PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Sophomore sprinter Keegan Hughes (Malvern, Pa.) and second-year high jumper Jacob Kelly (Longmeadow, Mass.) each tallied first place finishes as Villanova opened the outdoor track & field season at the Penn Challenge on Saturday afternoon.  Hughes won the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 54.22, while Kelly cleared a height of 2.01 meters in the high jump.   
 
There were 24 athletes competing in 14 events for the Wildcats at Franklin Field, and the team tallied a total of 13 top-eight finishes on the day.  In addition to Hughes winning the 400 meter hurdles, junior Konrad Bayer (Naperville, Ill.) tallied a sixth place finish in 56.62.  The only other scorer for Villanova in the running events was graduate transfer student Dylan Tarpey (Freehold, N.J.), who came in fifth in the 2000 meter steeplechase with a time of 6:16.84. 
 
Each of the top four competitors in the high jump had successful attempts at 2.01 meters, with Kelly claiming the victory as a result of not having any misses on his first three jumps of the day.  He came into the competition with the bar at a height of 1.91 meters, and cleared the bar at that height as well as at 1.96 and 2.01 meters.  All four remaining athletes were eliminated with three misses when the bar was raised to 2.06 meters.  Sophomore Ryan Tompkins (Farmingdale, N.J.) came in third overall, while freshman Peter Willis (St. Charles, Ill.) tied for seventh place with a height of 1.86 meters.
 
Sophomore jumper Michael Troup (Doylestown, Pa.) was the runner-up in the long jump, where his mark of 7.06 meters was the best of his collegiate career either indoors or outdoors.  He was second out of 14 competitors, while junior Steve Testa (Warminster, Pa.) placed seventh with a distance of 6.71 meters.  Freshman Malik Cunningham (St. Andrew, Jamaica) came in fourth in the triple jump with a measurement of 13.27 meters.
 
The top result for the Wildcats in the throwing events came from senior Jack Judge (Palisades, N.Y.), who was the runner-up in the javelin with a throw of 63.59 meters.  It represented an excellent start to the season for Judge, who recorded the second-longest mark of his career.  Senior thrower Henry Sise (Hawthorn Woods, Ill.) came in sixth in the shot put with a distance of 14.55 meters.  Junior Jadyn Anczarski (Ringtown, Pa.) recorded personal best marks in both the discus (45.09 meters) and the hammer (47.65 meters). 
 
Villanova continues the outdoor season next weekend with a number of meets on the schedule.