One realizes how far the Villanova track program has fallen when one sees the results. Yes, they won the Big East indoors, but the Big East is a basketball conference.
Yesterday some competed at the Florida Relays and the Stanford Invitational. MacArthur did well in the 800, but the winner was Danae Rivers (Penn State) and 2nd was Gabrielle Wilkinson (Florida). Rivers is from Connecticut and Wilkinson from Pennsylvania – both in Villanova’s prime recruiting territory. Did Villanova bother to recruit them?
The only other one who seemed to perform well was Logan Wetzel at Stanford Invitational running 3:44.73 (1500) - equivalent to 4:02.6 mile.
What was even more disconcerting was there were no Villanova runners in the men’s 800 at the Florida Relays, but there were lots of guys running well for G’town and Columbia. Where was Villanova? This used to be an outstanding middle-distance school Note: VU men have not run a 4x800 at Penn Relays for several years.
The saddest observation was that Brian Faust (Purdue) finished 5th in the 400 in 46.05 at the Florida Relays. Last year he was an outstanding frosh at Villanova. What happened? How do you “lose” a runner of that quality when you have no one on your team who can break 48?
Recruiting class looks good - so far - but men need a lot of work after years of neglect. And do not let last year’s success at Penn Relays fool you. Yes, it felt good and the women are for real, but there was no Oregon, no Stanford, no Arkansas, no …
Yesterday some competed at the Florida Relays and the Stanford Invitational. MacArthur did well in the 800, but the winner was Danae Rivers (Penn State) and 2nd was Gabrielle Wilkinson (Florida). Rivers is from Connecticut and Wilkinson from Pennsylvania – both in Villanova’s prime recruiting territory. Did Villanova bother to recruit them?
The only other one who seemed to perform well was Logan Wetzel at Stanford Invitational running 3:44.73 (1500) - equivalent to 4:02.6 mile.
What was even more disconcerting was there were no Villanova runners in the men’s 800 at the Florida Relays, but there were lots of guys running well for G’town and Columbia. Where was Villanova? This used to be an outstanding middle-distance school Note: VU men have not run a 4x800 at Penn Relays for several years.
The saddest observation was that Brian Faust (Purdue) finished 5th in the 400 in 46.05 at the Florida Relays. Last year he was an outstanding frosh at Villanova. What happened? How do you “lose” a runner of that quality when you have no one on your team who can break 48?
Recruiting class looks good - so far - but men need a lot of work after years of neglect. And do not let last year’s success at Penn Relays fool you. Yes, it felt good and the women are for real, but there was no Oregon, no Stanford, no Arkansas, no …