Oct. 31, 2014

Complete Results

CARMEL, Ind. - Led by an unprecedented sweep in the top three individual spots, Villanova won its second straight BIG EAST cross country title and its third in the past four years at Northview Church on Friday afternoon. Sophomore Patrick Tiernan (Toowoomba, Australia) repeated as the individual conference champion and was followed by senior Sam McEntee (Perth, Australia) and junior Jordy Williamsz (Melbourne, Australia) in second and third places, respectively.

Villanova placed its five scoring runners in the top 11 overall and won the BIG EAST title with its lowest ever score at the conference meet. Junior Rob Denault (Aurora, Ont.) finished in sixth place and senior Brian Basili (South Orange, N.J.) came in 11th. This is the sixth time that the Wildcats have won the BIG EAST cross country championship.

The five scoring runners, along with sophomore Harry Warnick (Fairfield, Conn.) in 12th place, earned All-BIG EAST honors. Head coach Marcus O'Sullivan and the rest of the Villanova coaching staff were named the BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year by their peers.

Tiernan crossed the finish line with a winning time of 23:45.8, while McEntee (23:51.9) and Williamsz (23:52.1) followed in short order. Denault and Basili had times of 23:55.0 and 24:03.6, respectively, and Warnick finished with at ime of 24:16.7.

"You never expect to have a big lead at the end of a race," Tiernan said. "I planned to see how I was feeling at the halfway point. I felt good so I decided to stretch my legs out a little bit. It was a typical cross country race. You have to expect the unexpected to happen at some point."

The other finishers for the Wildcats were sophomore Kevin Corbusier (Monkton, Md.), junior Robert Hurlbut (Rochester, N.Y.), junior Tom Trainer (Havertown, Pa.) and senior Chris O'Sullivan (Havertown, Pa.). Corbusier came in 21st (24:38.0), Hurlbut was 31st (25:11.1), Trainer finished 40th (25:42.0) and O'Sullivan was 44th (25:58.2).

This is the second straight year that Villanova has had six All-BIG EAST performers. The program now has a total of 90 honorees since joining the conference in 1980. Tiernan is only the second runner from the Wildcats to win multiple individual titles. Bobby Curtis (2004, 2007) previously achieved the feat and Villanova has now crowned nine individual champions.

This is the first time the Wildcats have recorded even a 1-2 finish at the BIG EAST meet, let alone a 1-2-3 sweep. Villanova's six all-time team titles are tied with Georgetown for the second-most in conference history.

Villanova finished with 23 team points in the meet and was followed by Georgetown (51), Providence (64), Butler (108), Creighton (174), Marquette (184), Xavier (205), DePaul (207) and Seton Hall (285).

The Wildcats will now prepare for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional which takes place at Penn State in two weeks.