PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Sophomore middle distance runner
Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) opened his 2025 competition season with a school record performance of 2:20.10 in the 1000 meters early Saturday evening at The Ott Center. He broke a mark that had stood for nearly 46 years to the day and did so in a race which also saw the American record fall. Watcke highlighted several strong performances by Villanova in Saturday's Quaker Invitational which was the team's first full meet of the 2024-25 indoor season.
The previous indoor school record of 2:20.3 had been held by Don Paige since a January 20, 1979, race at Madison Square Garden. It was one of just two indoor marks in the Wildcats record book from prior to 1980, with the other being the 1500 meters which has been seldomly run indoors in recent decades. Watcke now owns both the indoor record and the No. 4 absolute time in the 1000 meters in Villanova history. The only faster races than his result on Saturday are times recorded by school-record holder John Marshall (2:16.7) and Paige during summer races overseas in the 1980's.
Watcke's time is the No. 5 mark in the NCAA this season. He shattered his previous PR of 2:24.30 by more than four seconds, besting his unofficial collegiate debut race as an unattached runner at the Villanova Invitational last year. The up-and-coming star on the Wildcats roster has done his best career work to date in the 800 meters, reaching the final at the World Athletics U20 Championships in August 2024 and being a 2023 gold medalist at the Pan American U20 Championships.
The final event on Saturday evening was the men's 4x400 meter relay in which junior anchor runner
Sal Barretta (Whitestone, N.Y.) narrowly held off a runner from Penn as Villanova won its heat with a time of 3:19.35. Freshman
Liam Gluck (Beavercreek, Ohio) opened the relay and was followed by juniors
Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.) and
Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas) ahead of Barretta on the anchor leg. Rakowitz had the fastest split of the quartet with a recording of 49.20.
Earlier in the day, Rakowitz posted a time of 1:03.85 in the 500 meters and Gluck made his collegiate debut with a mark of 1:04.39 in the race. Sophomore sprinter
Parker Turner (Los Angeles, Calif.) reached the final of the 60 meter dash and posted a time of 6.92 on the day. He also recorded a mark of 22.13 in the 200 meters.
Most of the Wildcats distance runners will open their seasons in the coming weeks, but in action on Saturday was redshirt freshman
Kai Mitchell-Reiss (Portland, Ore.) who tallied a personal best time of 8:21.79 in the 3000 meters. That race was won by Villanova alum
Charlie O'Donovan (8:05.85) who donned a Leevale Athletic Club singlet, representing his hometown club in Cork, Ireland which has also produced Wildcats head coach
Marcus O'Sullivan and Villanova alum
Ken Nason who was O'Donovan's high school coach.
Villanova got its first look at The Ott Center, a brand new state-of-the-art indoor facility which opened on the University of Pennsylvania campus this season. Two more trips to the facility await the Wildcats over the next few weeks, beginning with strong competition in the Penn 10 Elite meet next Saturday (January 25).
