PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Junior distance runner Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) dove across the finish line in a photo finish to the mile as he and fifth year teammate Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) combined for a 1-2 finish with blistering times at the Penn 10 Elite on Saturday afternoon. Strong competition at The Ott Center featuring some of the top teams on the Eastern seaboard produced fast times throughout the day which rank among the best marks in the nation this season and in Villanova history.
 
Langon's dive gave him a new lifetime best of 3:54.60 and put him a hair in front of Murphy who had an official time of 3:54.61. The pair held off Pennsylvania native Gary Martin of Virginia by just over three tenths of a second. Their times rank fourth and fifth on this year's NCAA performance list and hold the exact same positions on the Wildcats all-time indoor list of fastest miles. Langon's previous PR in the mile had been 3:56.24 at Penn State almost exactly a year ago. Murphy is Villanova's indoor record holder (3:53.85) and now owns three of the five fastest indoor mile times in program history.
 
The fast heat of the mile was paced by Wildcats sophomore Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Nike professional Shane Cohen who delivered the pack of runners through the first 1000 meters in 2:27. Murphy took over the lead from the rabbits after the first kilometer and held it until Langon's memorable see-it-to-believe-it surge at the finish line. The day came full circle for Langon a few hours later when he was back on the track to pace a field of runners in the 3000 meters.
 
Redshirt freshman Bailey Habler (Sydney, Australia) and senior Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.) were the standouts in the 3K race and went 1-2 at the finish line. Habler, in the first indoor race of his collegiate career, posted the nation's 10^th-leading time this season and the ninth-fastest indoor 3K in school history with a mark of 7:49.53. He becomes the sixth-fastest 3K athlete in the Wildcats record book, while Comber lowered his personal best by nearly three seconds with a mark of 7:56.65. He ranks 35^th on the national descending order list coming out of Saturday's meet.
 
Four of the eight fastest 3K athletes in Villanova history are currently on the roster, with Murphy and Langon at the top of that list followed by Habler (No. 6) and senior Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) who is eighth with a time of 7:50.28 that he ran in Boston in a season-opening meet on December 7. Donoghue posted a time of 4:03.33 in the mile on Saturday, while freshman Ben Thomas (Sydney, Australia) recorded a time of 4:13.09 in his collegiate debut.
 
In other running events, sophomore sprinter Ethan Walls (Ridgefield, Conn.) posted a personal best time of 49.04 in the 400 meters. He combined with sophomore Matthew Griffin (Whippany, N.J.), junior Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.) and junior Sal Barretta (Whitestone, N.Y.) for a Wildcats season-best time of 3:16.51 in the 4x400 meter relay. The time is the second-fastest in the BIG EAST this season.
 
Senior thrower Tristan Bolinsky (Gordon, Pa.) recorded marks of 14.88 meters in the shot put and 16.91 meters in the weight throw. He competed in the weight throw for the second straight week while making his season debut in the shot put.
 
Villanova returns to action this coming Friday and Saturday (January 31-February 1) for the Penn State National Open.