RALEIGH, N.C.--Sophomore distance runner Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) led four Villanova runners with a time of 14:06.90 in the 5000 meters at the Raleigh Relays, and the Wildcats also posted strong results in the 10000 meters and the 3000 meter steeplechase on Friday evening. Those races were part of a busy day for Villanova, which also had athletes competing at the Florida Relays.
Comber shattered his previous personal best in the 5000 meters by more than 30 seconds and came in eighth in the fastest of seven sections of the event. Sophomore Paul Power (Phoenixville, Pa.) also registered a new personal best with a time of 14:44.92, while redshirt freshmen Rob Morro (Media, Pa.) and Martin Barr (Skokie, Ill.) tallied times of 14:47.58 and 14:49.00.
The other distance runners competing for the Wildcats were sophomore Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) in the 10000 meters and redshirt freshman Nick Steele (Harvard, Mass.) in the 3000 meter steeplechase. They were each running those events for the first time as collegians, with Marston posting a time of 29:26.05 to finish 13th overall in the 10K and Steele coming in fourth in the steeplechase with a time of 8:57.50.
In the field events, freshmen Jacob Kelly (Longmeadow, Mass.) and Ryan Tompkins (Farmingdale, N.J.) each cleared a height of 1.90 meters in the high jump. Sophomore Steve Testa (Warminster, Pa.) recorded a mark of 6.13 meters in the long jump.
The top result for Villanova at the Florida Relays was in the 4x400 meter relay, where the Wildcats advanced through the preliminary heats with a time of 3:10.92. Villanova came in second in its heat and fifth overall out of 36 teams to move on to the final on Saturday afternoon.
Among individual results, junior Sterling Pierce (Voorhees, N.J.) ran the 100 meters in 11.02 and freshman Brian Faust (Stone Mountain, Ga.) finished with a time of 47.62 in the 400 meters. Juniors Harry Purcell (Dublin, Ireland) and Ville Lampinen (Vantaa, Finland) recorded times of 1:49.81 and 1:51.31, respectively, in the 800 meters.
