NEW YORK—Another weekly honor has been bestowed on Villanova's history 4xMile relay team as the quartet of
Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland),
Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland),
Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) and
Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) was named the BIG EAST Men's Track Athletes of the Week on Wednesday morning. The relay squad was selected for a national weekly honor earlier on Monday after they made history at the Penn Relays last weekend.
Villanova won its second straight Championship of America title with the second-fastest time in world history. The winning time of 15:51.91 is a new NCAA, Penn Relays, Franklin Field and Villanova record while ranking as the closest challenger to the world record of 15:49.08 which has stood since August 17, 1985. This is only the second time that a relay team has even come within 10 seconds of the world record, of which Wildcats head coach
Marcus O'Sullivan was a part of setting at a meet in Dublin, Ireland.
Villanova shattered the previous collegiate mark of 16:03.27 by more than 18 seconds. It had been held by Oregon since May 9, 2009. The previous school record for the Wildcats was 16:10.6 and had also been a Penn Relays winner back on April 29, 1974 by a team of Tom Gregan, Brian McElroy, Eamonn Coghlan and John Hartnett.
Each of the four runners in the Villanova lineup were already sub-four minute milers prior to Saturday's race, and three of the four posted sub-four splits in the race. Donoghue led off with a split of 3:59.32 and was followed by O'Donovan at 4:00.09 for the second leg. On the second half of the relay, Langon split 3:58.18 and Murphy anchored in 3:54.32.
It was not until the final 50 meters of the race that the Wildcats held the lead for good. Murphy made up ground going into the final turn and surged into the lead halfway down the final straightaway as Villanova held off Virginia (15:52.30) and Georgetown (15:52.56) in a finish that was as thrilling to watch as it was historic. Murphy was named the Collegiate Men's Athlete of the Week after anchoring the Wildcats to Championship of America victories in the distance medley relay on Friday afternoon and the 4xMile relay Saturday.
