STORRS, Conn.—Freshman thrower Joe D'Adamo (Nanuet, N.Y.) placed sixth in the hammer and redshirt freshman Nick Sullivan (Middletown, N.J.) was seventh in the 10,000 meters as the 2025 BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships presented by JEEP got underway on Thursday night. D'Adamo and Sullivan combined to score five points in their respective events at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex.
 
The duo of D'Adamo and sophomore Jonathan Evans (Springfield, Va.) were the first Villanova men's athletes to get underway at the conference championships this weekend. They each had notable results. D'Adamo threw 46.04 meters on Thursday and his sixth place finish was the best by a first year athlete in the competition. He is the Wildcats first rookie thrower in at least 24 years to finish as high as sixth in the hammer, and he tallied the best finish by a Villanova freshman in any throwing event since Tristan Bolinsky was the BIG EAST discus champion in 2022.
 
Very few states in the country have the hammer as a scholastic event, but New York is one of them and D'Adamo had experience in the hammer from high school. It showed during his first collegiate season as he recorded a season best mark of 47.79 meters at Lehigh last month before following up the performance with Thursday's strong BIG EAST finish. Evans notched his third PR of the season with a throw of 41.25 meters. It came on his second attempt and he finished 10^th overall.
 
It was Sullivan's turn to stand out later on Thursday evening as the 10,000 meter race went off. He ran his third 10K race in the last 50 days since making his collegiate debut in the event at the Raleigh Relays on March 27. Sullivan posted a time of 30:26.68 to finish seventh in a field of 16 runners, including nine who are in their first or second season of outdoor collegiate eligibility. Sullivan had the second-best finish among athletes competing in their first outdoor season. He ranks ninth in school history in the 10,000 meters with his PR of 29:07.13 from the Raleigh meet.
 
A full day of competition awaits Villanova on Friday, with preliminary heats of the 1500 meters at 2:15 p.m. the team's first event of the day. The 2025 BIG EAST Track and Field Championships presented by JEEP can be seen live on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports.