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Villanova's Piccirillo sets Penn Relays record with eighth victory

The senior runner ran a leg of the victorious 4x1,500 relay

Officially, Angel Piccirillo ran 1,500 meters on Friday.

Unofficially, the record-setting Villanova senior probably doubled that.

She did some unofficial hurdling as well.

The official part was the second leg of the college women's 4x1,500 Championship of America relay.

It was the lone segment of the taut, tense race on a warm, sunny afternoon at Franklin Field when Villanova coach Gina Procaccio actually was able to catch her breath.

"Angel, she's so dependable," Procaccio said after the Wildcats' emotional victory. "You know she's going to get it done. You can kind of relax during that leg."

It also was the 4 minute, 17.9-second split that separated Piccirillo from every collegian runner who has been part of a relay team in the history of the Penn Relays, which stretches back 123 years.

The victory over a strong field featuring a loaded and rested Stanford squad by the Villanova team of Piccirillo, Bella Burda, Nicole Hutchinson and Siofra Cleirigh-Buttner marked the eighth triumph of Picccirillo's career, a Penn Relays record.

"Ít's really not something that I've had on my mind," Piccirillo said. "Every year, there's new obstacles. There's a new team. We just try to take it one day at a time, just focus on each relay, try to run as well as we can in that race."

Single-minded focus is Piccirillo's speciality on the track. She is one of the most decorated runners in Villanova's illustrious history and one of the most experienced as well, having made her mark as a freshman out of Homer-Center High in Homer City, Pa., and extending that success through five years, with an injury red-shirt during the 2016 outdoor season.

"It went so fast, and I've been here five years," Piccirillo said.

Piccirillo could pose for a poster for the Villanova program. She played her role as a young gun in support of older standouts such as Sheila Reid, Emily Lipari and Stephanie Schappert, filled the middle of her career with championship performances and now has assumed a leadership role for athletes such as Cleirigh-Buttner, Hutchinson and Burda.

Piccirillo ran a typically strong leg on Friday, moving the Wildcats into the lead. She anchored the Distance Medley Relay team to victory on Thursday, running a 4:32.76 split over the final 1,600 meters.

She's sure and steady, fully focused, a nine-time all-American with metronomic consistency in her performances and in the success of her relay teams. She's lost once in nine relays at Penn. She's a fifth-year senior and graduate student in the best sense of those terms.

But after she hands off the baton, Piccirillo the mature team leader tends to get a little excited. After running in smooth circles with the stick in her hand, she zig-zags around the infield, barely avoiding collisions, drawing the ignored rebukes of track officials and wildly cheering on her teammates.

"I get so excited," Piccirillo said. "I know how hard it is, to be out there by yourself, running 1,500 meters. It's tough. You need all the support you can get. So I yell. I get loud."

That's where the unofficial meters came in. Piccirillo was on the move for much of Hutchinson's leg, skirting along the outside of the track, urging her teammate to stay with Stanford's imposing Christina Aragon.

It was the same thing during Cleirigh-Buttner's leg. And when Villanova's junior anchor made her move and took control with around 200 meters to go, Piccirillo could barely contain her excitement.

She raced from the corner of the infield, dodged about four people, jumped over a rope that was restricting access and joined with Burda and Hutchinson to embrace the exhausted Cleirigh-Buttner at the finish line.

"Officials were yelling at me, 'No, Angel. No, Angel,'" Piccirillo said. "I couldn't stop. I was too excited. I figured they could yell at me later."

Piccirillo could take the track for one last time in that blue and white uniform in the 4x800 on Saturday, if Villanova guns for a rare triple of Penn Relays victories. Or maybe not.

Either way, she knows this is her last Penn Relays as a Villanova athlete, a strange and sad but also satisfying reality that seemed to sink in as she stood outside the stadium in the warm spring sun.

"It's kind of hard to believe this is the last time I'll be wearing a Villanova uniform at the Penn Relays," Piccirillo said. "It's bittersweet, but I've been so lucky to run with so many great teammates. I have had so many great experiences, so many great memories."

panastasia@phillynews.com

@PhilAnastasia

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