Villanova Univeristy Athletics

Saturday's events are underway as Roschell Clayton finishes eighth in the championship section of the high jump. She cleared the bar at heights of 1.64 meters and 1.69 meters before missing on three tries when the bar was raised to 1.74 meters, which would have been a season best mark. 

CHAMPIONS!

Villanova wins the Championship of America men's 4xMile for the 21st time with a memorable finish that will resonate for years to come! Our winning time was 16:14.03 and Liam Murphy holds off the anchor from Wisconsin by less than a quarter of a second at the finish line. Murphy went from ninth to first in the final 200 meters of a close and tactical race. 

Race Splits:

Sean Donoghue - 4:01.24

Charlie O'Donovan - 4:01.80

Sean Dolan - 4:00.81

Liam Murphy - 4:10.20

Liv Morgan finished ninth in the championship section of the javelin with a throw of 43.19 meters. The throw came on her first attempt of the day and was her second-longest attempt of the season.

Big time finish for Ashley Preston!

The championship section of women's pole vault moved indoors and Ashley Preston had a big-time performance with a clearance at 4.03 meters. It is the sixth time in her career and the second straight meet that Preston was over the bar at a height of four meters or higher. She tied for a fifth place finish in the championship section.

Malik Cunningham started and finished strong in the triple jump to finish in second place with a mark of 16.03 meters! He was in first place after his initial jump and recorded his longest distance of the day on his last attempt. It is the third time in his career and second time outdoors that Cunningham has had a mark longer than 16 meters in the triple jump. His result today is a new season best and the second-longest outdoor jump of his career.

Gutsy race from the Villanova women in the Championship of America 4x800 meter relay. Each leg of the race featured a lot of movement in the ranks and strong competition from each of the Wildcats! Our lineup of Alex Stasichin, Micah Trusty, Maya Dorer and Madison Martinez finished in third place with a time of 8:30.42. 

Race Splits:

Alex Stasichin - 2:08.96

Micah Trusty - 2:07.39

Maya Dorer - 2:08.35

Madison Martinez - 2:05.74

Nick Coffey finished ninth in the championship section of the javelin with a throw of 63.62 meters on his second attempt of the day.

And that's a wrap on the 127th Penn Relays! Villanova finishes with a time of 3:12.87 in the college final of the men's 4x400 meter relay to put the finishing touches on a great weekend of competition! 

The first Villanova event on Friday afternoon featured sophomore thrower Tristan Bolinsky in action in the discus. Bolinsky threw for a distance of 44.44 meters on his second attempt of the day, which occurred just as heavy rain was developing.

The first Championship of America relay for the Villanova women was the distance medley relay on Friday afternoon and the Wildcats tallied a time of 11:12.22 in rain-soaked conditions on the Franklin Field track. The lineup of sophomore Maya Dorer, freshman Micah Trusty, senior Madison Martinez and fifth year Lydia Olivere tallied a ninth place finish in a race that featured five teams whose DMR squads competed at the indoor NCAA Championships earlier this year.

This is the first time that the Villanova quartet raced in a distance medley relay together, although Martinez previously ran the 800 meter leg of the DMR at the Penn Relays last year and Olivere is one of the Wildcats veterans who was competing on her fourth career Championship of America relay in a Villanova singlet. Dorer made her collegiate Penn Relays debut on the team's 4x800 meter relay last year, while Trusty is a local Philadelphia first year collegian who was running her first Championship of America race for the Wildcats.

Race Splits:

Maya Dorer - 1200m (3:26.40)

Micah Trusty - 400m (55.77)

Madison Martinez - 800m (2:08.34)

Lydia Olivere - 1600m (4:41.72)

Friday afternoon at the Penn Relays saw a men's distance medley relay race which was a true Championship of America competition featuring six teams – including Villanova – who qualified for the NCAA Championships indoors in the DMR earlier this year. A close race throughout turned into a two-team duel over the final 150 meters and the Wildcats tallied a second place finish with a time of 9:34.83 at a soggy Franklin Field in their first relay of the weekend.
 
