Villanova sent several athletes to the NCAA Championship meet in Fayetteville, Ark. this past weekend. The men’s Distance Medley Relay team qualified early in the season and their time ranked them 11th in the field. The women’s Distance Medley Relay team had also qualified, and was ranked eighth in the field. On the individual side, Marina Muncan had qualified in the 3000m run.

The men’s DMR team consisted of Bobby Curtis, Drew Eckman, Paul Moser and Tom Parlapiano. Bobby Curtis and Drew Eckman are both freshmen, and this was senior Tom Parlapiano’s first season running the DMR. Their respective split times were 2:57 for 1200m, 0.47 low for 400m, 1:49 for 800m and 3:58 for the mile.

Head Coach Marcus O’Sullivan was very happy with their performance, he said “We were ranked 11th going into the race and really stepped it up to finish third behind Arkansas and Michigan, the clear favorites to win. Our team was inexperienced with two freshmen and a senior anchor leg whose only other DMR was the race they qualified with. Tom almost caught Mike Taylor, the anchor for Arkansas, at the line.” Michigan won the race and set a national collegiate record finishing in 9:27.77. Arkansas and Villanova finished secondand third respectively, in 9:32.12 and 9:32.86.

The women’s DMR team finished fourth in 11.10:25. Tennessee won the event in 11:06.07. The women had a good race. Considering they were ranked eighth going into the race, 1st place would have been a stretch. Marina Muncan, who anchored the women’s DMR in 4:38, also ran the 3000m run. She finished 13th in 9:22.10. She was happy with her race having also run well the day before. The winner was Kim Smith of Providence who finished in 8:48.18.

This meet brought an end to the Wildcats indoor season. They will open their outdoor season on March 20th on Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. They look forward to an even more successful outdoor season.