FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.—Redshirt freshman Sean Dolan (Pennington, N.J.) continued his ascension towards the highest ranks of Villanova middle distance runners with a sixth place finish in the Mile at the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday afternoon. Dolan broke 3:58 for the second time in as many days at Randal Tyson Track in just the fourth track race of his collegiate career. He is the 12^th men's runner from the Wildcats program to have at least one career top-six NCAA finish in the Mile at the indoor national championships.
 
Dolan officially posted a time of 3:57.91 in Saturday's final after he notched his first career sub-four time with a PR of 3:57.20 in the semifinal heats on Friday afternoon. Both his semifinal race and Saturday's championship went out at a blistering pace, and both times Dolan not only held his own against older runners but also made a big kick in the home stretch of the race to improve his position in the field. In the semifinals that meant securing a top-four finish in his heat to automatically qualify for the final. In the championship race it meant a top-eight finish and scoring team points for Villanova at the NCAA meet.
 
This season has been a remarkable debut year on multiple fronts for Dolan, who redshirted the 2019 cross country and 2020 indoor seasons before seeing the COVID pandemic wipe out the 2020 outdoor campaign. The first track race of his collegiate career came just 35 days ago when he ran the 1000 meters in 2:24.40 in a dual meet against Army. In just five weeks since that race Dolan qualified for the NCAA Championships, became the 43^rd member of the Wildcats sub-four minute mile club and tallied two of the eight fastest indoor times in school history. His time of 3:57.20 in Friday's semifinal race is the fastest for a Villanova runner in competition at the NCAA meet.
 
Dolan was a scholastic national champion in the Mile outdoors in 2018 at Hopewell Valley Central (N.J.) High School. His high school PR in the Mile was 4:05.01, which he easily erased with a raw time of 4:01.57 at the Camel City Invitational last month. That race was run on an oversized flat track and converted to a mark of 3:58.53, perhaps foreshadowing what Dolan would accomplish over two days in his NCAA Championships debut.
 
This is the 10^th straight NCAA indoor meet in which the Wildcats have scored team points. Villanova has scored in the Mile at the indoor NCAA Championships a total of 19 times since the inaugural national indoor meet in 1965.