PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—The newest member of Villanova's sub-four minute mile club had another attention-grabbing performance in the 1500 meters on Thursday night as a group of Wildcats distance runners made their mark under the Franklin Field lights to close out the first day of competition at the 128^th running of the Penn Relays. Two of the more exciting races of the evening were a runner-up finish for junior Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) in the 1500 meters and a big kick by sixth year collegian Henry Myers (Portland, Ore.) in the 5000 meters.
 
Comber ran the metric equivalent of a sub-four minute mile in California earlier this month when he was clocked in 3:41.32 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. He didn't match that time at the Penn Relays – he came in second in his race in 3:43.25 – but what Comber did do was pass nine runners during a sensational bell lap in his first collegiate Penn Relays race. Comber surged from 11^th place with 400 meters to go into second place at the line. He finished less than a third of a second in front of athletes from Penn and Eastern Michigan while nearly nipping the event champion from Stony Brook. Comber closed with a 55.25 final lap.
 
The first and faster of two heats in the 1500 meters had strong results from both Comber and fifth year collegiate distance runner Xian Shively (Glendale, Calif.) who placed eighth in the heat with a time of 3:46.01. This is the first year at Villanova for Shively, who ran for Cal Poly during his undergraduate career. He was running his first middle distance event of the season on Thursday after previously running a pair of 5K races to open the outdoor campaign. Comber and Shively are two of an incredible eight current members of the Wildcats roster who have run sub-four minute miles or their metric equivalents during their collegiate careers.
 
Villanova closed out Thursday's event schedule with three runners competing in the 5000 meters. Sixth year collegian Jack Fredian (Arlington Heights, Ill.) led the trio with a time of 14:14.64 and his fellow sixth year teammate Myers recorded a time of 14:17.91. Both runners were caught in the middle of tightly bunched together packs for the majority of their races, although they each were able to establish positions along the rail early on. Fredian looked strong late in his race when the pack started to string out in the final laps, while Myers went to the outside at a similar point and made a furious charge to go from 10^th place to second in the final 1200 meters.
 
Less than six-tenths of a second wound up separating the top three runners in Myers' heat after 12.5 laps and more than 14 minutes of racing. Myers' time of 14:17.91 beat his previous PR of 14:19.41 from his Division III days at UChicago in 2022. He finished ahead of Ian Hill from Michigan (14:17.95) and behind only Victor Jumo of Norfolk State (14:17.36) in the final heat of the 5K. One race earlier, fifth year runner Ryan Kredell (Geneva, Ill.) ran in the same heat as Fredian and tallied a time of 14:43.92.
 
One other men's athlete was in action for the Wildcats on Thursday, senior sprinter Nicholas Mollica (Jackson, N.J.) who posted a time of 53.91 in the 400 meter hurdles. It was the fourth hurdles race this season for Mollica, who finished fourth in his heat.
 
A busy day awaits Villanova on Friday, with the highlight of the day the men's Championship of America distance medley relay at 2:40 p.m.