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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Sophomore Ville Lampinen (Vantaa, Finland) and junior Ishmael Muhammad (Mays Landing, N.J.) combined for a 1-2 finish in the 800 meters at the Villanova Invitational on Saturday evening. In their final home meet of the indoor season, the Wildcats tallied a total of six top-three finishes at the Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex, including wins in the 800 meters and the 4x400 meter relay. Muhammad and Lampinen ran the first half of the relay, while sophomore Harry Purcell (Dublin, Ireland) and freshman Konrad Bayer (Naperville, Ill.) took the baton for the final two legs.

The trio of Lampinen, Muhammad and Purcell raced out in front of the pack for the majority of the race in the first section of the 800 meters. Lampinen crossed the finish line in 1:50.20 and was followed by Muhammad in second with a time of 1:50.80. Purcell was caught at the line by a Columbia runner and wound up finishing fourth in 1:51.55. Lampinen and Purcell each lowered the times they had run at the Villanova Open last week, while Muhammad was opening up for the first time this season.

In the 4x400 relay, the Wildcats tallied a season-best time of 3:15.83 and Bayer held on for the win in the final strides of the anchor leg. Villanova beat out Delaware State (3:15.95) in a close finish, while Princeton was just over a second back in third place (3:17.11). Earlier in the evening, Bayer ran individually in the 200 meters and tallied a season-best time of 23.09.

There were also strong results for the Wildcats in the Mile and the 3000 meters as the team's distance runners round into form ahead of the biggest meets of the season. Junior Elliot Slade (Cardiff, United Kingdom) and redshirt freshman Logan Wetzel (Saline, Mich.) finished second and third in the Mile with respective times of 4:09.76 and 4:09.90. Redshirt freshman Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) and Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) came in second (8:15.09) and fourth (8:17.59), respectively, in the 3000 meters.

In the field events, senior Dan Sullivan (North Hampton, N.H.) came in fifth in the shot put and junior James Deutmeyer (Rye, N.Y.) tied for a fifth place finish in the pole vault. Sullivan threw for a season-best distance of 14.95 meters and Deutmeyer cleared a height of 4.55 meters in his first competition of the season.

Villanova returns to action at Ocean Breeze this coming Friday when it competes in the FastTrack National Invitational.