BETHLEHEM, Pa.—Junior
Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and senior
Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) each posted all-time top-10 marks on the Goodman Campus Course at Lehigh and Villanova finished second out of 46 teams in the Men's College Gold Race at the Paul Short Run on Friday morning. Led by Murphy in fourth place and O'Donovan in fifth place, the Wildcats packed four runners into the top 10 overall finishers in a field of more than 400 competitors.
Murphy covered the 8,000 meter course in 23:07.6 and O'Donovan crossed the finish line in 23:10.7 in a race that produced remarkable times. The top eight finishers all posted top-10 times in the race course's long history, with the first two runners across the line each breaking the previous course record. Villanova received top-10 finishes from senior
Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) and junior
Jack Jennings (Mendham, N.J.) in a strong all-around performance for the team.
The spread between the Wildcats top four runners was just nine seconds. Phillips posted a time of 23:15.7 and Jennings finished in 23:16.8 to help Villanova finish runner-up in the team standings for the second straight year. Last season the Wildcats had three of the top seven finishers before their fourth and fifth scoring runners placed 16
th and 29
th, respectively.
First-year runner
Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) made his official collegiate debut in Friday's race after competing unattached earlier in the season. He was Villanova's fifth scorer in his first race wearing the singlet and placed 74
th overall with a time of 23:49.4. This is the second season in a row at the Paul Short Run that each of the top five finishers for the Wildcats broke 24 minutes on the Lehigh course. Murphy posted the fifth-fastest time by a Villanova runner in an 8K cross country race, while O'Donovan's time ranks eighth on the Wildcats all-time list.
Two other Villanova runners placed in the top 100 of the field. Graduate students
Jack Fredian (Arlington Heights, Ill.) and
Evan Addison (Collegeville, Pa.) finished 80
th (23:52.2) and 97
th (24:01.6), respectively, to round out the team's top seven. Behind them were
Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) with a time of 24:03.6, sophomore
Cole Walker (Chadds Ford, Pa.) who posted a time of 24:30.3 and junior
Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) who finished in 24:35.1.
Villanova entered the meet ranked No. 21 in the nation and was one of three nationally-ranked squads among in the top four of the team results. North Carolina, ranked No. 13 in this week's national poll, finished first with a score of 64 points, followed by the Wildcats (100) in second place, Utah State (105) third and No. 17 Georgetown in fourth place (138). Duke (157) rounded out the top five and BIG EAST member Providence (215) was in sixth place.
Earlier in the morning the first race of the day was the Men's Open 8K race was the first competition of the day. Graduate student
Henry Myers (Portland, Ore.) led five Villanova runners in that race with a 19
th place finish and a time of 24:34.2. Senior
Ben Seiple (Westport, Conn.) finished 25
th (24:39.6) and was followed by junior
Miller Anderson (West Hartford, Conn.) in 42
nd place (24:52.5). Graduate student
Will Merritt (Smithsburg, Md.) and redshirt first-year runner
Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) posted times of 25:24.6 and 25:53.4 to round out the Wildcats contingent.
Two unattached Villanova runners also ran in the Open race. Graduate student
Ryan Cutter (El Sobrante, Calif.) was the runner-up out of more than 500 runners with a time of 23:53.5, while freshman
Jack Tavaglione (Califon, N.J.) came in 28
th (24:43.5).
Friday's race closed out September competition for the Wildcats, who will return to action for the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Friday, October 14 at 11:40 a.m. Central time (12:40 p.m. Eastern time).
