BOSTON, Mass.—Villanova senior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) broke his own school record in the 3000 meters with a winning time of 7:34.00 at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Friday afternoon. It is the third time in as many races this season that Langon has broken a school record in either the 3K or the 5K. His new time puts him at the top of the NCAA leaderboard for this season and is the third-fastest indoor mark in collegiate history.
 
It is the position at the top of the Division I descending order list which was behind Langon running a second straight 3K race. He already owned both the school record and a top five collegiate indoor time from a race at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston last month. There, he ran 7:34.56 to sit at No. 4 indoors in NCAA history and No. 5 on the collegiate all-seasons list. Even more impressive is that Langon was the only collegiate runner in that race; he measured up against a dozen other runners from the United States, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland and Netherlands.
 
Langon raced at the New Balance meet wearing a Villanova singlet but was also representing the United States and his time was not a qualifying mark for consideration to be selected for entry to the NCAA Championships which take place next month. For someone who considers cooking to be among his top hobbies off the track, it is fortunate that Langon cooks at an even higher heat inside the oval.
 
And so it was that Langon returned to Boston on Friday afternoon – not to the TRACK at new balance this time but to the Track & Tennis Center at Boston University for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational. All he needed was a strong enough time to put himself squarely among the top handful of collegiate runners this season. The 16 declared athletes with the fastest times in each individual event will be selected to the NCAA meet next month. Langon isn't wired for top 16, or for top two either.
 
The home stretch of Friday's race turned into a head-to-head duel between Langon and North Carolina senior Colton Sands. It has been a common site at the top meets in the country in recent years; the Wildcats and the Tar Heels racing neck-and-neck for the top spot. It wouldn't be a Langon Classic without a dive at the line, and he didn't disappoint in a near-photo finish as he lunged across the finish line to keep his edge over Sands by five-hundredths of a second (7:34.00 to 7:34.05).
 
Nobody in the country has been within two seconds of them this season. In fact, Langon's time of 7:34 is the sixth-fastest in the world in 2026 and pushes his ranking up nine spots to No. 53 by athlete in world history in short track 3000 meters. Suffice it to say, he needn't worry about his qualification for the NCAA Championships. He and Habtom Samuel from New Mexico have virtually identical 5K times of 13:05.21 this season to tie at the top of the collegiate leaderboard.
 
Langon was not the only Villanova headliner in Boston on Friday. The duo of junior CJ Sullivan (Milton, Mass.) and sophomore Ben Thomas (Sydney, Australia) became the 50^th and 51^st members of the Wildcats 'sub-four' mile club. Nearly half of the runners to achieve one of racing's signature feats (25 of 51) have done so under the tutelage of Villanova head coach Marcus O'Sullivan. Sullivan ran 3:57.19 and Thomas 3:58.48 in their Friday races.
 
The details are unique for each runner becoming a part of Wildcats sub-four lore. Sullivan has excelled over longer distances on the track during his collegiate career and is still just a sophomore in terms of eligibility. His race on Friday beat his high school PR in the mile by more than 22 seconds and vaulted him into eighth place on Villanova's all-time indoor performance list in the mile for races run during the collegiate season.
 
Thomas, meanwhile, was a sub-four miler before he ever donned the Villanova singlet. He easily achieved the metric equivalent of going under four minutes when he posted a time of 3:37.96 in the 1500 meters at the NWS Milers Series in his hometown of Sydney on February 22, 2024. During his first year on campus, he posted times of 4:13.09 in the mile and 3:45.12 in the 1500 meters. He now has a sub-four time which officially gets him into the program's record book.
 
Junior middle distance runner Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) added to his steadily growing Villanova legacy in the 800 meters. He came in second out of four dozen runners in the invite section of his signature event with a time of 1:46.79. That is the fourth-fastest indoor time in school history, and nothing new for Watcke. Over the last 14 months he has registered the top four indoor times and six of the nine fastest indoor marks in the 800 meters in the Wildcats record book.
 
One of the day's other top storylines was sophomore Charlie Moore (Brisbane, Australia) breaking eight minutes in the 3000 meters for the first time. He crossed the line in 7:59.53 and notched his second PR of the season, cutting just over 2.5 seconds off the time of 8:02.05 that he recorded at the same venue in Boston two weeks earlier during the John Thomas Terrier Classic.