STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.—Villanova hosted its annual home meet at Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex on Saturday evening and had a number of strong results on the night, including huge performances from fifth-year senior Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) and junior Sean Dolan (Pennington, N.J.) in the 3000 meters and the 1000 meters, respectively. The host Wildcats had entries in 10 events total in their second straight competition at the Staten Island venue.
 
O'Donovan produced the night's top result with a sensational race in the 3000 meters. Making his season debut, he recorded a time of 7:53.66 to pace a field of 26 runners and win by a margin of more than 11 seconds. His time ranks sixth in the NCAA this season pending the outcome of other meets around the country this weekend. It is also the sixth-fastest time in Villanova history and puts O'Donovan into sixth place on the Wildcats all-time performance list.
 
Prior to Saturday's meet the last time O'Donovan ran a 3K race was on January 26, 2019 when he was making his collegiate track debut. His time on Saturday evening was more than 40 seconds faster than the one he posted four years earlier. Graduate student Evan Addison (Collegeville, Pa.), a transfer from Pittsburgh who made his Wildcats debut in the Fall, finished second to O'Donovan with a personal best time of 8:04.99. He cut more than 11 seconds off his previous top time.
 
The first track event of the evening was the 1000 meters in which Dolan threatened the Villanova indoor record which has stood for more than 40 years. He won the race with a time of 2:20.89 and beat his previous PR by more than 3.5 seconds. The time is the fifth-fastest in the Wildcats record book and stands as the second-fastest time to occur during the indoor collegiate season. Villanova's indoor record is 2:20.3 and is held by Don Paige who set the mark at the Olympic Invitational in New York on January 20, 1979. Senior Miller Anderson (West Hartford, Conn.) came in third with a time of 2:23.15 and lowered his PR in the event by more than four seconds.
 
Sophomore Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) provided the Wildcats third win of the night with a time of 4:07.46 in the mile. He paced a field of 25 runners and beat the runner-up from Haverford by just over a second at the finish line. Murphy was making his 2023 debut on Saturday and recorded the second-fastest time in the BIG EAST on the young season. Last year as a redshirt freshman he became the 44^th member of Villanova's vaunted sub-four minute mile club.
 
In other track events, freshman Amiri Prescod (Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago) led a quartet of Wildcats in the 200 meters with a time of 22.55. Junior Mac Costonis (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) registered a mark of 22.69, freshman Sal Barretta (Whitestone, N.Y.) tallied a personal best time of 23.05 and freshman Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas) rounded out the Villanova competitors with a mark of 23.30. In the 400 meters, junior Nicholas Mollica (Jackson, N.J.) came in sixth with a time of 49.85 and freshman Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.) recorded a time of 50.23.
 
Sophomore Chris Weeks (Virginia Beach, Va.) registered a personal best time of 1:54.63 to finish sixth out of 25 runners in the 800 meters. He eclipsed his previous top time which had been set at last year's outdoor BIG EAST Championships. In the final event of the night, the Wildcats came in second in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:16.61.
 
Villanova's top result from the field events on Saturday came from sophomore thrower Tristan Bolinsky (Gordon, Pa.) who recorded a mark of 15.12 meters in the weight throw. He broke onto the Wildcats all-time performance list with that result and sits in 10^th place on that list after two collegiate competitions in the event. Freshman thrower Liam Anderson (Lebanon, N.J.) recorded a personal best mark of 12.71 meters in the shot put and freshman Bennett Hemphill (Greenwich, Conn.) cleared a height of 4.30 meters in the pole vault.
 
After traveling to New York in consecutive weeks to open the indoor track & field season Villanova will stay in Pennsylvania next week when it heads to the Penn State National Open on Friday and Saturday (January 27-28).