EARLYSVILLE, Va.—The first big weekend of the 2023 cross country season was a rousing success as Villanova finished in front of three top-10 teams at the Virginia Invitational early Saturday morning. Led by a strong top three who were each among the first dozen runners across the finish line, the Wildcats placed fifth in the team standings at Panorama Farms. The site will host the NCAA Championships later this year. Villanova's top finishers were senior
Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) in seventh place, followed by fifth year
Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) and sophomore
Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) who were 11
th and 12
th, respectively.
STRONG AT THE TOP
Villanova was the only team out of 23 total to have three runners among the first 12 finishers in the 8,000 meter race. Murphy came in seventh out of more than 200 finishers with a time of 23:32.2. Strintzos (23:36.9) and Langon (23:37.4) were separated by just half a second at the line and the Wildcats had a spread of just 5.2 seconds between its top three. Murphy moved up eight spots during the final kilometer of the race.
VILLANOVA DEBUTS
Two graduate transfers to this year's Villanova roster made their team debuts and were the final two scoring runners in the Wildcats lineup. Sixth year collegian
Xian Shively (Glendale, Calif.) is a transfer from Cal Poly and came in 59
th in Saturday's race with a time of 24:03.7. Haverford transfer
Ryan Kredell (Geneva, Ill.) finished 80
th in 24:15.6. The spread between the Wildcats five scoring runners was just 44 seconds despite the crowded field of 217 competitors.
NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
The field of 23 teams in Saturday's meet featured eight of the top 12 teams from this week's United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national rankings. Villanova entered the meet No. 12 in the Top 30 poll and finished ahead of three top-10 squads, including No. 4 Stanford, No. 7 Colorado and No. 10 Virginia.
The four teams who finished ahead of the Wildcats at the Virginia meet were No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 3 BYU, No. No. 6 North Carolina and No. 11 Syracuse. Saturday's competition was the first of the season for the majority of the runners in the Villanova lineup and the only time that the Wildcats will see the Panorama Farms course before the national championships.
VILLANOVA LINEUP
The second half of the Villanova lineup was separated by just 45 seconds at the finish line. The junior duo of
Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) and
Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) had strong closing kicks in the final 1000 meters; Donoghue passed 24 runners in the final kilometer to finish 138
th with a time of 24:43.8, while Comber passed 18 runners during that stretch and wound up 141
st in 24:46.3. Sixth year runner
Jack Fredian (Arlington Heights, Ill.) was 143
rd overall (24:46.7), followed by sophomore
Jack Tavaglione (Califon, N.J.) and junior
Cole Walker (Chadds Ford, Pa.) who posted times of 25:07.8 and 25:28.4, respectively. Tavaglione ran his first official race for the Wildcats after competing unattached during the 2022 cross country season and redshirting both the indoor and outdoor campaigns earlier this year.
NEXT UP
The next full team meet on the Villanova schedule is the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on October 13.
