Villanova’s men’s cross-country team, along with two individual women’s runners, attended the NCAA National Championships on Nov. 18 in Earlysville, Virginia.
Villanova tallied 447 points combined from its individual results. The ‘Cats finished 20th as a team out of 31 competing. It was the best performance among the three Big East squads at nationals.
After the men earned an automatic bid to nationals by placing second in regionals, all sights were set on Virginia.
Villanova was at full strength for nationals. After losing sophomore Marco Langon and fifth-year Xian Shively at regionals due to injury and illness, both runners were available for the NCAA championship meet.
Senior Liam Murphy and fifth-year Haftu Strintzos led the pack for Villanova. Coming out the gate strong and fast, it was a straight downhill to start the course.
After fighting their way to the front, Strintzos trailed off just slightly. Murphy kept a consistent pace and found himself towards the front for the whole race. They both finished in the top 40 runners, enough to be named All-Americans. Murphy crossed the finish 14th with a time of 29:17.5. Strintzos crossed it a little while later in 38th with a time of 29:49.3.
For Murphy, his performance was an improvement of 78 spots from last season, when he made his NCAA championship debut.
Strintzos has finished as high as ninth at nationals. He has three career top-70 finishes in five national appearances.
Murphy and Strintzos became the first pair of Wildcats named cross-country All-Americans since 2013.
For the rest of the men’s team, its top five scorers were rounded out by Langon (146th-30:58.90), sixth-year Henry Myers (182nd-31:28.0) and fifth-year Ryan Kredell (197th-31:41.6).
Shively (220th-32:21.2) and junior Devon Comber (234th-33:03.9) were the sixth and seventh runners for Villanova.
Villanova came in 19th at the NCAA Championships last season and was 20th at the 2020 meet which was held in the Spring of 2021. This season was consistent with prior national performances.
The two individual qualifiers who represented Villanova’s women’s team were juniors Sadie Sigfstead and Emma McGill. They qualified for nationals by placing top-25 in the Mid-Atlantic Regionals on Nov. 17.
Sigfstead, coming off a redshirt-season last year, consistently performed throughout the season. In her second national meet, she recorded a 20:28.7 time over the six-kilometer course. Sigfstead crossed the finish line 71st. That is an improvement from her last nationals meet two years ago where she finished 93rd. Sigfstead fell ill leading up to nationals. Coach Gina Procaccio was proud of what Sigfstead accomplished under the circumstances.
“[Sigfstead] had gotten sick during the week,” Procaccio said. “I think she did a great job of pushing through that. She was a top-three finisher in our region and one of the top four finishers in the Big East.”
McGilll did not finish the race.
As the cross country season concludes, many runners pivot toward track and field season. Training for the track and field season is already underway.
