Villanova shows again that it’s a Penn Relays powerhouse, and it hopes to stay that way

Lest anyone think that the Penn Relays are named just for the guy atop City Hall, the name on the old wooden football press box atop Franklin Field is a reminder of the meet’s home team.

But the school that owns the weekend isn’t the one that owns the stadium. Year after year, Villanova commands the Relays spotlight, no matter how many big-time schools come from farther away.

The tradition continued this spring, thanks to Sadie Sigfstead’s triumph in the women’s 10,000-meter run. That plus a thrilling men’s 4xMile race where the Wildcats finished a close second showed that the school remains among college track’s distance-running powers.

“I’ve always looked at it like we have to come here every year — other teams don’t,” veteran men’s team coach Marcus O’Sullivan said. “They come because they love it, but they also come because they’re ready … For us, it has to be ingrained in the culture of who we are as a track and field program.”

This year’s haul of Relays wheels was smaller than usual. Villanova finished fifth in the men’s Distance Medley Relay and sixth in the women’s event, so they didn’t add to their records (by far) of 26 titles in the former and 16 in the latter. The Wildcats also own the most men’s 4xMile titles with 22, and the most women’s 4x1500 titles (an event they didn’t enter this year) with 13.

It was a sour ending to Liam Murphy’s glittering Relays career on the Main Line. He anchored ‘Nova to a DMR and 4xMile sweep last year, and won the 4xMile in 2023 too. The Relays matter a lot to him, as does the school’s history at the carnival.

“It’s a really big thing for the history of Villanova, the current team, the alumni — everyone looks forward to this all year,” he said. “I was so excited when I first came into college, thinking about this meet. This is what we talk about all year long.”

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Marco Langon, a junior in his second year running with Murphy, feels it just as keenly.

“You just have so much expectation and pressure, but when you can perform at the level that you need to and bring some wheels home, it’s an unbelievable feeling,” he said. “When you have such a great group of alumni, and you look at your school records every morning before you go into practice, look at all the Penn Relay wheels, it’s kind of hard not to be motivated, especially for distance athletes.”

Langon praised O’Sullivan and associate coach for distance running Matthew Valeriani: “You get the wisdom from Marcus and the science side from Matt, and you’re able to just be in such a good environment with people that really feel like your brothers, and care more about what you do off the track rather than on the track.”

O’Sullivan was flattered.

“It means a lot because that’s why I’m coaching — I don’t know any other way to put it,” he said.

At an alumni breakfast Saturday morning — including himself, a 1984 graduate — O’Sullivan spoke to multiple generations of Wildcats who gathered before heading to the track.

“I meant what I said: today’s outcome is important, but it’s not that important,” he said. “To have you guys here today representing different generations, from the ’60s to the ’70s to the ’80s, that’s love and that’s caring. And I said, ‘I can coach for that.’”

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On the women’s side, junior Micah Trusty — a Philadelphia native who ran in the DMR and 4x800 — also praised the mentality that the program instills.

“I think what makes us elite is just our ability never to quit and never to give up,” she said. “We know that we have a great history behind us, and [it serves] just to motivate us to continue to come back stronger than last [time]. … I think it’s a combination: the history of the name, the way people at Villanova carry themselves, and just the community, makes Villanova a great place.”

Villanova women’s coach Gina Procaccio has attended the Relays since long before her 25-year tenure started. She ran there with Aston’s Sun Valley High, then collegiately with Florida and Villanova, then in the Olympic development races.

Like O’Sullivan, she knows what it takes to sell the place to recruits — and she knows how to use the Relays to her advantage.

“This is a great place to recruit, because a lot of high school kids know what the Penn Relays are about,” she said. “You’ve just got to find the kids who love Villanova, and then want to be part of the tradition, and get a good education.”

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It still works so far.

“We’ve had years we win three [titles] and then we have years where we don’t win anything,” Procaccio said. “But it’s good to always just get the younger kids involved, let them see what it’s about and hope that they develop to where we can be back on top in the next couple years.”

Will the Wildcats be able to stay among the nation’s elite as college sports evolve? Track and field might not be one of the biggest sports out there, but it’s not immune to the same forces that affect everything else.

A look around the Relays made that clear. Nine schools came from the Big Ten, and 12 from the Atlantic Coast Conference. And though Texas A&M was the only SEC school this time, the Aggies added four titles to their great Relays history: the men’s 4x400, 3,000-meter steeplechase, and 110-meter hurdles; and the women’s 4x100.

O’Sullivan believes his team can keep up, and that he has the recipe for it.

» READ MORE: The Penn Relays’ boys’ 4x400 championship delivers a record-setting finale

“We’re a small, boutique investment company,” he said. “We get in and we get out. We see some opportunities, we go for it, and then we come back out.”

It was a nice one-liner, but there was substance behind it.

“I mean, you have to accept who we are, as we’re not going to have the resources that other schools will have,” O’Sullivan said. “But I think through the ingenuity of a very close-knit community, whether it be alumni or whether it be the school itself, or the support of the school, the support of the athletic department, they know that track and field represents Villanova in a very elite and very captured way.”

He told a tale of an encouraging note he got once from a sponsor.

“We love Villanova because you’re the representative or the manifestation of the team that could — like the little train that could, or whatever,” O’Sullivan recalled. “And so we have to keep you in our repertoire of schools because you’re the underdog. You’re the person that everyone will vibe for when the chips are down, and there’s an opportunity for the small school, because it represents everybody, right?”

His assessment of that was simple: “I think we revel in that, and that’s who we are.”

It was easy to reply that Villanova isn’t that in basketball, and O’Sullivan didn’t disagree. He goes to plenty of games himself. But for all his team’s success, he knows its place.

“I don’t know where we’re going to go with the new journey,” he said. “But I will say that we’ve always been agile, we’ve always been adaptive, we’ve always been creative. I think we’re the kind of a school, and some of the smaller schools like that, [which] will find a way to kind of adapt and maneuver our way in.”

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