STILLWATER, Okla.—Villanova tallied its highest team finish at the NCAA Championships in eight years with a 19^th place result at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course on Saturday morning. Sophomore Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) paced the Wildcats lineup for the second straight week with a time of 30:10.02 over 10,000 meters and Villanova had a spread of just 30 seconds between its five scoring runners at the national championship meet. This is the fourth time in the last five seasons that the Wildcats have earned an NCAA team berth.
 
Murphy and sophomore Jack Jennings (Mendham, N.J.) recorded top-100 finishes in a field of more than 250 runners on a frigid morning with a temperature only in the mid-20's and wind chills in the teens throughout the race. One week after he won the individual title at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, Murphy came in 92^nd overall at the national meet. Jennings finished 99^th with a time of 30:11.8 and freshman Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) came in 121^st in 30:24.5. The other scoring runners for Villanova were senior Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) who placed 130^th (30:26.8) and senior Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) who tallied a 160^th place finish (30:42.2).
 
Saturday's team result marks the best NCAA Championships finish for the Wildcats since they came in seventh at the 2014 national meet. Villanova has tallied top-20 finishes in each of their last two NCAA appearances, including the 19^th place finish along with a 20^th place result at the 2020 national championships which were moved to Spring 2021. Head coach Marcus O'Sullivan has led the Wildcats to the NCAA Championships 17 times during his coaching career and Villanova has posted 11 top-20 finishes in those appearances.
 
The field of teams in Saturday's race featured three BIG EAST teams and three Mid-Atlantic Region squads. Villanova had the best finish among those teams, coming in ahead of Butler (21^st) and Georgetown (31^st) among conference schools, as well as Princeton (30^th) from the Mid-Atlantic region. The Wildcats won their eighth BIG EAST title and seventh NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional crown this season along the way to the NCAA Championships.
 
Rounding out the Villanova lineup in Saturday's race were senior Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) and graduate Jack Fredian (Arlington Heights, Ill.) who placed 185^th (30:53.9) and 235^th (31:55.2), respectively.
 
Villanova has made 36 team appearances overall at the NCAA Championships which is the 12^th most all-time among Division I men's programs.