Villanova settles for runner-up roles at Penn Relays

Villanova men's track coach Marcus O'Sullivan joked that the victory by the Wildcats' women in the distance medley relay on the opening day of the Penn Relays took a little heat off his team.

But it's the Penn Relays, and the Wildcats are expected to perform well. That's something both the men and women did Friday in their races although they fell short of victory.

The men got a terrific anchor leg from freshman Jordy Williamsz in the men's DMR but wound up second to Penn State. The women rebounded from a huge deficit going into the anchor leg of the 4x1500 thanks to junior Emily Lipari, but wound up third behind winning Michigan and runner-up Oregon.

"I'm happy for our guys in terms of times but disappointed for them in terms of not winning because it's so important for us to come here and win," O'Sullivan said. "We're in a good state. We're competitive. We're in there. We came off the turn with Oregon and Penn State, three great teams."

Lipari, the anchor of Thursday's winning DMR, brought Villanova back in the 4x1500 from 20 to 25 meters down to within striking distance on the last lap. But Michigan, which did not compete in Thursday's DMR, had a lot left behind anchor Amanda Eccleston and gained the win.

"You can sit there and complain, 'Aw, they didn't run, we weren't fresh' but that's what racing is," Lipari said. "We're a tough bunch of girls. So is Michigan and Oregon. They might not have opted to run [Thursday] but they're great teams."

Donique' Flemings knows the feeling of winning at the Penn Relays, but she felt particularly elated after being a part of Texas A&M's victorious women's shuttle hurdles relay team for the third time.

"It feels awesome," said Flemings, who was part of the Aggies' national collegiate record team at Penn in 2010. "I feel like each [win] was different because I ran with different girls. But the feeling was the same. If we all ran our legs, we'd come out successful."

The Aggies won the women's 4x100 for a record fifth consecutive time. Anchor Ashley Collier was part of her third winning unit in a row.

Local athletes who won the non-championship flights in their events included Kiersten LaRoche of Temple in the long jump (19 feet, 6 3/4 inches) and Samantha Yeats of Villanova in the high jump (5-10).