Villanova raced with the same lineup that competed at the NCAA Championships earlier this year. Fifth year runner Charlie O'Donovan led off and was followed by freshman Jimmy Milgie, senior Sean Dolan and junior Liam Murphy. The runner-up finish marked the fifth time in the last 10 Penn Relays carnivals that the Wildcats have finished first or second in the distance medley relay.
 
The top three teams at the finish line – Wisconsin, Villanova and Virginia – were in those same positions at the start of the anchor leg, but the final 1600 meters of the race featured plenty of movement within the ranks shaping up to a close finish over the final 250 meters. Murphy had a split of 4:03.65 on the anchor leg and made a move for the lead with 200 meters to go before the anchor runner from Wisconsin responded. Just one second separated the Badgers and the Wildcats at the finish line.

Race Splits:

Charlie O'Donovan - 1200m (2:53.71)

Jimmy Milgie - 400m (47.96)

Sean Dolan - 800m (1:49.53)

Liam Murphy - 1600m (4:03.65)

The only other women's event on the schedule Friday was the heats of the 100 meter hurdles. Senior sprinter Jane Livingston posted a time of 14.02 and placed third in her heat. 

The final event for the Wildcats later on Friday night was the college heats of the 4x400 meter relay. A lineup of junior Nicholas Mollica, freshman Ronan O'Neill, freshman Sal Barretta and freshman Luke Rakowitz finished third in their heat and ninth overall with a time of 3:17.88. They qualified for the final in the college section of the 4x400 and will run at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday to close out the weekend.

Nicholas Mollica finishes fourth in his heat of the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 53.54. It is the second-fastest time of the season for Mollica and the third-fastest of his career.

Sean Donoghue led the Wildcats with a second place finish and a time of 3:42.67. In the final heat Miller Anderson lowered his PR by nearly two seconds and posted a time of 3:47.68. Villanova also had Trevor Potts in action as a pacer in the third heat of the men's 1500 meters.

Anna Helwigh ran the eighth-fastest time in school history with a mark of 10:03.51 in the fastest heat of the women's steeplechase. She came in fourth overall and posted a top-20 time in the East Region for this season. 

Sadie Sigfstead lowered her personal best time in the 5K by more than four seconds. She finished in 16:17.19 to eclipse her previous mark which had been set at the 2022 indoor BIG EAST Championships. It was a strong race from start to finish for Sigfstead in her Penn Relays debut. Her time puts her seventh on this year's outdoor BIG EAST performance list.

PENN RELAYS CHAMPION!

Josh Phillips wins the men's 5000 meters with a time of 13:45.85! He and Haftu Strintzos (13:47.54) finish 1-2 and the winning time is a new PR for Phillips! This is the 18th individual Penn Relays title for the Villanova men, the first in the 5000 meters and the fourth in a distance race. 

Villanova had six finishers in all in the men's 5000 meters.

1 - Josh Phillips (13:45.85)

2 - Haftu Strintzos (13:47.54)

28 - Jack Fredian (14:14.44)

33 - Cole Walker (14:18.47)

41 - Ben Seiple (14:26.30)

51 - Henry Myers (14:36.07)

Ariana Gardizy lowered her PR in the 10000 meters by nearly 20 seconds and finished fourth with a fast time of 34:25.62. She led for a good portion of the race and wound up beating her previous top mark of 34:45.57 which had been set at the Penn Twilight meet in May 2021. Gardizy's new PR puts her seventh on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the 10K.

The final event of the night was a successful one for Villanova which got strong finishes from sixth year athletes Ryan Cutter and Will Merritt who placed third and seventh, respectively. Cutter tallied a top-three finish for the second straight season and lowered his top time of the season by more than seven seconds to 29:02.11. Merritt cut more than a full minute off his lifetime PR and finished seventh in 29:45.34.