EUGENE, Ore.—Villanova kicked off four days of competition at the 2025 NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships with national semifinal heats of the 1500 meters on Wednesday afternoon. Fifth year distance runner Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) finished sixth in his heat and showed elite speed with a final lap of 51.13. It is the third straight year that Murphy has been an outdoor qualifier for the NCAA Championships in the 1500 meters.
 
Murphy was an automatic qualifier for the semifinal round after two races at the NCAA East Preliminary in Jacksonville, Fla. two weeks ago. He raced in the first of two heats at Hayward Field on Wednesday and produced a closing 400 meters which shows why he has been on the cusp of a World Athletics Championship qualifying mark this season. Murphy's final lap of 51.13 in his semifinal heat is just over three seconds faster than his bell lap of 54.18 at the Raleigh Relays earlier this year when he set the collegiate record of 3:33.02 in the 1500 meters.
 
By this point of the season any section of an event is going to be a strong one filled with competitors capable of winning a national title. That was true of the first heat in the 1500 meters, which featured nine runners (out of 12) who had run faster than 3:40 this season and five who were under 3:35 during their collegiate careers. The race went out slow for two-plus laps and the entire field came through the first seven meters in just over two minutes. Less than three-quarters of a second separated one through twelve in the ranks with both 800 meters left and at the bell.
 
It was almost as crowded at the finish line and Murphy was less than one-tenth of a second behind the runners who came in fourth and fifth in the race. Murphy wound up 18^th overall in the semifinal round and will earn honorable mention All-America honors when those accolades are officially announced next week.
 
Murphy set the collegiate record of 3:33.02 at the Raleigh Relays on March 27 and is a qualifier for the USATF Outdoor Championships in Eugene from July 31-August 3. The top athletes coming out of that meet will be selected for the World Athletics Championship in Tokyo in September. Murphy's PR and collegiate record is just two-hundredths of a second off the World Championship qualifying time of 3:33 flat.
 
Villanova continues competition at the NCAA Championships on Thursday night when senior women's distance runner Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) runs in the championship race of the 10000 meters. It is the second straight year that Sigfstead is running in this race. She came in 12^th in her outdoor NCAA Championships debut last season and has run a PR of 32:39.54 this season.