Villanova’s cross country teams had their first major meet of the season, racing in the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin on Friday, Sept. 27.
Senior Sadie Sigfstead won the women’s 6K championship race in her season debut. For the men, fifth-year Liam Murphy came one second shy of his 8K best to place third in the men’s 8K championship race.
The Villanova men (312 points) and women (323 points) finished 10th and 13th, respectively, in team rankings.
Sigfstead was the only woman from Villanova to punch a ticket to NCAA national championships last season, finishing 71st (20:28.7). Fresh off a summer of training, Sigfstead came away with what she wanted at Wisconsin. Her first-place time of 19:55.7 was just under nine seconds faster than the rest of the field. She was all alone crossing the finish line.
“I love this course,” Sigfstead said. “My coach knows me best and knows that I’m an endurance race runner. She said that I should be able to trust my racing instincts at this point. When the girls took it [early in the race], I had raced one of them in the 10K. They’re great runners and I like a hard race, so I just made good decisions as the race went on.”
Senior Emma McGill did not race at Nuttycombe but plans to return for the Princeton meet in two weeks. McGill is a part of Villanova’s top five. Columbia graduate transfer Nikki Vanasse was the second Wildcat to cross the finish line, running a 20:23.3 to place 11th. Senior Emily Robinson (21:13.1-73rd), freshman Rosie Shay (21:34.4 – 110th) and Amelia Arrieta (21:45.2 – 131st) rounded out the scoring five.
“I was really impressed with the freshman Rosie Shay,” women’s head coach Gina Procaccio said. “Freshmen usually take most of the season to get in shape and make an impact. I believe she’s just going to keep coming and getting better and better.”
The men raced a strong opener in Wisconsin. Murphy is entering his final year in all three seasons: cross country, indoor and outdoor. Last season Murphy set multiple personal records and school records. He finished first at the Big East championships.
Murphy pushed the last 1K, placing third in 23:08.6.
“Murphy and [Marco] Langon are training relatively, really hard in terms of volume and in terms of commitment, and also in terms of the expectations that they have for themselves,” men’s head coach Marcus O’Sullivan said. “The type of training we’re doing is not conducive to full racing yet, but I think they actually did really well on things considered with the style of training we’re doing right now. I think all in all, they’ve matured individually, and their commitment and their expectations for themselves have grown.”
Villanova has almost a completely new team besides a few returning runners such as Murphy and junior Marco Langon.
Langon finished 12th after a late surge in the final 1K of the race. He ran the course in 23:39.0.
Murphy and Langon had massive jumps in fitness and performance compared to their respective performances last season at Nuttycombe. Last year, Murphy finished 21st in 23:52.8 and Langon finished 110th in 24:24.9.
Rounding out the scoring five for the men included sophomore Bailey Habler (24:23.6 – 64th), senior Devon Comber (24:54.0 – 114th) and sophomore CJ Sullivan (25:00.1 – 119th).
While the separation between Villanova’s top two and the rest of the scoring five was large, O’Sullivan saw many positives.
“I think [Habler, Comber and Sullivan] close the gap down with the top two guys [(Murphy and Langon)],” O’Sullivan said. “I think that will help put the top five together pretty decently.”
Next up on the men’s and women’s schedules is the Princeton Fall Classic on Friday, Oct. 18 in Princeton, New Jersey. Before that, a select few men will race at the Paul Short Run on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
