PRINCETON, N.J.—Three finishers in the top nine powered Villanova to an impressive first place team result at the Princeton Fall Classic on Friday morning. In a race that featured the top teams in the Mid-Atlantic Region and a strong field of 22 schools overall, the Wildcats scored 70 team points and had a spread of just over a minute separating their five scoring runners.
Villanova finished ahead of Georgetown (87), Princeton (92) and North Carolina (106) in a matchup of four teams who are all ranked in the most recent national poll released by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Friday’s meet was the last full team competition for the Wildcats before the BIG EAST Championships next month and leaves the team in excellent shape heading into the postseason schedule.
The trio of fifth year collegian Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.), junior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) and redshirt freshman Bailey Habler (Sydney, Australia) finished in the top nine out of 234 competitors. They crossed the finish line within 30 seconds of each other, led by Murphy as the individual runner-up with a time of 22:36.8 over 8,000 meters on the Meadows Campus Course. Langon finished fourth in 22:42.4 and Habler placed ninth with a time of 23:06.5…