CORAL GABLES, Fla.—Sophomore high jumper Jacob Kelly (Longmeadow, Mass.) established a new lifetime best at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational on Friday afternoon, where he became the fourth athlete in school history to clear a height of 2.10 meters.  He and teammate Ryan Tompkins (Farmingdale, N.J.) were each competing for Villanova on the first of two days of competition at Cobb Stadium, with the majority of the meet's events to take place on Saturday afternoon. 
 
Kelly came in first out of eight competitors in the high jump with his mark of 2.10 meters.  His previous personal best had been a height of 2.09 meters at the FastTrack National Invitational this February during the indoor track & field season.  His new mark of 2.10 meters reached on Friday moves him into a tie for third place on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the high jump.  Kelly is now part of a group of four Villanova jumpers who have combined to clear the bar at 2.10 meters or higher just 13 times in school history. 
 
In Friday's meet, Kelly was successful on each of his first three jumps.  He entered the competition with the bar at 2.00 meters, cleared the bar at that height and was also successful at 2.05 meters before setting a new personal best on his third attempt of the day.  The clearance at 2.10 meters also secured the first place finish, as the runner-up from Princeton cleared 2.05 meters on his third try before missing on all three attempts when the bar was raised again. 
 
Kelly attempted three jumps with the bar raised to 2.14 meters, which would have matched the second-best performance in Wildcats history.  The last Villanova athlete before him to make it over the bar at 2.10 meters was Elbert Maxwell, who did so on April 14, 2012 also at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational.  Prior to Maxwell, the only two Wildcats to reach heights of 2.10 meters or higher were Dave Cook (nine times total) and Steve Blais (twice).  They each competed during the mid-1990s. 
 
Tompkins finished third in the high jump with a mark of 2.00 meters.  He cleared the bar at 1.95 meters on his first jump of the day and also made it over at 2.00 meters on his first attempt.  Tompkins was eliminated on three tries to set a new personal best at a height of 2.05 meters. 
 
The first event for Villanova on Saturday will be the 100 meter dash starting at 5 p.m.