PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—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 (Cork, Ireland) led off and was followed by freshman Jimmy Milgie (Wildwood, Mo.), senior Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) and junior Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.). 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.
 
"It was going to come down to a strong finish, which I like doing mor than going out at a pace that I can't control," Murphy said. With 200 meters to go there were guys on the outside and I didn't want to get boxed in, so I felt like I had no choice but to make that move. I did, and I thought no one was going to go with me and I would be able to hold them off."
 
O'Donovan led off the race with a split of 2:53.71 for the first 1200 meters. He delivered the baton to Milgie with Villanova in second place less than a quarter of a second off the early pace set by indoor national champion Oklahoma State. It was a redemptive race for O'Donovan and the Wildcats, as the group broke a longstanding school record indoors with a time of 9:20.44 in February, only to have an improbable occurrence at the NCAA Championships less than a month later when there was a collision on the track between the leadoff legs of the DMR and a pole vaulter who had stepped off the infield during his competition.
 
Villanova went with Murphy on the leadoff leg and O'Donovan anchoring for the school record performance at Notre Dame on February 18 before switching the pair at the NCAA Championships. O'Donovan knew that Friday's race at the Penn Relays was a second chance to make an impact as the leadoff runner.
 
"Everyone wants to be the anchor but when I was told I would be the 1200 I was like 'good, I need redemption for what happened' [indoors]", O'Donovan said. "Pretty much every school [from NCAAs] was here and I think I made up for that today handing off neck and neck with an NCAA champion. I am proud of the way we all ran. We knew it was going to be close and unfortunately we came up a bit short."
 
Milgie had a split of 47.96 on the 400 meter leg of Friday's race and Dolan ran the 800 meter leg in 1:49.53, moving the Wildcats up a spot into second place by the time he made the exchange to Murphy. Dolan also reflected on the opportunity to get another chance at the DMR, and to do so in front of a Penn Relays crowd.
 
"Indoors we knew we had a good run at Notre Dame and felt we could win the relay [at NCAAs], but a freak thing happened," Dolan said. "This race was our next one and that was our fuel today. Last year we had a tough race here and didn't come back with a wheel. Indoors we had some good momentum. This was all we wanted to do was come back to the Penn Relays and come out with a wheel, but more importantly put on a show for the alumni and for everyone in the stadium. We'll be back tomorrow with another chance for one."
 
Dolan alluded to the 4xMile relay which will be run at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Getting another chance in a Championship of America race was of some solace to the Villanova crew after Friday's action had ended.
 
"When you are only running two relays you can't analyze it too much until the weekend is done," O'Donovan said. "I said to the boys that if we won I was going to be trying to keep them emotionless for tomorrow because it's another race, and if we didn't win it was going to be the same thing."
 
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 (Jackson, N.J.), freshman Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.), freshman Sal Barretta (Whitestone, N.Y.) 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.
 
Earlier on Friday the day began with sophomore thrower Tristan Bolinsky (Gordon, Pa.) 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. Another Villanova athlete, junior javelin athlete Andrew Grinnell, was scheduled to compete starting at 1:45 p.m. but did not throw as a result of the inclement weather conditions.