Complete Villanova Results (PDF)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.--Senior sprinter Shanice Grant (Kingston, Jamaica) advanced to the final of the 60 meter hurdles and notched a third place overall finish on a strong night overall for Villanova at the FastTrack National Invite. Friday evening's meet was held at Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex and featured both invitational and collegiate sections of most events. A number of strong individual performances highlighted the Wildcats results from the meet.

Grant opened her indoor season on a strong note by finishing third out of 39 runners in the 60 meter hurdles. She won her preliminary heat and was fourth overall entering the final after posting a time of 8.67. She lowered that time to a mark of 8.60 in the final to place third. Grant also ran in the invitational section of the 200 meters later in the evening. She came in fourth in her heat and 17th overall with a time of 25.59.

Sophomore Katie Fisher (Uxbridge, Ont.) competed in the invitational section of the 3000 meters and registered a personal best time of 9:49.12. She lowered her previous top mark of 9:54.45 ââ'¬" set earlier this season at the Great Dane Classic ââ'¬" by more than five seconds. Freshmen Nicole Hutchinson (West Vancouver, B.C.) and Sammy Bockoven (Hudson, Ohio) ran in the invitational section of the Mile. Each fared well in their first collegiate races in the Mile, with Hutchinson crossing the finish line in 4:44.68 and Bockoven registering a time of 4:58.20. Hutchinson's time was good for a fifth place overall finish in the field of 34 runners.

Villanova also had entries in the invitational sections of the 400 meters and the 800 meters. Sophomore Sidney Hayes (Spring Grove, Pa.) was the runner-up in her heat of the 400 meters with a time of 57.10. Freshman Sarah Knowles (Clifton Park, N.Y.) and sophomore Yazmin Wilson-Jones (Staten Island, N.Y.) had strong performances in the college section of the 400 meters. Knowles won her heat and was the overall runner-up in the college section with a time of 58.14, while Wilson-Jones placed second in her heat with a time of 59.88.

In the invitational section of the 800 meters, sophomore Nicole Armstrong (Sydenham, Ont.) and freshman Kaleigh Hughes (Needham, Mass.) competed in the same heat and placed third and fourth, respectively. They were separated by less than a quarter of a second at the finish line, with Armstrong registering a time of 2:14.00 and Hughes finishing in 2:14.21. Sophomore Rebecca Del Rossi (Canton, N.Y.) was the runner-up in the college section of the 800 meters after crossing the finish line in 2:14.97.

Freshman Catherine Walker (Chester, N.Y.) tallied her best performance of the season in the pole vault. She cleared the bar at 3.80 meters on her second try to finish atop a field of 20 athletes in the college section of the event. Walker, who has vaulted as high as 3.84 meters in her career, moved onto the Wildcats all-time performance list in the pole vault with her effort on Friday night. She had already been tied for seventh in school history on Villanova's indoor list, but moved into a tie for fifth place there and is also now tied for sixth place on the team's combined indoor/outdoor list. Freshman Adeline Scelzi (Glen Allen, Va.) finished 14th in the college section of the pole vault with a height of 3.30 meters.

There were also strong results for the Wildcats in the college section of the long jump. Junior Ekiah Lewis (San Bernardino, Calif.) finished third out of 22 competitors in the section with a jump of 5.24 meters. Freshman Alex Patrick (Media, Pa.) came in eighth with a mark of 5.12 meters and fellow first-year athlete Niki Cleary (Flemington, N.J.) finished 13th (4.99m).

Villanova will not have its full team in action again until the BIG EAST Championships later this month. The conference meet is scheduled for February 26-27 at the Ocean Breeze venue. The meet will mark the sixth and final time that the Wildcats compete at the brand new facility this season.