EUGENE, Ore.—Just after the awards ceremony for the top finishers in the men's 800 meter national championship,
Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) was handed a sharpie and he scribbled his name across the camera lens as he quite literally signed off on an incredible collegiate career. Dolan earned his seventh career All-America honor and fourth podium finish at the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field on Friday night. He, senior
Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) and sophomore
Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) all competed in the championship races of their respective events on the final night of the 2024 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
All three Wildcats who competed on Friday night are at different stages of their Villanova journeys, but it is true for each of them that there are as many accolades from the year gone by to look back on as there are opportunities that lie ahead for them to look forward to. In the final race of his collegiate career, Dolan matched his best outdoor NCAA finish and recorded the second-fastest time of his career with a mark of 1:45.89. He has twice finished fifth in the 800 meters at the outdoor NCAA Championships (2022, 2024) and was the indoor runner-up earlier this year.
Dolan came in fifth on Friday night in a race that had all nine competitors in the mix for a title going into the final straightaway. The first five runners across the line all went below 1:46, while the sixth through eight place runners were no more than another second behind. Dolan went out in 52.01 and closed in 53.88 for his time of 1:45.89. It is the 14
th-fastest absolute time in Villanova history and only the fourth mark on that list which was recorded within the confines of the collegiate season. Dolan also nearly matched his lifetime PR of 1:45.83 which he ran in the BIG EAST final on his home track last month.
The first event of the night for the Wildcats was the final of the 1500 meters which Murphy raced in for the second straight year. He tallied an 11
th place finish with a time of 3:42.90 to earn second team All-America status. It is the fifth All-America honor of Murphy's career and his third of the 2023-24 academic year following a 14
th place individual finish in cross country and a fourth place national finish indoors in the 3000 meters. Friday's race ends an academic year of competition in which Murphy set an absolute school record in the 3K (7:42.51) and indoor school records in the mile (3:53.85) and the 5000 meters (13:21.20).
During the outdoor season, Murphy recorded a PR of 3:36.48 in the 1500 meters on April 13 and broke 3:40 on three other occasions. He won the BIG EAST title with a championships meet record and Villanova Stadium record of 3:39.00 on May 11, just two weeks after he anchored the Wildcats to Championship of America titles at the Penn Relays in the distance medley relay and the 4xMile relay. The latter race saw the Wildcats thrill a Franklin Field crowd with the second-fastest time in world history (15:51.91).
Langon put a cap on his first collegiate outdoor season with his NCAA Championships debut in the 5000 meters. He recorded a time of 14:10.41 and finished 21
st to earn an honorable mention All-America accolade. Langon was one of only four runners in their first season of outdoor eligibility who qualified for Friday night's national championship race. He had come in ninth overall in the national semifinal round of he 5K at the NCAA East Preliminary two weeks ago. Langon captured the 5K title at the outdoor BIG EAST Championships to earn his first individual conference gold medal. Earlier this outdoor season, he recorded a personal best mark of 13:28.44 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Chicago.
Over the past year Murphy and Dolan have each recorded qualifying times in their events for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials which begin later this month and, like the NCAA Championships, take place at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus. Dolan advanced to the semifinal round of the 800 meters at the last Olympic Trials.
