earlier in the evening. She ran in the faster of two heats and lowered her lifetime PR by nearly three full seconds to cross the finish line in 4:19.99. McGill has tallied PRs in each of her two 1500 meter races this season. She was clocked in 4:22.72 during the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton just 13 days earlier, while her time on Thursday night moved her up a spot to seventh in the BIG EAST this season pending the outcome of other meets around the country this weekend. It was nevertheless an ideal start to the weekend for McGill, who is making her Penn Relays collegiate debut.
 
The trio of top performances by the Villanova distance group included Carroll's best career race in the 5000 meters. She powered her way to a personal best time of 16:45.19 in a finish that was fueled by passing eight runners in the final 800 meters. Carroll had run as fast as 16:50.56 in the 5K during her scholastic career at Northeastern (Pa.) HS before she cut more than five seconds off the mark with Thursday night's performance. Her body of work to this point in the 2024 calendar now includes personal best performances in the mile, the 1500 meters, the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters.
 
First year collegian Olivia Allen (Kingwood, Texas) was the Wildcats first athlete on the track in Thursday's events. She ran in the championship of the 400 meter hurdles and tallied a time of 1:03.08 which was good for a third place finish in her heat. Allen was fresh off a personal best performance in the hurdles last weekend in Virginia which moved her onto the program's all-time top-10 list.
 
The day began for Villanova on Thursday afternoon with graduate student Alex Payne (Silverdale, Wash.) making her Penn Relays debut in the college section of the hammer. Payne's best throw of the day was 51.48 meters on her third attempt and qualified her for the final where she tallied a ninth place finish. Payne is in her first year with the Wildcats after competing as an undergraduate at Washington State. She has found immediate success at Villanova, with her 2024 highlights already including an All-BIG EAST finish in the weight throw indoors to go along with top-10 marks in school history in both the weight throw and the hammer.
 
Another busy day awaits the Wildcats on Friday, beginning with field competition in women's long jump and women's shot put at 12 p.m. followed by the Championship of America section in the distance medley relay at 2:25 p.m.