EUGENE, Ore.—For the first time in 36 years there will be a Villanovan in the final of the men's 1500 meters at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Rising fifth year collegian
Liam Murphy had the fastest closing kick in the field for the second straight night and is an automatic qualifier after finishing second in his semifinal heat in 3:38.08 at Hayward Field on Saturday evening. It was another successful night for Wildcats track & field as women's alumna
Sanaä Barnes easily reached the final round in women's high jump competition.
MEN'S 1500 METERS
Murphy and fellow collegian Ethan Stand from North Carolina turned toward each other in exhilaration as they crossed the finish line side by side, then put their arms around each other with sheer joy as the times popped up on the video board situated high above the finish line. The pair raced in the final of the 1500 meters at the NCAA Championships on the same track just 15 days earlier and are now automatic qualifiers from the same heat at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Monday night's final. Murphy is the first Villanovan to make the men's 1500 meter final at the Trials since alum Ross Donoghue did so in 1988.
The top five runners in each semifinal heat on Saturday secured berths for the final and Murphy competed in the first of two sections. He and Strand were separated by mere thousandths of a second at the finish line (3:38.072 for Murphy and 3:38.078 for Strand), but it was the finish by each in the final 100 meters that made for an instantly unforgettable race. Just as the case had been in Friday's opening round, Murphy found himself near the back of the pack with 300 meters to go.
Murphy closed with a final 300 meters of 39.35 on Friday, faster than any other runner in the field of 38 who started in the opening round. He went even faster on Saturday to reach the final, closing in 39.17 even while having to go to the outside on the final straightaway to move through the ranks and into qualifying position.
Only five of the 25 runners in the semifinal round closed in under 40 seconds for the final 300 meters; the second-fastest split behind Murphy was NIKE runner Cole Hocker (39.74) who won the first heat in 3:37.89. The second heat would end up going out faster and producing the two on-time qualifiers for the final, although that section did not maintain as hot a pace in the final lap.
It has been a remarkable 26 hours for Murphy from the first round heats on Friday to the semifinals on Saturday evening. A current member of the Villanova roster who has collegiate eligibility remaining in all three seasons (cross country, indoor, outdoor) for the 2024-25 academic year, Murphy will now be one of a dozen runners on the brink of reaching the biggest stage in sport at the Paris Olympics later this summer.
Villanova alum
Casey Comber raced in the same semifinal heat as Murphy and finished ninth with a time of 3:39.20. It is the furthest in his career that Comber has advanced at the Olympic Trials after he competed in the first round of the 1500 meters in 2021 just after the end of his collegiate career. Comber runs professionally for Under Armour Mission Run Baltimore.
WOMEN'S HIGH JUMP
The qualifying round of women's high jump was a quick and efficient outing for Barnes, who reeled off three successful jumps on as many attempts in less than 30 minutes to move on to the final Monday night. She was second in the jumping order of her flight and got off to a fast start which propelled her to the final for the second straight Trials competition. She previously advanced in 2021 during her undergraduate collegiate career competing for Villanova.
Barnes made it over the bar at the opening height of 1.73 meters in Friday's competition as well as at successive bar raises to 1.78 meters and 1.83 meters. The top 12 competitors moved on to the final and only six of the 21 athletes had a successful jump without a miss at 1.83 meters. It was a full-circle moment of sorts for Barnes, whose lifetime best in the high jump (1.87m) came in the qualifying round at the Olympic Trials in 2021. Her season best of 1.85 meters came earlier this month in a last chance qualifier in Georgia.
During her Villanova career, Barnes became the first athlete in school history to be an All-American in one of the women's jumps. She graduated as one of 15 women in school history to own at least four career top-six finishes in any event at the NCAA Championships (combined indoors and outdoors) and she recorded two top-four NCAA finishes in the high jump for the Wildcats,
UP NEXT
The lone event with a Villanovan on Sunday at the Olympic Trials is the semifinals of the 800 meters in which alumna
McKenna Keegan will compete in the second of three heats. The top two finishers in each heat and the next three fastest times will advance to the final on Monday night. Sunday's semifinals are slated for 9:11 p.m. Eastern time and can be seen live on NBC.
