PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Villanova placed fifth in the distance medley relay in its first Championship of America race during the 129
th running of the Penn Relays at Franklin Field on Friday afternoon. The race was exceptionally fast from the start, with the Wildcats time of 9:28.14 a strong enough mark to have won the race in each of the last eight years that the world's oldest and largest track & field competition has been held. It is the ninth-fastest DMR in school history and the fastest outdoor time for Villanova in the DMR in 12 years.
The lineup of junior
Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.), junior
Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas), sophomore
Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) and fifth year
Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) competed in one of the strongest fields that the distance medley relay has consisted of in recent seasons. The last time the Wildcats ran a faster DMR at the Penn Relays was in 2013 when the team finished as runners-up in 9:26.80. Murphy's split of 3:55.24 on the anchor leg of the race is the third-fastest known 1600 meter split in school history.
Langon produced a split of 2:55.18 on the 1200 meter opening leg of the relay. He was in the lead at the first exchange and handed off to Rakowitz with Villanova owning a nearly half-second lead over second place Texas A&M and the rest of the 12-team field.
The second leg of the relay is when the first big move of the race occurred, with Texas A&M surging into a large lead before the chase pack started to catch to them during the 800 meter leg of the race. Rakowitz had a split of 48.87 for 400 meters and Watcke followed on the 800 meter leg with a split of 1:48.87.
By the end of the 800 meter leg, the Wildcats formed a chase pack with Virginia, Wisconsin, Cornell and Georgetown approximately 30 meters off the lead. Murphy got the baton for the anchor leg and ran at a steady pace for his first three laps around the track. He gained some ground with a kick at the start of the bell lap and then closed strong in the home stretch as Villanova held off Georgetown by less than two-tenths of a second at the finish line.
