STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.—Junior middle distance runner Nick Steele (Harvard, Mass.) cut nearly four seconds off his lifetime best in the Mile while approaching a sub-four minute time during a great day for the Wildcats distance group at the Villanova Invitational on Saturday evening.  The team hosted its only home meet of the indoor campaign at Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex.  Steele was one of eight Wildcats who tallied personal best times in either the Mile, the 3000 meters or the 1000 meters on the day. 
 
The fastest section of the Mile saw Steele and sophomore Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) cross the finish line in first and second place with respective personal best marks.  Steele paced the field with a winning time of 4:00.71, easily outkicking his previous top mark of 4:04.68 which came in Boston last year.  He took over the BIG EAST lead in the Mile this season and recorded a time which would have ranked 12^th nationally at the start of the day.  O'Donovan was the runner-up to Steele with a time of 4:02.27, more than 1.5 seconds faster than he ran in Boston as a freshman last year.
 
Senior Logan Wetzel (Saline, Mich.) opened up his 2019-20 campaign in the Mile and posted a time of 4:12.04 in his first competitive action since last June at the outdoor NCAA Championships.  Redshirt freshman Patrick Spychalski (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) also competed in the Mile and recorded a personal best time of 4:19.40. 
 
Villanova had a contingent of seven runners in the 3000 meters, led by sophomore Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) who came in first out of 30 competitors with a winning time of 8:08.88.  Senior Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) finished fourth in 8:11.32, with redshirt freshman Haftu Strintzos (Victoria, Australia) on his heels in fifth place with a personal best time of 8:12.43.  Strintzos lowered the time he ran in his first race of the year at Navy by more than five seconds. 
 
Junior Paul Nichols (Latham, N.Y.) and redshirt freshman Patrick Craemer (Upton, Mass.) also established new personal bests in the 3000 meters.  Nichols crossed the finish line in 8:29.69 to come in 10^th overall, Craemer was 12^th in 8:36.53, redshirt freshman Ben Seiple (Westport, Conn.) recorded a time of 8:39.33 and junior Rob Morro (Media, Pa.) was clocked in 8:45.90 in his first race of the year. 
 
In the only other distance event on the Wildcats schedule for the day, freshman Miller Anderson (West Hartford, Conn.) tallied a first place finish in the 1000 meters with a personal best time of 2:27.18 and redshirt freshman Nick Ackerman (Manalapan, N.J.) was 10^th with a PR of 2:32.25.
 
Redshirt freshman Dylan Henry (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) and senior Ike Osuagwu (Wilmington, Del.) ran in the preliminary heats of the 60 meters and posted times of 7.11 and 7.29, respectively. 
 
In the field events, junior thrower Billy Loewen (Sparta, N.J.) increased his season-best marks in both the shot put and the weight throw while also improving his top collegiate marks in each event.  He came in fifth in the shot put with a distance of 15.46 meters – second in the BIG EAST this season – and also had a mark of 14.91 meters in the weight throw.  That distance puts him into 10^th place on the all-time Villanova performance list. 
 
Senior thrower Jadyn Anczarski (Ringtown, Pa.) came in fourth in the weight throw with a measurement of 15.92 meters and was 15^th in the shot put with a throw of 12.53 meters, while freshman Eduardo Perez (Appling, Ga.) posted marks of 13.03 meters in the shot put and 11.74 meters in the weight throw.  Junior jumper Ryan Tompkins (Farmingdale, N.J.) cleared a height of 1.92 meters in the high jump and sophomore Jim Keys (Herndon, Va.) made it over the bar at 4.45 meters in the pole vault.
 
Villanova will next be in action when it competes in the Sykes & Sabock Challenge at Penn State next Friday.