This past weekend, three of Villanova track and field’s athletes claimed All-American honors at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships at the Virginia Beach Sports Complex at Virginia Beach.

Sophomore Dan Watcke, junior Marco Langon and graduate student Liam Murphy joined an elite group of collegiate runners from across the nation.

On Friday, Langon achieved his inaugural first-team All-American title in the 5K finals. The junior placed sixth, running the second best time of his career at 13:13.16.

With a time of 13:23.91 in the 5K, fifth-year Murphy fell short and finished outside the top 10 in 11th place. Murphy was favored to finish on the podium in the lead up to the event. However, he struggled throughout the race to reach his usual pace.

“I think that set the tone,” head coach Marcus O’Sullivan said. “It was a struggle for [Murphy] right after the race to kind of get himself back on track for the following day, you know, emotionally.”

Murphy and Langon are the first pair of Wildcats since 1995 to reach the podium in the same indoor event in a single season.

Watcke ran in the preliminary heats of the 800-meter race. In the last lap he had a huge kick to grab the last spot in the finals. Watcke managed to reach third place in his heat and fifth overall in his first career nationals race.

“It was kind of a roller coaster, but I think it all ended up pretty well,” O’Sullivan said. “And the roller coaster meaning, you know, with 100 [meters] to go on the heats, Dan Watcke was not making the final at all. And then there was a fall in front of him, and he took advantage of the fall to put himself into a really good position to make the final.”

On Saturday night, Watcke dug deep to place fifth in the 800-meter finals with a time of 1:47.22. Watcke is the current school record holder of the 800m at 1:46.32 after he set it at the Penn State Open in February.

Langon and Murphy also returned to the track on Saturday night to run the 3K. Langon ran 15 laps in 7:54.25 to get seventh place overall. Murphy overcame the emotions of his tough race on Friday to reach fourth at 7:53.38 in the 3K. Murphy showcased his growth as an athlete to prevail in the mental and physical battle of the day before.

“I think you end up learning an awful lot about yourself through the adversity of disappointment,” O’Sullivan said. “And you start to realize how resilient you can become and how you can put it behind you and move on.”

Three Villanova runners at nationals hold a combined total of nine school records and 13 All-American titles. This year, Villanova placed 19 out of 56 teams. Last year, the Wildcats achieved the same ranking after Murphy, Langon and Sean Dolan (‘24) ran for Villanova.

This past summer, Watcke went to the World U20 Championships in Peru to compete in the 800-meter. In the same summer, Murphy made it to the finals of the Olympic trials for the mile and was barely six seconds behind to become an Olympic qualifier.

“That’s all part of growing in life in general, but it’s definitely part of growing in sport,” O’Sullivan said.  “And you get ample opportunities to be able to practice that skill. Then once you start practicing it, and you can do it once or twice, you start to realize you can do it often.”

Saturday, March 22, will kick off the outdoor track season at Penn’s Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Murphy and Langon will be taking necessary time to rest this weekend. However, Watcke is set to run the 800 meters for Villanova.