UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—It was a record-setting and historic evening for Villanova at the Penn State National Open on Friday as two school records fell in blistering performances in the mile and the 800 meters. The second-fastest time in school history in the 60 meters also highlighted the first of two days of competition at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track. The day ended with senior distance runner Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and fifth year middle distance athlete Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) owning brand new Wildcats records in the mile and the 800 meters, respectively.
 
Murphy recorded a time of 3:53.85 to break the Villanova indoor mile record which had stood for nearly 44 years. He did so in a race which saw sophomore Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) run a personal best time of 3:56.24 and junior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) notch his first career sub-four minute mile with a time of 3:58.86. Murphy and Langon came out of the night ranked second and ninth on this year's NCAA performance list, while Donoghue becomes the 47^th member of the Wildcats sub-four minute club. It marks the second time in the past two weeks and the fifth time since March 2021 that Villanova's list of sub-four milers has added a new member.
 
The performance by Murphy was historically significant on many levels. The program's previous indoor record of 3:54.22 was held by Don Paige and had stood since February 16, 1980 at the Brooks Invitational held in the Houston Astrodome. Murphy's time is a top-20 mark indoor mark in NCAA history and breaks his own facility and meet records at Penn State which he set last year by running 3:55.58 in this same meet. His newly minted record of 3:53.85 is the third-fastest mile at any location in the United States (indoors or outdoors) by a Villanova runner during their collegiate careers.
 
Langon's time of 3:56.24 cuts more than 1.6 seconds off his previous PR of 3:57.88 which he ran only last week to set a collegiate facility record at Ocean Breeze Track & Field Athletic Complex in Staten Island. He now owns three career sub-four times and he tallied the sixth-fastest indoor time in school history with Friday night's race. The school's all-time indoor top-10 athletes in the mile features four current Wildcats in the top six, including Murphy (first); sixth year athlete Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) (fourth); Langon (fifth); and Dolan (sixth).  
 
Villanova head coach Marcus O'Sullivan, himself one of only three runners in history to run a sub-four minute mile more than 100 times, has now coached 21 of the 47 members of the Wildcats sub-four club. The last to join the list before Donoghue was sixth-year collegian Evan Addison (Collegeville, Pa.) who ran 3:59.57 as an unattached runner in Villanova's home meet last week.
 
Donoghue is now a member of that club with his time of 3:58.86 on Friday night. His top previous performance had been a time of 3:42.45 in the 1500 meters during the 2022 outdoor season (3:42.20 in the 1500 meters is the metric equivalent of a sub-four mile). Friday was Donoghue's first official collegiate indoor race after he redshirted the 2023 indoor campaign and opened up 2024 as a pacer in last week's home competition.
 
Less than two hours after the historic mile race it was Dolan's turn to set an indoor Villanova record in the 800 meters. It was his own mark that he beat and noteworthy as Dolan became the Wildcats first athlete ever to break 1:47 indoors in the 800 meters. His new record time is 1:46.96 and vaults him into fourth place on this year's NCAA descending order list. Dolan's previous indoor standard was 1:47.53 and had been set at the BIG EAST Championships on February 26, 2022. He now holds five of the 10 indoor fastest times in the school record book in the school record book.
 
Sophomore sprinter Amiri Prescod (Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago) recorded the second-fastest time in school history in the first round of the 60 meter dash. He now trails only the school record of 6.65 set by Olympian Salaam Gariba at the Millrose Games on February 7, 1992. Prescod finished second in his heat and was ranked fifth overall out of 45 competitors in the first round on Friday evening. He advanced to the semifinal heats and was an on-time qualifier for the final with a time of 6.80, but did not start in the final heat which would have been his third race of the day.
 
Prescod began the day tied for second in school history in the 60 meters after he ran a PR of 6.82 in his first outing of the season at the Villanova Invitational last week. Friday's performance continues a remarkable rise for Prescod, a walk-on to the team as a freshman last year who finished sixth at the BIG EAST Championships in the 60 meters a season ago. His time of 6.79 at Penn State ties him for this year's conference lead less than a month before the BIG EAST meet in Chicago.
 
Junior thrower Tristan Bolinsky (Gordon, Pa.) had a sensational performance of his own in the weight throw on Friday night and recorded a distance of 17.56 meters on his third attempt of the competition. He moved up two spots on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the weight throw and now sits in fourth place in school history in the event. His previous PR had been 16.23 meters at last year's BIG EAST Championships; he beat that with a distance of 17.24 meters on his second throw of Friday's competition and extended the mark to 17.56 meters on his third and final throw.
 
Action continues at Penn State on Saturday morning with the first event of the day being the 400 meters at 10:40 a.m. The final event of the meet is the men's 4x400 meter relay at 4:30 p.m.