PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Villanova began three days of competition at the 129
th running of the Penn Relays with strong performances in the 1500 meters and the 5000 meters at historic Franklin Field on Thursday night. Distance night was the highlight of Day 1 at the world's oldest and largest track & field competition as a trio of Wildcats recorded personal best times in their respective events. Redshirt freshmen
Kai Mitchell-Reiss (Portland, Ore.) and
Brian Theobald (Wall, N.J.) tallied PRs in the 1500 meters, while true freshman
Charlie Moore (Brisbane, Australia) closed out the night wit ha PR in the 5000 meters.
True freshman
Ben Thomas (Sydney, Australia) led a trio of Villanova runners in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:47.91 in the fastest of three heats in the event. The third heat saw Mitchell-Reiss cross the finish line in 3:50.21 and Theobald come in close behind him in 3:52.00. Mitchell-Reiss eclipsed his previous PR from high school, while Theobald lowered his top mark for the second time this season. He had a time of 3:52.69 at the Sam Howell Invitational three weeks ago.
Moore closed out the night for the Wildcats with a time of 13:48.94 in the fast heat of the 5000 meters. He beat the time of 13:53.17 he had recorded in his collegiate debut at the Raleigh Relays last month. Moore's new PR on Thursday night tentatively puts him eighth in the BIG EAST this season and on the cusp of the top 50 in the East region for the year. The top 48 declared athletes in each individual event qualify for the NCAA East Preliminary in May. That meet serves as the early rounds of competition for the NCAA Championships and will feature the national semifinal heats of the 5K.
Friday will be a full day of action for Villanova, highlighted by the Championship of America distance medley relay race at 2:15 p.m. which can be seen live on FloTrack. The day begins with college section competition in the long jump where fifth year
Justin Miller (Collierville, Tenn.) will try to build off a career best performance (7.57m) at the Virginia Challenge last weekend. Later on Friday afternoon, sixth year
Kelechi Eziri (Charlotte, N.C.) competes in the college section of the triple jump and junior
Amiri Prescod (Chaguanas, Puerto Rico) runs in the heats of the 100 meters. Closing out the Friday schedule is the college section heats of the 4x400 meter relay at 7:30 p.m.
