PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—It took the third-fastest distance medley relay in collegiate history for Villanova to take over this season's NCAA lead by less than a second after a historic performance by the quartet of graduate student Seán Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland), junior Ethan Walls (Ridgefield, Conn.), junior Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) and senior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) at The Ott Center on Friday evening. Their time of 9:16.10 broke the school record by more than four seconds and puts the Wildcats atop this year's NCAA Division I descending order list.
 
There will be a nation's worth of eyes on that list this weekend as other teams around the country take their best shot at posting a time that will qualify for the NCAA Championships next month. The top 12 relay teams on the descending order list following conference championship competition and the official close of the regular season will be selected for the NCAA Championships which take place in Fayetteville, Ark., next month. Villanova set the standard to beat as one of just five schools in collegiate history to run a DMR below 9:17.
 
Donoghue and Langon bookended the race for the Wildcats with the fastest splits in school history on relay legs of 1200 meters and 1600 meters, respectively. They are each now record holders on two different relay teams in school history. Both ran on the Penn Relays Champion 4xMile relay in 2024 which registered the No. 2 time in world history at 15:51.91.
 
Friday's race was set up as a head-to-head duel between the Wildcats and Penn State in an effort by each side to produce an NCAA qualifying time. Langon ran a perfectly executed anchor leg and took the lead with less than 400 meters to go as Villanova finished in 9:16.10 and Penn State posted a time of 9:18.58. They were the top two teams in the country when they crossed the finish line, although three other teams ran faster than the Nittany Lions later in the evening in meets hosted by Colorado and Arkansas. As competition around the country ended on Friday – with plenty more to come on Saturday – there were seven Division I teams below 9:20.
 
Donoghue opened the race for Villanova with a split of 2:50.02 during a 1200 meter leg which was paced by a Penn State rabbit through the first 800 meters. The previous fastest 1200 meter split by a Wildcats runner was the 2:50.1 put up by Mark Belger on April 29, 1977, at the Penn Relays. The Nittany Lions owned an advantage of .642 seconds at the first exchange.
 
Walls took the baton for the 400 meter leg and split 47.46 while giving up less than a second to his Big 10 counterpart. On the third leg of the race, Watcke ran a personal best 800 meter relay leg of 1:47.88 to set up a big finish between Langon for the Wildcats and Nick Sloff from Penn State. The Nittany Lions led by just over 1.5 seconds at the final exchange, a narrow margin which Langon whittled roughly in half by the midpoint of the anchor leg. He was within less than two-tenths of a second (.182) with 400 meters to go and ahead by nearly a full second (.95) at the bell.
 
Langon's final split over 1600 meters was 3:50.75, more than three seconds faster than Charlie O'Donovan ran (3:53.97) on February 18, 2023, when Villanova last set the school record in the DMR with a time of 9:20.44 at Notre Dame. Friday night's race at Penn, staged between the Wildcats and the Nittany Lions, was an opportunity to avoid traveling to South Bend for tomorrow's Alex Wilson Invitational and instead put up a time to beat just a few miles from home.
 
A group of Villanova throwers competed at the Philadelphia Metro earlier Friday afternoon. In the weight throw, graduate student Tristan Bolinsky (Gordon, Pa.) posted his second-best mark of the season and his career with a distance of 17.81 meters. He was the top thrower out of nine competitors in the event and was followed by freshman teammate Theo Hedgemon (Atlanta, Ga.) in fourth place (16.15m) as well as by sophomore Joe D'Adamo (Nanuet, N.Y.) who placed eighth (13.28m).
 
Freshman Yianni Papanikolas (Toms River, N.J.) led three Wildcats in the shot put with a throw of 15.50 meters. Behind him, sophomore Chris Coulter (Philadelphia, Pa.) set a new indoor PR with a mark of 14.42 meters. It is the first time in Coulter's collegiate career that he has surpassed 14 meters indoors, and he moved up three spots on this season's BIG EAST performance list. Senior Liam Anderson (Lebanon, N.J.) threw 12.85 meters.
 
Villanova is now primed for competition at the 2026 BIG EAST Indoor Track & Field Championships presented by JEEP. The conference meet takes place on February 27-28 at Dr. Conrad Worrill Track and Field Center at Gately Park in Chicago, Ill.