Penn men will try to repeat with another Championship of America Penn Relays victory
The competition for Saturdays 4-by-mile relay should be stiff, with Oregon, Michigan, and Princeton in the mix.
In dominating the Penn Relays since winning its first Championship of America race in 1955, Villanova and coach Marcus O'Sullivan are accustomed to the anxiety of competing as the "home" team.
But these are the Penn Relays, after all, and the Quakers showed they were ready to introduce a new era of their track and field program by winning last year's men's 4-by-mile relay, their first Championship of America victory since 1974.
The Red and Blue win brought a smile to O'Sullivan, who joked, "We're happy to be sharing the stress of Penn every year, the real home school, which is nice." But he also admired what head coach Steve Dolan has done to develop a legitimate challenger to the nationally ranked schools that annually visit Franklin Field.
"It was thrilling for me just to see it all happen," said O'Sullivan, who has competed or coached at the Penn Relays for 23 years. "This is really the home school and to have somebody now captaining a program and navigating a program through these great years, I think there's so much more to come for Penn.
"This is something I predicted five years ago. I think Steve is doing a terrific job, and he's going to keep doing a terrific job. I think it's fabulous for Penn."
Dolan, in his fifth season at Penn, appreciated O'Sullivan's remarks. "Marcus always has been a class act, so it wasn't surprising. But it was certainly humbling to hear those nice comments," he said. But the carnival for Penn, he said, is less about stress and more about excitement.
"Our goal is to try to put teams out that can challenge and compete for Championship of America titles," he said. "But I guess I don't feel stress that it's a bad season if we don't win one. That being said, for us to do well at Penn and succeed is every bit as exciting as our conference meet or at the national level. This is the biggest stage."
The Quakers used to be the king of their own carnival. They had won 51 Championship of America relays by the time Villanova won its first in 1965 and are second to the Wildcats on the men's side with 56 relay victories. They have 10 titles in each of three relays - the 4x400, 4x800, and 4-by-mile.
But there had to be little to rival the reaction of the crowd of more than 44,000 last year when Thomas Awad outkicked the anchors for Indiana and Georgetown to break the tape first in the 4-by-mile, running 4 minutes, .03 seconds for his leg. Two members of the team, Chris Hatler and Nick Tuck, return this year.
"It was exciting to win last year. But in a lot of ways, it was the seniors' year, their win, their wheel," said Hatler, referring to the trophy awarded to Championship of America race winners. "So I know Nick and I kind of have a little grudge here. We want our own wheel for ourselves our senior years, so we're going to come out and see what we can do."
The competition for Saturday's 4-by-mile should be stiff. Oregon will be without multiple NCAA champion Edward Cheserek, who is sitting out this weekend, but still will field a formidable team, as will Michigan, Princeton, and possibly Villanova, which is dealing with some injuries.
Penn's men and women will be competing in a number of other relays, and Dolan said, "We're excited about the challenge.
"We're going to need some breakthrough performances," he said. "But where better than Penn Relays for a breakthrough performance?"
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