Villanova returns to the Penn Relays with same high hopes (and expectations) as ever
Penn, the host school, has entered five relay Championship of America events – three for men, two for women. The Quakers appear to be strong in the men’s four-by-mile.
Villanova men’s track and field head coach Marcus O’Sullivan usually finds the Penn Relays to be a little more stressful than most big meets because the expectations are high for a program that has experienced the most success at Franklin Field over the last 65 years.
With the carnival back at full strength after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the thought is that O’Sullivan might be a little more relaxed now that it’s business as usual for the Wildcats’ men’s and women’s competitors.
Well, almost.
“Oh, it’s the same old love-hate relationship,” O’Sullivan said Thursday with a laugh. “I’m never going to deny it. I was actually saying to myself this week, I need to learn to love it more because I know I’ll miss it when I’m retired. As much as the highs are just so high when you win, the lows are so low when you don’t. I think it’s the extremes.”
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Still, there will be excitement when the Wildcats and more than 200 other college and university teams take the track at the ancient stadium for the first time in almost 1,100 days.
Women’s track and field coach Gina Procaccio said when she and O’Sullivan sometimes talk about the Penn Relays, it’s like, “Oh, Penn!” But the bottom line is delight that the carnival is back on schedule.
“I’m just happy to be a part of it,” she said. “I’m happy it’s back and I’m happy that it’s teams from all over the country. Some of the best teams are coming because I think it just kind of shows that it really is a big celebration, a big carnival in April. More people and more teams are seeing that and went to be a part of bringing it back.”
Villanova, which has won at least one men’s or women’s relay Championship of America in 54 of the last 65 carnivals, will enter four relays this year. Both the men and women will compete Friday in the distance medley relay. On Saturday, the men run in the 4-by-mile relay, the women in the 4x800.
Most of the Wildcats’ runners will be performing double duty. Two of the primary competitors will be sophomore Sean Dolan in the two men’s events and graduate student McKenna Keegan for the women’s relays. Both Dolan and Keegan competed in last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials in the 800.
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For Keegan, this will be her first Penn Relays since 2018, having redshirted in 2019 and then sitting on the sidelines during the carnival’s cancellation the next two years.
“It’s actually been four years for her since she ran at Penn, so she’s really excited to get back,” Procaccio said. “And she’s excited to be anchoring [the 4x800] because she’s never anchored before.”
Dolan and junior Charlie O’Donovan are two important pieces of the 4-by-mile. Each has run the 1,500 meters in under 3:40, which translates to a sub-four-minute mile.
With the best teams running at Penn comes intense competition. Some of the teams that finished in the top 10 of last month’s NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships include Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi on the men’s side and Mississippi and BYU for the women.
Seeking its first Championship of America relay, BYU is lined up for the distance medley, 4x800, and 4x1500 relays. Senior Courtney Wayment is an NCAA champion at 3,000 and 5,000 meters, and junior Claire Seymour took second in the NCAA 800 last month.
Mississippi’s men’s teams likely will be anchored by Mario Garcia Romo, the NCAA champion in the mile run.
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Penn, the host school, has entered five relay Championship of America events – three for men, two for women. The Quakers appear to be strong in the men’s 4-by-mile likely anchored by senior Ray Sellaro, who has clocked a personal-best 3:57.89 in the mile. Penn’s women’s 4x400 relay, which finished second in the event in 2019, returns a team that will contend.
The 126th carnival figures to be an active weekend of track and field, and Villanova figures to be in the middle of it.
“If we didn’t have Penn Relays, and this is what I was thinking the other day, we wouldn’t be who we are as Villanova,” O’Sullivan said. “So I think we’re intricately tied to it, and I think we just have to kind of look upon it as being an opportunity to showcase who we have. If we have it, we have it. If we don’t, we don’t, and we kind of move on.”