VILLANOVA, Pa.—One of the biggest weeks of the summer track & field season is set to commence as countries from all parts of the globe hold their senior national championships in the final days of July and early days of August. There is added significance to national competition this year with these meets serving as qualification procedures for World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 coming up in September.
 
As is always the case on the national and worldwide stages, the Wildcats will be well represented by current student-athletes and alumni who are competing at the highest levels of the sport. Most notably, a group of eight athletes will be in action at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships in Eugene, Ore. starting on Thursday afternoon and continuing through Sunday afternoon. Coverage of the championships can be seen on NBC live and on-demand as well as USATF.tv on-demand. Visit the meet homepage for a full television schedule and live results.
 
Rising senior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) and rising junior Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) are each qualified for the USATF Championships in the 5000 meters and the 800 meters, respectively. Both are veterans of national and international competition and are coming off sensational collegiate seasons over the past year which included first team All-America performances in their respective events. Just over a month after closing out his record-setting collegiate career with a third straight appearance at the NCAA Championships, men's distance runner Liam Murphy will be running the 1500 meters at the USATF Championships.
 
Veteran middle distance runner Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) will be running the 1500 meters this week at the Athletics Ireland National Outdoor Track & Field Senior Championships. Donoghue is returning to the Wildcats for a fifth collegiate campaign in 2025-26. During his collegiate career, Donoghue is a two-time BIG EAST champion and a two-time Penn Relays champion who ran the leadoff leg of Villanova's 4xMile relay in 2024 which recorded the second-fastest time in world history. At home in Ireland, he was a two-time Irish U20 champion in the 1500 meters and advanced to the final of the event at the National Senior Championships.
 
The men's 5000 meters at the USATF Championships consists of one championship race which is set for Sunday afternoon at 4:52 p.m. Eastern time (1:52pm Pacific time) at Hayward Field in Eugene. Langon is coming off a third place finish at the same venue in the NCAA Championships final last month. Earlier in the year he placed sixth in the 5000 meters and seventh in the 3000 meters at the indoor NCAA Championships, and he finished the 2024-25 collegiate competition season with All-America honors in cross county, indoors and outdoors. He most recently ran a lifetime best time of 13:12.89 in the 5K in Belgium on July 19.
 
Watcke will see a familiar face in the men's 800 meters in Oregon as former teammate Sean Dolan is another entry in the event. The first round heats of the 800 meters are scheduled for Thursday at 6:07 p.m. Eastern time (3:07 p.m. PT), with the top finishers moving on to the semifinal round on Friday afternoon. Watcke earned first team All-America honors in the 800 meters with a fifth place finish at this year's indoor NCAA Championships. It was his first collegiate NCAA Championships meet and the result came in his redshirt freshman indoor campaign. Watcke ran a lifetime best of 1:46.32 in the 800 meters at Penn State in January and recently set an outdoor PR with a time of 1:46.60 in Ireland on July 9.
 
Murphy finished the 2025 collegiate campaign as the all-time NCAA record holder in the event with a lifetime best of 3:33.02 set on March 27 at North Carolina State. Murphy set seven NCAA and/or school records while wearing the Villanova singlet, and in his final season as a collegian he tied the Wildcats records for career All-America honors (nine) and career BIG EAST titles (11) by a men's athlete. Murphy has excelled on the big stage before. Last summer he made a remarkable run through the 1500 meters competition at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, becoming the first Villanovan since 1988 to make the final and ranking as the third collegiate runner to cross the finish line in the final.
 
Two of the top women's middle distance runners in program history – McKenna Keegan and Angel Piccirillo – are each entered in the women's 800 meters this week. They will get underway in the first round heats on Thursday at 6:37 p.m. Eastern time (3:37 p.m. PT) and will be vying to advance to the semifinal on Friday afternoon.
 
Men's distance runner Casey Comber is competing in the 3000 meter steeplechase this week, beginning with first round competition on Thursday at 8:39 p.m. Eastern time (5:39 p.m. PT), with the event proceeding to a final on Saturday afternoon. Women's high jumper Sanaä Barnes will be in action in the final of her event on Friday starting at 7:05 p.m. Eastern time (4:05 p.m. PT).