Complete Villanova Results | Full Meet Results

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.--In its first meet of the 2016 outdoor track & field season, Villanova recorded a number of strong performances at the Penn Challenge on Saturday afternoon. The team's success at Franklin Field on a cool and blustery day included four individual event winners and more than a dozen new personal best times and marks. Senior jumper Anne Yahiro (Downers Grove, Ill.) was a double winner for the Wildcats in the long jump and the triple jump, while junior Veronica Scott (Plymouth, N.H.) captured the 400 meters and freshman Sammy Bockoven (Hudson, Ohio) won the 800 meters.

Yahiro, junior Ekiah Lewis (San Bernardino, Calif.) and sophomore Marley Byrne (Auburn, Maine) each registered personal best marks in the long jump. Yahiro finished first out of 16 competitors with a mark of 5.67 meters and beat the runner-up Lewis (5.58m) with her third and final jump. Both athletes now rank in the top 10 on the all-time Villanova performance list in the long jump. Yahiro moved into a tie for third place on the outdoor list and a tie for fourth place in school history overall, while Lewis enters the Wildcats top 10 list tied for seventh outdoors and tied for ninth overall. Byrne came in ninth with a mark of 5.11 meters.

In the triple jump, Yahiro led a field of seven athletes with a winning distance of 11.88 meters. Sophomore Courtney Caldwell (Trenton, N.J.) and freshman Alex Patrick (Media, Pa.) each set new personal bests with marks of 11.30 meters and 10.76 meters, respectively.

Villanova had its distance runners out in full force, as a large group from the Wildcats ran in both the 800 meters and the 1500 meters. Bockoven won the 800 meters in a personal best time of 2:12.80 and also placed fifth in the 1500 meters in 4:29.73. Freshman Nicole Hutchinson (West Vancouver, B.C.) was the top Villanova finisher in the 1500 meters, finishing as the runner-up out of 45 competitors with a time of 4:25.43 in addition to placing fifth in the 800 meters in 2:17.10.

Two more first-year runners, Bella Burda (Pleasant Valley, Calif.) and Ann Campbell (Mission Hills, Kan.), made their collegiate track debuts after red-shirting the indoor season. Burda posted times of 2:17.64 in the 800 meters and 4:32.64 in the 1500 meters, with the latter mark being a personal best time. Campbell crossed the finish line in 2:20.67 in the 800 meters and had a time of 4:42.26 in the 1500 meters. A trio of outdoor sophomores ââ'¬" Rebecca Del Rossi (Canton, N.Y.), Katie Fisher (Uxbridge, Ont.) and Alexandra Russo (Bellport, N.Y.) ââ'¬" tallied personal best times in the 1500 meters.

Scott won the 400 meters with a personal best time of 56.50 to pace 14 runners, including six Wildcats, in the event. Freshman Sarah Knowles (Clifton Park, N.Y.), sophomore Yazmin Wilson-Jones (Staten Island, N.Y.) and senior Alyssa Lombardo (Bethlehem, Pa.) doubled up in the 200 meters and the 400 meters. Knowles placed third in the 400 meters in 58.12 and was eighth in the 200 meters in 26.31. Lombardo was sixth in the 400 meters (59.56) and seventh in the 200 meters with a personal best time of 26.30. Wilson-Jones came in fifth in the 400 meters (58.94) and 13th in the 200 meters (26.89), while freshman Niki Cleary (Flemington, N.J.) posted a personal best time of 27.36 in the 200 meters.

Junior thrower Kristen Erickson (Princeton, Mass.) competed in four different throwing events on the day, including the shot put, discus, hammer and javelin. She recorded personal best marks of 30.98 meters in the discus and 35.48 meters in the hammer, while also throwing the javelin for a distance of 27.58 meters in her first collegiate competition in the event. Freshman Alex Zimmerman (Lititz, Pa.) had a huge outdoor debut in the discus with a throw of 40.99 meters. She came in fourth in the event and also jumps into fifth place on the all-time Villanova performance list. Zimmerman also competed in the hammer for the first time and had a throw of 32.69 meters.

Next up for the Wildcats is three days of competition at the Colonial Relays next week from Thursday through Saturday.