PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Graduate student Seán Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) and sophomore Ben Thomas (Sydney, Australia) combined for a 1-2 finish in the 1000 meters at the Penn Classic on Saturday afternoon. Both runners were competing in the event for the first time during their collegiate careers and came within less than a second of impacting Villanova's all-time top 10 list in the event. The pair were among 14 athletes who competed at the Ott Center on the second day of the Penn Classic, with Saturday's action featuring events on the oval after Friday's events all took place on the infield.
 
Donoghue posted a winning time of 2:22.90 in the 1000 meters and was just under a quarter of a second off the top 10 cutoff in the Wildcats record book (2:22.66). Thomas was close behind him with a time of 2:23.42. They highlighted the Villanova results for the day along with junior distance runner Brian Theobald (Wall, N.J.) who recorded a personal best time of 4:08.66 in the invitational section of the mile. Junior middle distance runner Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) came in third in the invitational section of the 800 meters in 1:47.48.
 
In the sprints, junior Parker Turner (Los Angeles, Calif.) led four Wildcats in the 200 meters with a time of 21.90. He was followed by the freshman duo of Christos Batalias (New York, N.Y.) with a time of 22.35 and Keaton Kuehr (Carmel, Ind.) who recorded a mark of 23.00 in his collegiate debut. Junior Imevar Justice (Summit, N.J.) lowered his season best time in the 200 meters to 23.10.
 
Junior sprinter Ethan Walls (Ridgefield, Conn.) made his 2026 debut and finished fourth in the 400 meters in 49.05. Freshman Andy Geiser (Aldie, Va.) followed him in fifth place with a time of 49.27 and senior Jimmy Milgie (Wildwood, Mo.) was the team's third top 10 finisher with a time of 49.56 in ninth place. Villanova also saw times of 49.75 from senior Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas), 50.63 from senior Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.) and 50.65 from senior Sal Barretta (Whitestone, N.Y.).
 
The quartet of Geiser, Rakowitz, Milgie and Walls closed out the meet with a time of 3:15.66 in the 4x400 meter relay.