MADISON, Wis.—The superlatives this season for the Villanova men's cross country team now include the program's highest finish in a decade at the national championships. Led by All-American performances from fifth year collegian Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and junior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.), the Wildcats posted a 15^th place team finish at the 2024 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning. The result is one spot higher than where Villanova was ranked entering the meet and is the first top 15 national finish in cross country for the Wildcats since 2014.
 
Murphy and Langon made individual history as well. They are the first pair of Villanova teammates to each finish in the top 15 at the NCAA Championships in more than 50 years. Murphy finished in ninth place on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course to earn his second career All-America honor in cross country, while Langon placed 15^th and is an All-American on the grass for the first time. The duo is now linked with Wildcats all-time greats Donal Walsh and Marty Liquori who finished second and ninth, respectively, on Villanova's last national championship team in 1970. The only other years where the Wildcats had at least two top-15 finishers are 1962 and 1966.
 
It took strong closing kicks for both Murphy and Langon to secure their high finishes. Murphy moved up three spots in the final 1000 meters to surge into the top 10 for the first time since the early moments of the race. Langon had an even more dramatic closing kick as he passed seven runners over the last kilometer. He was never higher in the individual standings than at the finish line and he finished four-tenths of a second ahead of the 16^th place runner from meet host Wisconsin.
 
Murphy had a time of 28:55.7 to set a new school record for a 10,000 meter cross country course. He is only the second Villanova runner ever to break 29 minutes in a 10K cross country race, joining his former teammate and cross country All-American Haftu Strintzos who posted a time of 28:57.3 in a ninth place NCAA finish in 2021 in Tallahassee, Fla. Langon was clocked in 29:08.8 on Saturday which now becomes the fourth-fastest time in the Wildcats record book.
 
Villanova had the same five scoring runners at all three postseason meets this year, beginning with the BIG EAST Championships on November 1 and also including the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional last week. Redshirt freshman Bailey Habler (Sydney, Australia), redshirt freshman CJ Sullivan (Milton, Mass.) and senior Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) were the other scorers for the Wildcats during the postseason. Habler and Sullivan each made their NCAA Championships debut on Saturday, with Habler finishing in the top half of the field of 255 runners. He came in 125^th overall in 30:02.9, while Sullivan was 150^th (30:14.6) and Comber was 201^st (30:47.8).
 
The lineup was rounded out by senior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) and redshirt freshman Nick Sullivan (Middletown, N.J) who posted times of 31:11.1 and 31:47.5, respectively.
 
Villanova recorded its fourth top 20 national finish in the last five seasons with Saturday's team result. The 15^th place finish is five spots higher than last season and the best for the Wildcats since the 2014 team came in seventh at the NCAA Championships. This season marked Villanova's 38^th all-time team appearance at the cross country championships; the program is one of just 12 ever with that many appearances.