UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—Pouring rain did nothing to dampen the celebration for the Villanova men's cross country team which is headed to the NCAA Championships after winning the team title at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on a soggy Friday morning at the Penn State Golf Courses. This is the second regional crown since 2019 for the Wildcats, who had the individual regional champion in sophomore
Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) along with six of the top 15 overall finishers in the 10,000 meter race.
Murphy covered the 10K course in 29:52.6 despite the muddy conditions and is the seventh Villanova men's athlete to be the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional champion. He is the Wildcats first regional champion since Casey Comber in 2018 and crossed the finish line with a nearly 12-second margin of victory over the runner-up from Georgetown and the rest of the field of 181 runners. Murphy has been the top Villanova finisher twice this season, including a fourth place finish at the Paul Short Run in October along with today's gold medal result.
All five scoring runners for the Wildcats finished in the top 12 overall and Villanova posted a team score of 36 points to outkick Georgetown (58) and Princeton (73) who were second and third, respectively. True freshman
Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) produced his biggest race of the season to date with a fourth place finish (30:05.6) and senior
Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) gave the Wildcats three runners in the top-10 with an eighth place showing (30:12.0). The other scoring runners were senior
Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) and sophomore
Jack Jennings (Mendham, N.J.) who had identical times of 30:15.6 while placing 11
th and 12
th in the field.
Senior
Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) came in 15
th with a time of 30:25.1 to give Villanova six all-region performers for the second straight year. Each of the top 25 individuals receive Mid-Atlantic All-Region medals and this is the fifth time in regional history (since 2000) that the Wildcats have had six honorees. Rounding out the team's lineup in Friday's race was graduate
Jack Fredian (Arlington Heights, Ill.) who finished 29
th with a time of 30:50.6.
The NCAA Championships take place in Stillwater, Okla. on Saturday, November 19.
