EUGENE, Ore.—Only four men's athletes in Villanova history have been All-Americans nine times spanning the cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field seasons. The latest to join such rarefied air while representing the Wildcats is senior distance runner Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.), who did so by way of a fourth place finish in the 5000 meters at the 2026 Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Friday night.
 
Langon crossed the finish line in the national championship race at Hayward Field in 13:42.77, securing his fourth career top six NCAA finish in the 5K counting the indoor and outdoor seasons. That feat – finishing that high as many as four times in the 5000 meters – is a club of one. Langon owns third place (2025) and fourth place finishes outdoors to go along with a runner-up finish (2026) and sixth place result (2025) indoors.
 
It is no small accomplishment to make it to Eugene three straight years in the same event, especially given the level of talent in the distance races in recent seasons. Friday night's field of runners in the 5K featured eight of the 25 fastest outdoor performers in collegiate history based on times run during the collegiate season. Sixteen of the 24 runners in the race had broken 13:30 already this season; eight had broken 13:20.
 
Langon first ran at Hayward Field in 2024 when he was a redshirt freshman outdoors and finished 21^st in the 5000 meters. By the time he returned a year later, he was one of the top national contenders for a title and improved by 18 spots in a single year to finish in third place. This time around, he was both a battle tested veteran and again one of several top contenders in the deep field.
 
The effort matched the hype. Langon pushed the pace with three laps to go and reeled off consecutive laps of 61.16 and 61.39, both the fastest in the field and just enough to put him in the lead at the bell. He had more in the tank, splitting 59.77 on the final lap to end up fourth at the line and adding another top four finish to his lengthy resume in the event.
 
"I gave it all I had," Langon said. "I could not shift another gear. Win, lose, or draw, I was going to come out here and give it my all today. That's my favorite part about this sport. I have 100 percent, 110 percent of what I could do, to the last couple of drops, and I lost it. That's the best part of the sport. You can give it everything, but you're not guaranteed. You are entitled to the work, but you're not guaranteed the fruit."
 
Langon is a collegiate All-American in all three seasons, including five honors indoors and three outdoors to go along with a top 15 finish in cross country. He joins his former teammate Liam Murphy along with Villanova legends Mark Belger and Larry James as nine-time All-Americans. Langon also becomes one of 11 athletes in program history to record at least four first team All-America honors (scoring finishes) in the same event.
 
In addition to being the absolute school record holder in the 5000 meters, Langon owns five of the eight fastest absolute times in school history in the event and five of the nine fastest in-season outdoor times in the Wildcats record book. His school record of 13:05.21 was set in Boston last December and he has broken 13:30 a total of nine times.
 
This is the fifth straight year, the 17^th time in the Marcus O'Sullivan head coaching era and the 62^nd time overall that Villanova has scored team points at the outdoor NCAA Championships. At least one athlete from the Wildcats has qualified for the national meet outdoors in 23 of the 27 seasons that O'Sullivan has been head coach.