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Official Results -- Distance Medley Relay

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.--There is no set playbook for how to win a Championship of America relay at the world's oldest and largest track & field meet, no recipe for success that can be pulled out year after year. Each race is a little different and requires its own unique approach, a trademark of the Penn Relays that has been all but proven when a team like Villanova has ascended the winner's podium for what has now been 13 times in the last seven years and 41 times overall.

In a fitting start to the 124th running of the Penn Relays, the Wildcats won the Championship of America title in the distance medley relay for the sixth time since 2012 and the record 16th time overall. Villanova added to its tradition in the event that many consider to be the signature distance event of the meet. A lineup that consisted of junior Nicole Hutchinson (West Vancouver, B.C.), sophomore McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.), freshman Rachel McArthur (Bristow, Va.) and senior Siofra Cleirigh Buttner (Dublin, Ireland) won Thursday night's race at Franklin Field in 11:01.94. Cleirigh Buttner held off Notre Dame and the rest of the 11-team field by nearly two seconds.

"It is always good to get the first one, then you can kind of relax the rest of the weekend," Wildcats head coach Gina Procaccio said. "It was tough [today]. Hutch [Nicole Hutchinson] is really strong on the leadoff leg and she opened it up. The rest of the girls are racers so it was a little bit harder for them to be out there by themselves. They all kind of misjudged the first lap and ran hard. It wasn't the most comfortable racing for them but that's when your heart and guts take over. You know you have to get it done and you finish strong. I'm really proud of them."

Hutchinson ran the leadoff 1200 meter leg of the race in 3:21.86 and gave the baton to Keegan at the first exchange nearly a full five seconds before Penn State handed off in second place. Keegan split 55.71 on the 400 meter second leg with Villanova still well out in front of the back. In her first collegiate Penn Relays race, McArthur took the baton for 800 meters and had a split of 2:08.30 before Cleirigh Buttner took over for the anchor leg with plenty of daylight between the Wildcats and the rest of the field.

By the time Cleirigh Buttner was approaching the bell lap, the field had started to catch up. She closed with a split of 4:36.09 for the final 1600 meters of the race, with the gap of 1.8 seconds between herself and Fighting Irish anchor Jessica Harris at the finish line the closest that any team got to Villanova after the opening lap of the relay.

"Today was kind of different for me because I had never anchored the DMR [at Penn Relays] before," Cleirigh Buttner said. "It was new to me, but as I have said before it is such a group effort. When you anchor you see every girl put their heart into it and leave it all on the track. You can't let it drop back and you know you have to bring it home and finish the job the rest of the girls started."

Considering the success that Villanova has had at the Penn Relays, and especially in the distance medley relay, it perhaps is no surprise that the lineup for Thursday's race included a freshman, a sophomore, a junior and a senior.

"We had someone from every class in this race and they all got to win here as freshmen and carry on that tradition," Procaccio said.