BOSTON, Mass.—It was a record-setting evening with a strong sense of déjà vu for the Villanova distance duo of fifth year runner Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and junior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) on Saturday at the Bruce Lehane Scarlet & White Invite in Boston. The pair shattered their own top two times in school history in the 3000 meters while posting top 10 marks on the all-time NCAA indoor performance list. Racing against professional and top collegiate runners, Murphy paced the field with a winning time of 7:35.47 and Langon finished right on his heels in second place with a time of 7:36.87.
 
Those two times ranked fourth and seventh in NCAA indoor history as of the end of the race and pending other meets around the country this weekend. In a sign of the times – no pun intended – the marks for Murphy and Langon also rank fourth and sixth on this year's national descending order list. No mistakes there. The five fastest 3K races and six of the seven best times in NCAA indoor history have all occurred this season.
 
It was less than a year ago after all that Murphy and Langon rewrote the Wildcats record book in the 3000 meters for the first time. At the 2024 indoor BIG EAST Championships, the pair tallied times of 7:42.51 and 7:43.83 to hold the top two indoor times in Villanova history. Murphy broke the school's absolute record of 7:43.0 which had been held by Sydney Maree since a June 9, 1979 meet which took place just after the end of the collegiate season. The record-setting duo of Murphy and Langon now combine for the six fastest indoor times in the Wildcats records.
 
Saturday's race was paced by Hungarian professional István Dániel Szögi through the first mile. He and Belgian pro John Heymans led the field for nearly all of that opening mile, settling in ahead of Murphy in third place trailed by American pro Waleed Suliman and Langon who was fifth. Szögi stepped off the track after the first 1600 meters and left Heymans in the lead, with little change in the ranks until there were 800 meters (four laps) remaining on the Track & Tennis Center oval which has come to be known as the Bounce House.
 
Murphy sensed an opportunity at the 800 meter mark and eased past Heymans into the lead. Langon mimicked the move with two laps and 400 meters remaining as he surged in front of Suliman, then passed Heymans at the bell and stayed as close to Murphy as he could the rest of the way. Langon held off Heymans by 0.18 seconds at the finish line; the next 11 runners who crossed the line after Langon were professionals or highly-ranked unattached runners. It wasn't until 14^th place – occupied by Shane Brosnan of Harvard – that another collegiate runner posted their finishing time.
 
The scene at the finish line was a jubilant one for Murphy and Langon, if not as dramatic as their photo finish in the mile in Philadelphia two weeks ago. Langon beat Murphy in a see-it-to-believe it dive at the line during the Penn 10 Elite on January 25, tallying a personal best mark of 3:54.60 to top his senior teammate by a hundredth of a second (3:54.61). Their times rank fourth and fifth in Villanova indoor history.
 
Murphy holds the Wildcats absolute records in the 3K and the 5K (13:10.42) as well as the indoor school record in the mile (3:53.85). Langon is also second to Murphy in the 5K (13:14.11). Those top two times in the 5K came in this season's indoor opener on the same track in Boston on December 7. Sense a theme? The marks rank ninth and 19^th in NCAA indoor history, as well as fourth and seventh just this season.
 
Villanova senior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) was also in action in Boston on Saturday and posted a time of 4:04.84 in the mile.