March 15, 2003

At the 2003 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships held at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., the Villanova men's Distance Medley Relay team captured its second-straight indoor national crown. It is the sixth time in the program's history that the DMR team has won an NCAA indoor title.

The team of Ryan Hayden (Richmond, Canada), Nic O'Brien (Cambridge, New Zealand), Paul Moser (Copiague, N.Y.) and Adrian Blincoe (Auckland, New Zealand) ran 9:29.12 to edge out Stanford who was second in 9:29.60 and Michigan who placed third in 9:29.76. Moser was the only runner who was not a member of last year's squad that won with a time of 9:31.00. Villanova now has 36 NCAA indoor national championships to its credit.

In other men's action, Hayden ran 4:06.50 to win his heat and tally the second fastest time in the mile. Chris Mulvaney of Arkansas recorded the fastest time with a clocking of 4:05.41. The finals of the mile will be run on Saturday, March 15.

On the women's side, the Wildcat DMR team of junior Rebecca Mitchell (Geneva, Ill), sophomore Ioana Parusheva (Sliven, Bulgaria), junior Melanie Rhoden (Ewing, N.J.) and freshman Marina Muncan (Pancavo, Yugoslavia) registered a time of 11:18.06 and placed ninth. North Carolina won the event with a time of 11:00.20.

Parusheva and Muncan both competed in the mile run as well. Competing in the same heat, Parusheva was eighth in 4:48.30, while Muncan was ninth with a time of 4:50.10. Neither time was fast enough to qualify for Saturday's finals.

The championships will conclude with a night session on Saturday, March 15.