BOSTON, Mass.—They had threatened it before, but on Saturday evening in Boston the duo of fifth year collegian Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and junior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) finally came for the school record in the 5000 meters. Both runners shattered the longest-standing distance record in the Villanova record book and moved into the top 20 in NCAA indoor history with their historic performances at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.
 
Murphy tallied a time of 13:10.42 and is the new absolute record holder in Wildcats history after having previously set the school indoor mark at this same meet last year. Langon wasn't far behind him, crossing the finish line in 13:14.11. The pair each cut more than 10 seconds off their previous personal bests and eclipsed the former school record of 13:20.63 which was set by Sydney Maree at the outdoor NCAA Championships on June 2, 1979.
 
The record held by Maree was the oldest distance record still standing in the Wildcats record book and the fourth-oldest record in any men's track event. He had held the indoor and outdoor Villanova records for more than 30 years before his indoor record was broken first by Patrick Tiernan in 2014 (13:37.73) and more recently shattered by Murphy last season (13:21.20). The program's longest-standing men's track absolute record remains Paul Drayton's 200 meter mark of 20.4 set on September 13, 1964.
 
Murphy now sits at No. 7 on the all-time NCAA indoor performance list in the 5000 meters, with Langon coming in at No. 16 on that list as of the ending of tonight's race. They each ran in the fast heat of the 5K at the Track & Tennis Center, with Murphy finishing second and Langon fourth in the race. Last month's individual NCAA cross country champion Graham Blanks from Harvard won the heat in 12:59.89, which becomes the No. 2 time on the NCAA indoor list.
 
The early season meet in Boston is an opportunity for distance runners who are still in shape from the cross country campaign to get a fast race under their belts before breaking for the rest of the indoor season to come in January and beyond. Murphy and Langon were each NCAA All-Americans and became the first pair of Villanova men's teammates to tally top 15 individual cross country finishes since 1970.
 
Two other Wildcats were in action on Saturday and both had huge personal bests as well. Redshirt freshman CJ Sullivan (Milton, Mass.) ran a later section of the 5K and recorded a personal best time of 13:58.11. It was the first collegiate 5K race for Sullivan, who cut more than 33 seconds off his previous top time from high school. Sullivan redshirted the 2023-24 seasons before making his official collegiate debut this Fall. He garnered All-BIG EAST and Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors for the cross country season.
 
Earlier on Saturday afternoon, senior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) broke onto the Wildcats all-time indoor performance list in the 3000 meters with a time of 7:50.28. That puts him into 10^th on the Villanova list after his first career collegiate 3K race. Donoghue has been an NCAA Championships qualifier in the 1500 meters and is a sub-four minute miler, but his previous PR in the 3000 meters had been 8:24.67 on September 17, 2020 in his native Ireland prior to the start of his collegiate career.
 
Villanova will not compete again until the new year and will next be in action for the Quaker Invitational at Penn on January 17-18.