MADISON, Wis.—In the season opener for most of the runners in the Wildcats lineup, the duo of fifth year collegian Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and junior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) were two of the top 12 overall finishers out of 186 runners at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Friday afternoon. Villanova, ranked 17^th in the nation entering the meet, came in ahead of seven other nationally-ranked teams on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course to claim a 10^th place overall finish.
 
Murphy ran the 8,000 meter men's championship race in 23:08.6 which is the sixth-fastest time ever posted by a Wildcats runner on an 8K cross country course. He and Langon got off to strong starts near the front of the pack and stayed with the leaders throughout the entire race. Murphy was less than five seconds off the winning pace at the finish line and Langon came in with a time of 23:39.0. It was the first race for Murphy since the 1500 meter final at this summer's U.S. Olympic Team Trials and Langon's first competition since the outdoor NCAA Championships in the 5000 meters.
 
The other scoring runners for Villanova were redshirt freshman Bailey Habler (Sydney, Australia), senior Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) and redshirt freshman CJ Sullivan (Milton, Mass.). Habler finished strong and passed 14 runners in the final 2,000 meters to come in 64^th overall with a time of 24:23.6. Comber and Sullivan were separated by just six seconds at the finish line with times of 24:54.0 and 25:00.1, respectively. Of the five scorers for the Wildcats, only Habler had previously raced this season as he came in second in a local meet at the Temple Owls Cross Country Invitational last month.
 
Freshman Jack Coomber (Brisbane, Australia) made his collegiate debut in Friday's race and posted a time of 25:09.7. The rest of the Wildcats lineup featured senior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) and redshirt freshman Nick Sullivan (Middletown, N.J.) with times of 25:20.6 and 26:25.9, respectively.
 
The first event of the day for Villanova was the men's "B" race in the morning. Redshirt freshman Kai Mitchell-Reiss (Portland, Ore.) was the Wildcats top finisher in that race, coming in 25^th overall with a time of 25:46.6. Redshirt freshman Brian Theobald (Wall, N.J.) and fifth year collegian Bennett Booth-Genthe (Pottstown, Pa.) registered times of 26:40.3 and 28:55.7 in the "B" race.
 
Villanova's next race is at the Princeton Fall Classic on October 18.