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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - A lot has been made this season of Villanova running with one of its youngest teams in recent memory. In the Championship of America race in the 4x1500 meter relay on Friday afternoon, a lineup of three true freshmen and one sophomore proved that their competitive grit trumped a lack of experience as the Wildcats won their 36th Penn Relays wheel all-time with a terrific team effort.

Sophomore anchor Siofra Cleirigh Buttner (Dublin, Ireland) pulled away from a pack of four teams with 250 meters to go and held off a late charge by Oregon to deliver Villanova to the victory, its 10th in the 4x1500 meter relay and its ninth Championship of America title overall in the last five years. Freshmen Bella Burda (Pleasant Valley, N.Y.), Sammy Bockoven (Hudson, Ohio) and Nicole Hutchinson (West Vancouver, B.C.) ran very strong legs in front of Cleirigh Buttner to put the Wildcats in position to win.

"In the back of my mind I am always trying to win at Penn, and I looked at it this year and I just went with the four toughest kids I have on my team," Villanova head coach Gina Procaccio said. "I told the freshmen that if they could somehow put Siofra in the race, then I knew she would get it done. It is nice that it went according to the plan, and it is nice [to win at Penn Relays] when it sort of comes as a surprise. It was a pretty amazing effort from all four of our runners. As long as you have that awesome anchor leg, if you put them in the race they are going to get it done."

Villanova won with a time of 17:44.29 and held off Oregon (17:44.67) by 0.38 seconds. Georgetown finished third (17:45.45) in a race where the top three teams separated themselves during the final 400 meters. Cleirigh Buttner had a split of 4:21.7 for the anchor leg and made up ground after getting the baton approximately 20 meters off the lead. Burda led off with a split of 4:29.7 on the leadoff leg, Bockoven followed in 4:22.7 and Hutchinson ran a split of 4:30.2 on the third leg of the relay.

It was a four-team race between the Wildcats, Oregon, Georgetown and Indiana for the majority of the anchor leg. There was little separation between those teams at the start of the bell lap, and that had not changed as the four anchors raced down the back straightaway. It changed with 250 meters to go. Cleirigh Buttner made sure that her kick was a decisive one, as she surged into the lead and finally smiled with relief with 40 meters to go when she had the win in hand.

"I didn't really have a point in my mind," Cleirigh Buttner said of when she decided to make her move. "I just had enough and I was ready to go, and I had confidence in my kick. I felt good with 400 meters left but I wasn't going to risk it. It was a split-second decision to go [with 250 meters left] and then I was gone. I didn't have a doubt in my mind that we could get this done today. I watched every other girl give it their guts and their heart in each leg, and I knew I wasn't going to give that up."

Burda went out with the lead in the first 500 meters of the opening leg and was in seventh place with 300 meters to go before the first handoff. She gave the baton to Bockoven with Villanova still in seventh place, and Bockoven quickly closed ground to rejoin the leading pack. She eventually eased into fourth place with 200 meters left before the handoff to Hutchinson.

"It means a lot to me to win for the first time at Penn," Bockoven said. "It was just a really exciting race and I knew going in I wasn't going to worry about any of the other legs because I can't control that. I was just going to focus on making sure that Nicole was still in the race at the end of my leg."

Hutchinson was in fourth place when she got the baton for the third leg of the race, and at that point in time Indiana and Oregon pushed ahead of the Wildcats and Georgetown. With a lap to go before the anchor leg, Hutchinson was working hard to close ground on Georgetown and she eventually gave the baton to Cleirigh Buttner with Villanova in third place.

"All I was thinking about was winning a wheel, which is what I came to Villanova to do," Hutchinson said. "I was glad that we could all put Siofra in position to make that kick and win it for us. I wasn't nervous [running at the Penn Relays for the first time]." I hadn't been feeling well the last couple weeks but just this week I was feeling good."

"I was proud of every single leg," Procaccio said. "The first three girls are freshmen, and Sammy and Hutch had never run at the Penn Relays before. As each leg went by, I said to myself that they were competing and they were tough. That is all I can ask for, so I was pleased as the race went along. I'll take a tough kid with a little bit of talent any day."

Cleirigh Buttner methodically made up the ground between herself and the leaders on her first lap around the Franklin Field track. She was two strides off the lead with 800 meters to go, with Georgetown in front followed by Oregon, the Wildcats and Indiana. Cleirigh Buttner maintained that position heading into the final lap.

"Siofra is such an intelligent racer," Procaccio said. "A lot of times kids will grab the baton and sprint to catch up right away. She went out really conservative, and the amazing part is that she was kind of catching up but she still wasn't really going for it yet. Once she caught up, or the other anchors came back, I knew Siofra would be fine. Then it's just up to her to judge when she should make the move. When she feels comfortable, I know she can make it all the way in."

Procaccio has won 18 Championship of America wheels at the Penn Relays as a Villanova head coach or assistant coach. She has won 10 titles during her head coaching career after helping lead the Wildcats to eight Penn Relays victories as an assistant coach.