BETHLEHEM, Pa.—In an early start to the 2022 cross country season, senior
Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) crossed the finish line six-tenths of a second ahead of teammate
Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) and Villanova swept the top five spots in the 6,000 meter men's race at the Lehigh Invitational on Friday evening. O'Donovan ran the 6K race in 18:03.5 as the top five runners in the Wildcats lineup all finished within less than two seconds of each other.
The rest of the top five for Villanova in its first meet of the year included sophomore
Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.), senior
Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) and sophomore
Jack Jennings (Mendham, N.J.). Phillips recorded a time of 18:04.1 on the Goodman Campus Course and Murphy followed him across the line in 18:04.7. The duo of Strintzos and Jennings posted identical times of 18:05.1 to round out the team's scoring runners.
There were a dozen runners in all for the Wildcats in a field of 160 runners in Friday's race. Senior
Jack Fredian (Arlington Heights, Ill.) finished 12
th in 18:14.3 and redshirt freshman
Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) was 13
th with a time of 18:15.0. It was the first official race in a Villanova singlet for Comber, who redshirted the cross country, indoor and outdoor seasons as a freshman last year. Sophomore
Cole Walker (Chadds Ford, Pa.) was the Wildcats eighth runner among the top 20 finishers and posted a time of 18:17.8 to come in 16
th overall.
Villanova rounded out its lineup with the quartet of junior
Sean Dolan (Pennington, N.J.), redshirt freshman
Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland), junior
Mathias Powell (Mahomet, Ill.) and senior
Ben Seiple (Westport, Conn.). Dolan finished in 25
th place (18:36.8), Donoghue and Powell crossed the line consecutively in 35
th and 36
th places with identical times of 18:46.4, and Seiple came in 45
th with a time of 19:02.0.
Friday night's meet was held as the Wildcats are in the midst of training for the bulk of the 2022 season. The team will next compete on Friday, September 16 at the Main Line Invitational hosted by Haverford.
