INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—Fresh off a third place finish in a close race at the BIG EAST Championships last week, the Villanova men's cross country team was an at-large selection for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships when the field of teams and individuals for the national meet were revealed on Sunday morning. The live selection show was broadcast on NCAA.com and the Wildcats earned a team berth to the NCAA Championships for the third straight season.
 
The Division I Cross Country Championships take place on Monday, March 15 in Stillwater, Okla. at the OSU Cross Country Course on the Oklahoma State campus. Villanova is headed to the national championships for the 35^th time since making its debut at the meet in 1962, while this season marks the 16^th trip to the NCAA Championships for Wildcats head coach Marcus O'Sullivan who is in his 23^rd season leading the program.
 
Fans will be able to watch the action at the national championships, with the races airing live on ESPNU and the ESPN app. Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time (11:30 a.m. Central time) on March 15, with the women's 6K race going off at 12:50 p.m. Eastern time and the men's 10K race following 50 minutes later at 1:40 p.m..
 
Villanova will be a team capable of making noise at the NCAA Championships, as the Wildcats were ranked 30^th nationally and No. 1 in the Mid-Atlantic region entering the BIG EAST meet last Friday. Sophomore emerging standout Haftu Strintzos (Victoria, Australia) won his first career conference title in his first race in more than a year, while junior Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) came in seventh.
 
All five scoring runners for Villanova placed among the top 20 finishers overall at the BIG EAST Championships, the third straight year that the Wildcats have been able to make such a claim. Each of the team's top six runners at the meet earned All-BIG EAST honors, the first time that has happened since 2014 and the sixth time in the 41-year history of the meet that Villanova has had that many all-conference performers. Strintzos and Phillips were joined in being recognized by senior Nick Steele (Harvard, Mass.), junior Charlie O'Donovan (Dublin, Ireland), senior Paul Nichols (Latham, N.Y.) and junior Jack Fredian (Arlington Heights, Ill.).
 
Three BIG EAST men's teams (Butler, Georgetown, Villanova) are among the field of 31 teams for the NCAA Championships, with the Wildcats and the Hoyas the lone teams selected from the Mid-Atlantic region.
 
The unique parameters created by the COVID pandemic and the movement of fall championships to the spring season creates an exciting week of competition for Villanova, which will also have athletes competing in the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships this coming Friday and Saturday (March 12-13) in Fayetteville, Ark.