BOSTON, Mass.—History was made on Saturday night in Boston as junior Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and graduate student Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) each eclipsed the old indoor school record in the 3000 meters during competition at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational. Murphy is the new Villanova record holder in the 3K with a time of 7:45.67 while O'Donovan was exactly a second behind him in 7:46.67 to also come in under the former Wildcats standard.
 
The record which was broken was 7:47.50 and had been set by Adrian Blincoe on January 27, 2002. His mark also came at a meet in the Boston area as he delivered his performance in the Boston Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Track & Field Center in Roxbury. The mark stood the test of time for more than 20 years until Murphy and O'Donovan flew past it, nearly literally on the Boston University campus at the Track & Tennis Center which has gained a reputation as perhaps the fastest indoor track in the world.
 
It is the time of year when performances in collegiate track & field are examined to see where they fall on the NCAA descending order list which will be used to determine NCAA Championships entries next month. Murphy and O'Donovan are ranked 15^th and 16^th on the national list in the 3000 meters after their record performances on Saturday night. The top 16 declared athletes in each individual event will be selected to the national meet. Murphy and O'Donovan are each currently inside the top 16 in both the mile and the 3000 meters.
 
The absolute school record in the 3000 meters is 7:43.0 and was set outdoors by Sydney Maree at the Oregon Twilight meet on June 9, 1979. That meet took place after the NCAA Championships and therefore outside the collegiate competition season. Saturday night's marks from Murphy and O'Donovan are now the fastest that any Villanovans have run within the NCAA calendar. That they beat a record held by Blincoe is no small feat. Blincoe was an NCAA individual champion in the 3K for the Wildcats, winning a national title in 2002 just over a month after he set Villanova's indoor mark.
 
There were six Wildcats in all competing in the 3000 meters on Saturday night. All had sensational times. Junior Jack Jennings (Mendham, N.J.) broke eight minutes for the first time in his career and tallied a time of 7:56.36. Graduate student Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) recorded a time of 8:00.91, while graduate student Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) and sophomore Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) posted times of 8:01.46 and 8:13.96, respectively. Villanova's top five in the 3000 meters – Murphy, O'Donovan, Jennings, Strintzos and Phillips – each ranked in the top nine overall in the BIG EAST as of the end of their race.
 
Earlier on Saturday senior Sean Dolan (Pennington, N.J.) and graduate student Evan Addison (Collegeville, Pa.) competed in the mile. Dolan ran the 11^th sub-four minute mile (or metric equivalent) of his collegiate career with a time of 3:58.02. Addison finished in 4:18.36. One other athlete was in action for the Wildcats and it was senior Miller Anderson (West Hartford, Conn.) who registered a personal best time of 1:50.19 in the 800 meters.
 
Members of the Wildcats distance medley relay squad are expected to travel to Notre Dame next weekend for the Alex Wilson Invitational. Most of the Villanova men's and women's teams will remain idle until the BIG EAST Championships on February 24-25.