PHILADELPHIA – Villanova track and field normally travels by train to the Penn Relays.
However, the team opted to travel by van for the 130th Penn Relays and set the Villanova track and field office as the meeting spot so they could travel together.
Marco Langon finished up in the locker room – which is on the opposite side of Villanova Stadium – and began the trek to the office. On that walk to the office, one has to pass by the wall of Villanova’s Penn Relay wheels. The wheels, which stretch down an entire blue wall of a hallway and wrap around a corner, are a physical representation of Villanova’s track and field success over the last century.
Langon walked down the halls and passed by the history of wheels, dating all the way back to 1932. He touched it, said a prayer and then departed for Franklin Field to race the anticipated 4xMile.
Langon, along with Sean Donoghue, Ben Thomas and Bailey Habler, went on to run a 16:18.47 to win the relay and return the wheel to the Main Line after coming up with zero wheels last year. It was a payoff the program was yearning for after setting a 4xMile collegiate record in 2024, just to be fully shut out a year later.
“When I went to the front, I wasn’t going to look back, and I just got faster and faster,” Langon said. “And I knew I wanted to win this wheel so badly for my teammates, for my family, my mom, my sister, Marcus [O’Sullivan], my girlfriend, everybody. I wanted to win this wheel for everybody.”
The Penn Relays have a deeper meaning for Villanova, which has established itself as the best program in Penn Relays history, winning 15 men’s 4xMiles and 26 men’s DMRs. Running in a relay for Villanova is more than just about individual accomplishments.
“It’s for my teammates,” Langon said. “It was for them more than it was for me. I wasn’t gonna leave this program without anchoring a wheel of my own, and being a part of it with these guys I train with every day, argue with every day. You have so many emotions with these guys, with some of my brothers, and as much sh*t as we talk to each other, we want the best for each other.
“I was gonna make sure today that we were gonna get it done together, and as much as I got this wheel done, they all stuck in there, and they did the same exact thing. We all got it done. This was a team effort.”
Langon, in what should be his final Penn Relay as a Wildcat, ran a 3:55.94 anchor leg, taking a gutsy lead of a strong field with 600 meters left to go, and he hung on all the way to the line. He was being chased down by Oregon’s anchor, Simeon Birnbaum, who beat Langon the day before in the men’s Distance Medley Relay (DMR) by just a tenth of a second.
“We’ll get it done,” Langon said after the DMR loss. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll get it done.”
That is exactly what happened in the 4xMile. Oregon finished second with a time of 16:18.52, separating the two again by just thousandths of a second.
Donoghue ran a 4:13.98 to open the race, Thomas clocked a 4:11.61 in the second leg and Habler ran a personal best 3:56.94 in the third leg before handing the baton off to Langon to finish the job.
“I think that the history, and that legacy, there’s a culture,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s like, they need it so much that you want to give it to them, to the alumni, to the presence of the arena, to the school, to the history of the program. It’s bigger than yourself.”
As somewhat of a Villanova track “historian”, Langon frequently shares a photo of his coach, Marcus O’Sullivan, winning the 1984 Penn Relay’s 4xMile by celebrating with his arms raised about his head. Langon made it a point to do the same thing as he crossed the finish line on Saturday, as the Franklin Field crowd rose to its feet and roared.
“That’s relief,” O’Sullivan said when talking about the celebration. “That’s not victory. That is just a weight coming off my shoulders of a year of preparation, because we had lost everything the year before [in 1983]. We were totally shut out here before. I cried behind the stadium, I really had screwed up. And I went and dedicated myself to coming back a year later, and then we still lost on Friday. So [Saturday’s 4xMile] was my last race at the Penn Relays. That’s relief. That is not jubilation.
“For me, it was just that I needed to get it off my back and just get the whole thing. So it’s just this amazing weight that comes off, and I don’t know, maybe he felt it today, because that is his last race.”
There is an emphasis from coaches to the current runners on the history and the people who ran before them at Villanova. The walls of the track and field facilities are lined with photos of sub-4 milers, Olympians and NCAA national title holders, all who have once worn the Villanova singlet. A Penn Relay wheel is embedded in the floor of the Villanova track office and is encased in a thick piece of plexiglass for everyone who visits to see.
That care for former Villanova runners was on display on Saturday. Former Villanova runner Charlie O’Donovan was running in the Olympic Development Men’s Mile right after the conclusion of the 4xMile.
As O’Donovan came around the first turn of his third lap, Donohuge was standing there yelling words of encouragement. Donoghue could have been celebrating his own win, posing for photos or talking to his coaches, but he put everything on pause to see his close friend win a photo-finish mile in 3:59.61.
“It was absolutely unbelievable,” Donoghue said about watching O’Donovan win his race. “Charlie’s one of my best friends for life. He took me under his wing when I was a freshman and showed me the ropes. I won two wheels with him. And just to see him kind of develop and grow as an athlete, he’s had a couple setbacks over the last 12 months, so just to see him come out here and win today, I think it’s a huge stepping stone for him, and I couldn’t be more happier and more proud for him.”
Villanova track and field is more than just a collective of collegiate runners and throwers. As O’Sullivan says, “it is a family.”
