Villanova men’s and women’s track and field competed in the Penn State National Open at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track in University Park, Pennsylvania. The open took place over two days, Jan. 26 and Jan. 27.
The open was highlighted by indoor school records. For the men, senior Liam Murphy and fifth-year Sean Dolan both set track records. For the women, senior Roschell Clayton set a jumping record.
Murphy competed in the mile and recorded a record-breaking time of 3:53.85. It broke the Villanova indoor mile record, which stood for 44 years.
Murphy’s time is a top-20 indoor mark in NCAA history. His performance also breaks his facility and meets records at Penn State which he set last year by running 3:55.58. His new record is the third-fastest mile at any location in the United States by a Villanova runner during their collegiate career.
“That was impressive,” Villanova men’s track and field head coach Marcus O’Sullivan said. “That was Don Paige’s 44-year-old record. I consider [Paige] one of the best. I think that was a really good performance by Murphy.”
Murphy was not the only sub-four minute miler for the Wildcats. In the same race, sophomore Marco Langon ran a personal best time of 3:56.24, and junior Sean Donoghue secured his first career sub-four minute mile with a time of 3:58.86.
“I tell kids if they only do [a sub-four mile] once, and once only, it will still stick with them for the rest of their life,” O’Sullivan said. “The moment you start a conversation with ‘I ran a sub-four mile,’ it immediately sets a tone.”
Dolan was the next athlete to set an indoor Villanova record. Dolan broke his indoor 800 meter record, finishing in 1:46.96. He became the first Villanova athlete to break 1:47 indoors in the 800 meters. Dolan now holds five of the 10 fastest indoor times in the school record book.
Sophomore Amiri Prescod recorded the second-fastest time in school history in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash. Prescod’s time of 6.79 ties him for the Big East conference lead this season.
On Saturday, senior Roschell Clayton broke the school’s indoor record with a mark of 1.85 meters. Clayton’s performance gives her sole possession of the record after she had tied the old record in her season debut two weeks ago. Clayton has had four straight successful jumps in both competitions of the indoor season. Clayton was the winner out of the field of 26 jumpers.
Two weeks ago, Clayton recorded a personal best jump of 1.84 meters to tie former teammate Sanaä Barnes at the top of the school’s indoor performance list. Clayton beat the record by a centimeter.
Graduate student Alex Payne recorded the fifth-longest weight throw in school history. Payne threw 16.95 meters in the invitational portion. It is the fifthbest distance in school history. Payne is second overall on the Villanova performance list in the weight throw behind school record holder Sade Meeks who owns each of the four top marks in the program record book.
Fifth-year athletes Adria Retter and Jordan Williams each moved up on the school’s top-10 performance list during the weight throw. Retter threw 16.33 meters on her third throw of the day to qualify for the final. She holds seventh place in school history in the event. Williams threw for 15.64 meters on her second attempt on Friday night.
Villanova will have athletes in competition at the Scarlet Knight Open hosted by Rutgers. The competition will take place at The Armory on Feb. 2.
