From June 11 to June 14, three Villanova track and field athletes participated in the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
Junior Marco Langon, senior Sadie Sigfstead and graduate Liam Murphy all punched tickets to Oregon after qualifying at the NCAA East Regional Preliminaries in Jacksonville, FL, last month. It marked, at minimum, all three Wildcats’ second consecutive appearances at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Murphy has made the trip in three consecutive outdoor seasons.
Langon and Sigfstead collected All-American honors at the NCAA Championships in their respective events. Murphy did not qualify in his preliminary race to make the 1500-meter final.
Sigfstead was the first Wildcat in six years to qualify for multiple events at the NCAA Championships, both in the 5K and 10K distances.
She entered championships coming off an outdoor season where she ran personal bests in both the 10K and 5K. Sigfstead ran a 32:39.54 to win the 10K at the 2025 Penn Relays. At the NCAA East Preliminaries, she ran a 15:33.68 5K to punch her ticket to the NCAA Championships.
On Thursday night, Sigfstead toed the line of the women’s 10K final. She went on to run the fastest women’s 10K at NCAA Championships in Villanova history. Her time of 32:40.13 earned her a 13th-place finish and Second Team All-American honors.
It was also 0.59 seconds off of her personal best time. Sigfstead now owns three of the four fastest women’s 10K times in program history.
Two days later, on Saturday night, Sigfstead capped off her outdoor season with the women’s 5K final. The field raced a tactical race instead of a fast one. Sigfstead ran a 16:06.70 to finish 23rd overall and earn an All-American honorable mention.
Sigfstead joins only two other Wildcats – Carole Zajac and Caroline Alcorta – to earn All-American honors in both the 5K and 10K.
As for the men, Langon returned to Oregon for the second consecutive outdoor season. In just the last year since he was there for the USATF Olympic Qualifiers last summer, Langon picked up the second-fastest 1500-meter time in collegiate history and multiple records across the cross country, indoor and outdoor seasons.
In what would be one of the fastest 5K fields of the outdoor season, Langon stared down the chance at standing at the top of the podium.
He raced his first-ever NCAA Championship race on the same track last season in the 5K. Langon finished 21st out of a field of 24 with a time of 14:10.93.
This year was completely different. Langon paced himself with the rest of the field for almost the entire race. He remained in the lead pack as the field stretched thin with 400 meters to go.
On the final turn with the last 100 meters of his season in front of him, Langon emptied his tank in a full-out sprint to the line. As he crossed the finish line, Langon fell onto the track, exhausted.
Langon ran a personal best time of 13:21.17 to finish third behind Oklahoma State University’s Brian Musau (13:20.59) and Habtom Samuel of New Mexico State (13:20.89).
Langon’s time was about 50 seconds faster than his time at the NCAA Championships last year. He earned First Team All-American honors for his performance. With two seasons of outdoor eligibility remaining, Langon’s journey to gold is far from over.
Murphy rounded out the three Wildcats. In his final college championships, Murphy was set to take on the stacked field of the men’s 1500-meter. Earlier this season, he set the new 1500-meter collegiate record, running a 3:33.02 at the Raleigh Relays in March.
However, Murphy ran in a tightly contested semifinal heat and finished sixth with a time of 3:52.44. It was a slow first two laps that ended with a fast bell lap, where Murphy ran a 51.13. For reference, Murphy ran a 54.18 bell lap when he set the collegiate record in March.
Despite the fast final lap, Murphy was not one of the top five in the heat – the top five runners of both heats automatically moved onto the final. Murphy was 0.08 seconds behind Virginia’s Gary Martin. A finish in front of Martin would have secured Murphy a spot in the final.
His performance will still earn him an All-American honorable mention.
While Murphy’s collegiate career comes to a close, his collegiate record 1500-meter time of 3:33.02 is a qualifier for the USATF Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, from July 31 to August 3.
The top athletes coming out of that meet will be selected for the World Athletics Championship in Tokyo in September. The current World Championship qualifying time for the 1500-meter is 3:33 flat.
