VILLANOVA, Pa.— The qualifiers for the NCAA East Preliminary meet were announced Thursday afternoon and Villanova will send nine of its men's track & field student-athletes to Lexington, Ky. to compete in the early rounds of the national championships next week. Competition takes place on Wednesday, May 22 and Friday, May 24 (women's competition on May 23 and 25) at the University of Kentucky Outdoor Track and Field Facility. Live coverage of the meet will stream on ESPN+.
 
Five of the Wildcats nine qualifiers will be competing at the NCAA East Preliminary for at least the third time in their careers, including a pair of graduate students in Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) and Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) who are each qualified in their respective events for the fourth consecutive season. Dolan has competed at the East meet in the 800 meters on three previous occasions and advanced to the national championships in each of the last two years. O'Donovan is previously a three-time qualifier in the 1500 meters and has finished as high as 16^th in the national quarterfinal round of the event.
 
Dolan made BIG EAST history in multiple ways last weekend when he won the conference title in the 800 meters. He is the only BIG EAST athlete ever to win gold medals in the men's 800 meters three times indoors, four times outdoors or seven times total. He went undefeated in his career in 14 open 800 meter races at the BIG EAST Championships, including both preliminary heats and finals.
 
Dolan's winning time of 1:45.83 in last week's final set a championship record and is the fastest 800 meter race by a Villanovan since 1985. The mark came within two-hundredths of a second of matching the fastest 800 meters by a Wildcats runner to be recorded during the boundaries of the collegiate season. Dolan has finished as high as fifth at the NCAA Championships in the 800 meters.
 
Prior experience at the NCAA East Preliminary will also be a bonus for O'Donovan next week. He has competed in the national first round heats of the 1500 meters every season of his collegiate career and owns a lifetime best mark in the event of 3:38.11 which was recorded in Belgium during the 2023 summer campaign. O'Donovan owns times of 3:39.65 and 3:40.36 already this year, with the former time coming in his season debut and the latter coming in a runner-up finish at the BIG EAST Championships last week.
 
O'Donovan will be part of a Villanova trio in the 1500 meters along with senior Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and junior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) who each advanced from the NCAA East Preliminary to the NCAA Championships last season. Murphy qualified for the NCAA final in his debut at the outdoor national championships and has achieved a U.S. Olympic Trials automatic qualifying time this season with a PR of 3:36.48 in California last month. That time is the sixth-fastest absolute time in the 1500 meters in school history. Murphy won the BIG EAST title in the 1500 meters (3:39.00) last weekend and anchored the Wildcats to a pair of Championship of America titles at the Penn Relays in the distance medley and 4xMile relays.
 
Donoghue first qualified for the NCAA East meet as a freshman in 2022 and he took a big step forward last season by qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the first time. He placed fifth in the national quarterfinal round in 2023 and was 18^th at the NCAA Championships to earn honorable mention All-America honors. This season he has run a personal best time of 3:41.02 in California and came in sixth in 3:41.78 at the BIG EAST Championships.
 
Senior javelin throwers Andrew Grinnell (New Milford, Conn.) and Nick Coffey (Cranston, R.I.) will each compete at the NCAA East Preliminary for the third straight year. Grinnell is coming off the best performance of his collegiate career a week ago when he won his first BIG EAST title with a winning throw of 67.86 meters. It is the fourth-longest mark in the Villanova record book and is just four centimeters behind the third-longest throw which belongs to Coffey from the 2023 season. Grinnell's performance at the BIG EAST Championships represented a personal best by more than three full meters.
 
Coffey came in third at the BIG EAST Championships as both he and Grinnell earned their second career all-conference honor. His season best mark in 2024 is 65.46 meters and came at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Miami in April. Coffey and Grinnell rank 2-3 overall on the Wildcats all-time performance list with the current javelin implement.
 
Junior distance runner Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) will make his second straight appearance at the NCAA East Preliminary along with first-time qualifier Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.). Both athletes are slated to run in the national semifinal heats of the 5000 meters next Saturday evening. Comber competed in the national first round of the 1500 meters a year ago and this season has broken onto the Wildcats all-time performance list in the 5000 meters with a time of 13:45.90 at the Raleigh Relays in March. He went on to finish sixth in the 5K at the BIG EAST Championships.
 
Langon powered his way to a dramatic win in the 5000 meters at the BIG EAST meet, as he made up a sizable gap in the final 100 meters to win in 13:45.50. Earlier in the season Langon ran the seventh-fastest 5K in Villanova history when he recorded a personal best of 13:28.44 on April 12, 2014 in California. He was the BIG EAST runner-up to Murphy in the 3000 meters indoors and combined with Murphy, O'Donovan and Donoghue to record the second-fastest time in world history in the 4xMile relay at the Penn Relays.
 
Freshman middle distance runner Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) will make his NCAA East meet debut in the 800 meters. He made his collegiate debut during at the start of the outdoor season and finished second to Dolan in the 800 meter final last week with a personal best time of 1:47.00. The mark puts Watcke into a tie for seventh place on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the 800 meters.
 
The NCAA East Preliminary meet – as well as its counterpart in the West – consists of the top 48 declared athletes in individual events and the top 24 declared teams in the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays. At each regional meet the top athletes and relay teams will qualify for the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore. which take place on June 5 and 7 (women's competition on June 6 and 8).