UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—Freshman sprinter Jimmy Milgie (Wildwood, Mo.) won the unseeded section of the 400 meters and later anchored Villanova to a thrilling finish in its heat of the 4x400 meter relay as action wrapped up at the Penn State National Open inside Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track on Saturday afternoon. A lineup of freshman Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.), junior Nicholas Mollica (Jackson, N.J.), senior Sean Dolan (Pennington, N.J.) and Milgie own their heat of the 4x400 relay in 3:16.44.
 
Milgie went from fourth to first coming down the final straightaway and surged across the finish line just over one-tenth of a second ahead of the anchor runner from Kent State, much to the delight of his excited teammates who had done all they could to will Milgie through the final 50 meters of a sensational finish. O'Neill led off the race in 49.89, Mollica followed with a split of 49.70 on the second leg and Dolan ran a leg of 49.03 before handing off to Milgie who had a 47.83 anchor leg.
 
Two days of competition at Penn State led up to the 4x400 relay which was the final event of the meet. In the final heat of the final race, a second Wildcats entry in the 4x400 relay produced a time of 3:21.72. That lineup featured freshman Sal Barretta (Whitestone, N.Y.) leading off, followed by senior Miller Anderson (West Hartford, Conn.), freshman Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas) and junior Chris Weeks (Virginia Beach, Va.). Anderson led the quartet with a split of 49.67 on the second leg of the race.
 
Earlier in the day Milgie finished first out of 21 competitors with a time of 48.81 in the unseeded 400 meters. Mollica had a time of 50.03 in the section and Barretta recorded a personal best time of 50.27. Each of the individual events Villanova competed in on Saturday – including the 400 meters along with the 200 meters, the 3000 meters and the shot put – featured at least one athlete who registered a personal best mark in their event.
 
The day started with freshman thrower Liam Anderson (Lebanon, N.J.) throwing for 12.79 meters in the shot put on his third and final throw of the day. Anderson has competed at each of the team's first three meets of the indoor season and has increased his top mark with each performance.
 
Later in the day the freshman duo of Amiri Prescod (Chiguanas, Trinidad and Tobago) and O'Neill registered personal best times in the unseeded section of the 200 meters. Prescod, a walk-on to the Wildcats this season who is quickly emerging as a standout performer in the sprints, came in fourth overall out of 14 competitors with a time of 22.31. He was seven-hundredths of a second faster than the time of 22.38 he recorded in the season opener in New York two weeks ago. O'Neill posted a time of 22.86 in the 200 meters to cut nearly a full second off his best time from high school.
 
Junior Jack Jennings (Mendham, N.J.) and redshirt freshman Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) each ran in the invitational section of the 3000 meters in the day's final individual track event. Jennings placed sixth in the fastest heat of the 3K with a time of 8:04.21 and Comber posted a time of 8:10.73 in the second heat. Comber lowered his PR from last year's Villanova Invitational by nearly 10 full seconds with Saturday's performance.
 
After three meets in as many weeks to open the indoor season, the Wildcats will take a break next week before they are next scheduled to be in competition on February 10-11 with a trio of meets in Boston, New York and at Clemson.