AUSTIN, Texas—Senior distance runner Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) ran in the national championship race of the 10,000 meters for the third straight year and tallied a 19th place finish on the first day of competition at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Mike Myers Stadium on Wednesday night. Villanova's event schedule on Wednesday included the 10K championship along with semifinal heats in the 1500 meters and the 800 meters. Junior distance runner Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) placed fourth in his heat of the 1500 meters to automatically move on to Friday night's final.
 
Strintzos posted a time of 29:45.22 in the 10,000 meters in a grueling race run under hot and humid conditions. He ran in the middle of a tight pack early on and had the fastest split in the field on two of the first eight laps, running 1:05.15 on the second lap and 1:06.28 approaching the two mile split. Strintzos was officially in seventh place according to race splits at 3200 meters, with little separation in the ranks over the next several laps. Temperatures were in the low 80's at the start of the race with 66 percent humidity on an uncomfortable evening for the longest distance run at the NCAA meet.
 
Just after the midpoint of the race a lead pack of 11 runners separated itself from the field and Strintzos was among the group following in the chase pack. Strintzos has always been remarkable for his consistency during long races, as well as from year-to-year. He has finished exactly 19^th in the national championship race of the 10,000 meters in each of the last three seasons. Strintzos owns five of the 11 fastest times in school history in the 10K, including a season best mark of 28:36.71 earlier this year and a lifetime best of 28:34.41 last season.
 
Earlier in the night the first event of the week for the Wildcats was the semifinal round of the 1500 meters.  The first of two heats featured both Murphy and sophomore Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) who were each making their debuts at the outdoor national championships. Murphy finished fourth in Wednesday's race in 3:39.82 and Donoghue finished ninth in 3:42.89. The top five finishers in each heat and the next two fastest times moved on to the final on Friday night.
 
Six of the 12 runners in the first heat of the 1500 meters, including Murphy, had run faster than 3:40 at least once this season. That made for a competitive race and Murphy was forced to the outside lanes multiple times during the race. He and Donoghue were ninth and 10^th, respectively, with 500 meters to go and Murphy went as far wide as the middle of lane 3 to get back into contention during the bell lap. He closed with the fastest final lap in the field – 54.08 – and surged back into a top-five spot with less than 50 meters to go in the final straightway. Murphy also had the fastest split on the first full lap around the track – 1:00.56 – and was seventh in the field after 700 meters.
 
Murphy and Donoghue each won individual BIG EAST titles last month on Villanova's home track. Donoghue won his first career conference championship in the 1500 meters after running a personal best time of 3:42.65 earlier in the year. He was an automatic qualifier through the national first round and quarterfinal heats at the NCAA East Preliminary in Jacksonville two weeks ago. Murphy won the 5000 meters at the BIG EAST Championships with a meet record and Villanova Stadium record time of 13:43.32.
 
Senior middle distance runner Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) finished seventh in his semifinal heat of the 800 meters later Wednesday with a time of 1:50.45. It is the third straight year that Dolan has qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 800 meters and he raced in the second of three semifinals. The race went off slower than the first heat and came down to a tactical run-up to a sprint in the final 200 meters once it was apparent that the heat was unlikely to produce on-time qualifiers for the final (the top two finishers in each heat and the next three fastest times advanced). Dolan was in third place according to official splits at the end of the opening lap before the eventual first three runners across the finish line separated themselves from the pack going into the final turn.
 
Competition continues at the NCAA Championships on Thursday with the first night of women's events. Villanova has one race on Thursday when fifth year distance runner Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) runs in the semifinal heats of the 3000 meter steeplechase. Men's competition continues on Friday with the national championship race in the 1500 meters and the national championship competition in the triple jump.