CHICAGO—Villanova won the men's distance medley relay for the second straight year and the 22^nd time overall to highlight the first day of competition at the 2024 BIG EAST Indoor Track and Field Championships presented by Jeep at Dr. Conrad Worrill Track and Field Center at Gately Park on Friday afternoon. A winning time of 9:37.24 for the Wildcats, combined with team points in the weight throw and the long jump, gave Villanova 17 team points and a tie for fourth place in the team standings with just five events scored out of 18 total at the conference championships.
 
The quartet of sophomore Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.), sophomore Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.), fifth year Xian Shively (Glendale, Calif.) and senior Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) finished nearly four seconds ahead of Providence and the rest of the field. Junior thrower Tristan Bolinsky (Gordon, Pa.) tallied a fourth place finish in the weight throw and senior Justin Miller (Collierville, Tenn.) added a seventh place finish in the long jump in his BIG EAST meet debut.
 
Wildcats head coach Marcus O'Sullivan has been a part of 16 of the team's 22 all-time conference titles in the distance medley relay. He ran on consecutive champion relays in 1983 and 1984 during his collegiate career and has now mentored 14 champion DMR squads during his head coaching tenure. Villanova led off Friday's race with Langon posting a split of 2:56.06 over the first 1200 meters in his first career BIG EAST track race. The up-and-coming performer on the Wildcats roster redshirted the indoor and outdoor seasons a year ago.
 
O'Neill ran the 400 meter leg of the DMR with a split of 49.46, followed by Shively with a split of 1:52.39 over 800 meters and Murphy with a 3:59.33 split on the 1600 meter anchor leg. Langon and Murphy will each be back in action on Saturday afternoon to run in the final of the 3000 meters. Murphy is the defending champion in the 3K as well as the Wildcats indoor school record holder with a PR of 7:45.67 in the event.
 
Villanova fared well in both of the field events in which it had a competitor on Friday. Bolinsky recorded a mark of 16.69 meters in the weight throw to finish in fourth place and earn five team points. He moved up three spots from where he finished a year ago. Miller measured a long jump of 6.78 meters which was good for a seventh place finish and two additional team points. The transfer from Memphis had made his Wildcats debut with a distance of 6.69 meters earlier this year.
 
Sophomore sprinter Amiri Prescod (Chaguanuas, Trinidad and Tobago) and freshman Parker Turner (Los Angeles, Calif.) had standout performances in their respective events. Prescod is the top qualifier for the final of the 60 meters after recording the second-fastest time in school history. He posted a PR of 6.78 to win his heat and tread ever closer to the vicinity of the school record of 6.65 held by two-time Olympian Salaam Gariba. Prescod in his own right now owns six of the 11 fastest times in the Villanova record book in the event. Turner registered PRs of 6.91 in the 60 meters and 21.61 in the 200 meters. He moves on to the final of the 200 meters and also jumped two spots into fifth place on the Wildcats all-time indoor performance list.
 
Villanova had three qualifiers for the final both the mile and the 400 meters. In the latter event, sophomore Jimmy Milgie (Wildwood, Mo.) led a Wildcats trio with a time of 48.63. The mark is an indoor PR for Milgie, while senior Nicholas Mollica (Jackson, N.J.) and sophomore Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas) each registered lifetime personal bests to advance to the final. Mollica posted a time of 48.73 and Rakowitz withstood a furious finish and a fall at the line to record a mark of 48.86.
 
In the mile, junior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) advanced to the final along with classmate Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) and sixth year collegian Henry Myers (Portland, Ore.). All three runners finished in the top four of their preliminary heat to automatically secure a spot in a field of a dozen competitors in Saturday's final. Myers is in his second year with the Wildcats after competing nearby in the Windy City for UChicago during his undergraduate career. In one other preliminary heat on Friday, fifth year Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) easily moved on to the final of the 800 meters.
 
Villanova's first event on Saturday is the final of the mile at 11:40 a.m.