STORRS, Conn.—Junior distance runner Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) shattered the meet and facility records in the 5000 meters in dominant fashion for his third straight gold medal in the event on Friday night at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex. Villanova had four scorers and amassed 23 points in the 5K on the second night of the 2025 BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships presented by JEEP, led by Langon and redshirt freshman CJ Sullivan (Milton, Mass.) who combined for a 1-2 finish.
 
Langon was on cruise control from the middle of the race on and he surged to the finish line with a winning time of 13:27.21, an outdoor personal best and the third-fastest 5K time of his career. The previous facility record at the University of Connecticut was 13:59.38 set by Luke Watson of Notre Dame during the 2002 BIG EAST Championships. That had also been the meet record for more than 20 years before the Wildcats' Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) set a new mark of 13:43.32 on Villanova's home track two years ago.
 
The record was in trouble early with Langon in top form. He appeared to be gaining steam during the final mile of the race and the official splits confirmed exactly that as Langon got faster in each of his last four laps of the day. He closed in 62.34 on the bell lap with the outcome already well in hand. It is the third straight BIG EAST meet since last year that Langon has won the 5K title. He claimed last season's outdoor title in 13:45.50 and won the indoor title earlier this year in 13:57.03. Langon went on to earn first team All-America honors in the 5K at the indoor NCAA Championships, finishing sixth to tally the highest indoor finish in the event by a Wildcats men's runner.
 
Only one runner in the field of 12 on Friday night came home faster than Langon did in the final 400 meters. It was his own teammate Sullivan who closed in a sizzling 57.08, more than seven seconds faster than any other lap he ran in the race. Sullivan registered a PR with a time of 13:45.02, cutting more than a second off the mark of 13:46.04 he had run at the Raleigh Relays in his outdoor season debut. Success has been steadily building since the Fall for Sullivan in his first official year of collegiate competition. He garnered Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors and second team All-BIG EAST accolades in cross country, then scored in both the 3000 meters and the 5000 meters at the conference meet indoors.
 
The other two scorers for Villanova in Friday night's 5K were freshman Charlie Moore (Brisbane, Australia) and senior Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) who finished consecutively in sixth and seventh places. Moore crossed the line in 14:13.60 and Comber was clocked in 14:18.86. The 23 points scored by the Wildcats in the race was their most in any BIG EAST event since the 2023 outdoor 5K race when Murphy combined with the since graduated Josh Phillips and Haftu Strintzos for a 1-2-3 sweep and 24 points.