PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Minutes after the second weather delay of the day had ended and with a downpour still falling on the Franklin Field track, the Championship of America race in the distance medley relay offered fans at the 125^th Penn Relays a little bit of everything.  Villanova wound up in seventh place in a race where a team's finishing position was only a small part of the story. 
 
The lineup of sophomore Nick Steele (Harvard, Mass.), senior Harry Purcell (Dublin, Ireland), junior Logan Wetzel (Saline, Mich.) and junior Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) recorded a time of 9:51.32.  The race featured several swings in momentum and a fair share of fits and starts, including an anchor leg where all 12 teams had their shot at grabbing the lead.  Steele led off with a split of 3:06.66 on the first 1200 meters, Purcell followed in 47.36 on the 400 meter leg, Wetzel had a split of 1:50.52 over 800 meters and Comber anchored with a split of 4:06.79 on the 1600 meter anchor leg. 
 
On the opening leg of the race, Steele suffered a fall with less than 200 meters to go before the first handoff.  He recovered to keep the Wildcats in the race, although Villanova was at the back of the pack through the second and third legs of the relay.  The combination of a full-speed sprint by Comber and a tactical pace by the leading teams on the first 400 meters of the anchor leg not only put the Wildcats back into the middle of the pack, but it allowed several of the other teams in the chase pack behind Wisconsin and Georgetown to surge back into contention. 
 
By the time the bell sounded for the final lap, Comber was at the front of the pack.  Eventual champion Wisconsin pulled back out in front at the start of the bell lap and held off runner-up Indiana by three-quarters of a second at the finish line.
 
"It was a crazy race," Villanova head coach Marcus O'Sullivan said.  "It looked like Nick lost his footing with about 160 meters to go [before the first exchange].  You don't know how the race is going to go and in fairness to the guys, they rallied.  Casey had so much work to do and I knew it would take a sting out of him.  He got the pace moving himself, but the guys rallied really well to bring them all the way back into it.  They didn't lose hope in themselves, so that was positive."
 
The race went off nearly two hours behind schedule as a result of two delays for severe weather during the day.  Action had been underway in the morning for only a short time before lightning in the immediate vicinity caused a delay of approximately 50 minutes.  A large and dangerous storm passed through the Philadelphia area around 6 p.m. with only a high school 4x400 meter relay left to be contested before the college distance medley relay.  A delay of 55 minutes was lifted just before 7 p.m.