RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, March 27 — A stirring final stretch kick brought Villanova’s Liam Murphy the Collegiate Record in a surprisingly good early season 1500 on the first night of the Raleigh Relays against Virginia’s Gary Martin, co-holder of the indoor collegiate standard.
Virginia alum Conor Murphy rabbited for the first 1000, with Martin staying close, then a bit of a gap to Wildcats Murphy and Marco Langon. After Cooper dropped, Martin fought to get away from his pursuers, guided by the wavelights.
On the final lap, it still appeared as if Martin could pull off the win, but the Wildcats charged hard off the last turn. First Murphy blasted past on the outside, then Langon slipped by on the rail.
Murphy closed at 54.18 to clock 3:33.02, slicing 0.72 off the CR of 3:33.74 set by Alabama’s Eliud Kipsang in ’22. It also took care of Yared Nuguse’s American CR of 3:34.68 from ’21, as Murphy, name notwithstanding, is from New Jersey, not the Emerald Isle.
The race — for the moment, at least — will stand as the fastest collegiate race ever, as both Langon (3:33.38) and Martin (3:33.71) also went under the old standard. The race also bettered the absolute CR of 3:33.41 that Martin and North Carolina’s Ethan Strand set over the winter.
“We knew we wanted to mess everybody up in this field and make the statement that we’re the two best in the NCAA,” Murphy told the Stride Report.
Their ascent to that status has been rapid. This winter, for the second year in a row, Nova junior Murphy placed 4th in the NCAA Indoor 3000 (plus 5000 11th). He ran 11th in the outdoor NCAA 1500 last spring. Soph Langon, also from Jersey, PRed at 3:54.60 for the indoor mile, 0.01 ahead of Murphy in January and garnered NCAA Indoor 5000/3000 placings of 6th and 7th.
One of the few “records” they failed to touch here was the Nova extended-season best, 3:32.30 by Sydney Maree on the European circuit in ’81. Time and times have marched on. Maree’s mark made him No. 7 all-time globally when he ran it.
(Maree was a Villanova senior in ’81 and won the NCAA 1500 that season; he ran the 3:32.30 time in September so T&FN, with an end-of-August extended season cutoff, did not count it as a collegiate mark though his alma mater does.)
In the women’s 1500, the 4:05.68 by Margot Appleton moved the Virginia senior to No. 4 all-time collegiately as she won by almost a second from Kimberley May of Providence.
Grace Hartman climbed higher than that on the 10,000 ATL to No. 3 collegian. Timed in 31:20.60, the NC State junior won a close race with Joy Naukot of West Virginia and Monica Wanjiku of Missouri, both Kenyan frosh.
RALEIGH RELAYS MEN’S RESULTS
200(0.8): 1. Jamal Britt (unat) 20.66.
400: 1. **Christian Parker (Tn) 46.17.
800: 1. *Levi Streeval (Lips) 1:48.09.
1500: 1. Liam Murphy (Vill) 3:33.02 CR (old CR 3:33.41i Ethan Strand [NC] ’25 & Gary Martin [Va] ’25);
2. *Marco Langon (Vill) 3:33.38 (2, 2 C);
3. *Gary Martin (Va) 3:33.71 (x, 5 C);
4. Damian Hackett (Corn) 3:36.78; 5. *Cooper Cawthra (TxAM) 3:36.79; 6. **Pierre Attiogbe (Corn) 3:37.13.
St: IV–1. **Kole Mathison (Co) 8:37.68.
V–1. *Kristian Imroth’ (EnKy-GB) 8:33.56; 2. Mick Stanovsek’ (Aus) 8:33.69; 3. ***Bismack Kipchirchir’ (Akr-Ken) 8:37.85.
5000: 1. **Rocky Hansen (WF) 13:22.06; 2. Titouan Le Grix’ (Wingate-Fra) 13:28.23; 3. ***Bailey Habler’ (Vill-Aus) 13:28.55; 4. *Matthew Forrester’ (Butler-SA) 13:30.40.
10,000: 1. **Drew Rogers (Mo) 28:14.27; 2. **Joseph O’Brien’ (WF-GB) 28:15.43; 3. Aidan O’Gorman (NFl) 28:18.59; 4. ***Birhanu Harriman (Gtn) 28:19.75; 5. *Ethan Coleman (NDm) 28:19.81; 6. **James Overberg (Co) 28:20.78; 7. Andrew Jones (Va) 28:20.95; 8. **Shane Brosnan’ (Harv-Ire) 28:20.98; 9. **Will Anthony’ (Va-NZ) 28:21.12; 10. Tyler Berg (NDm) 28:21.29; 11. **Dean Casey’ (Co-Ire) 28:21.32; 12. *MacCallum Rowe’ (LaS-NZ) 28:21.64; 13. ***Nicholas Kipchirchir’ (VaT-Ken) 28:22.51; 14. *Charlie Sprott’ (WF-Aus) 28:22.92; 15. *Rogerio Amaral’ (SC-Por) 28:23.41; 16. **Charlie Ortmans (Harv) 28:23.50; 17. Murphy Smith (Navy) 28:23.81.
110H(-0.4): 1. Britt 13.34; 2. **Jason Holmes (NCAT) 13.57.
400H: 1. Drake Schneider (unat) 49.58; 2. Alex Sherman (Va) 50.60.
4 x 100: 1. North Carolina A&T 39.24; 2. Coppin State 39.82.
4 x 400: 1. North Carolina A&T 3:05.99.
LJ: 1. *Maxwell Forte (Duke) 25-6 (7.77).
DT: 1. Tanner Watson (OhSt) 188-10 (57.57); 2. Terrell Adams (unat) 188-8 (57.50); 3. Thomas Kitchell (NC) 188-1 (57.32).
HT: 1. *Jeremiah Nubbe’ (Va-Can) 239-7 (73.04); 2. **Christian Toro (Duke) 227-11 (69.47); 3. ***Jake Parchman (NTx) 220-4 (67.16).
JT: 1. James Kotowski (MaL) 240-5 (73.28); 2. Colin Winkler (CCt) 234-1 (71.36).
RALEIGH WOMEN’S RESULTS
100(-0.1): 1. *Alexis Brown (LenR) 11.13.
200(2.0): 1. Brown 22.67.
400: 1. *Lauren Tolbert (Duke) 51.86.
800: 1. Janae Dean (Tul) 2:04.30.
1500: 1. Margot Appleton (Va) 4:05.68 (4, 5 C);
2. Kimberley May’ (Prov-NZ) 4:06.58; 3. **Salma Elbadra’ (SC-Mor) 4:06.90.
St: 1. **Angelina Napoleon (NCSt) 9:34.22; 2. Katelyn Stewart-Barnett’ (MiSt-Can) 9:36.96; 3. **Gwenno Goode (LaS-GB) 9:56.80.
5000: 1. *Alex Millard’ (Prov-GB) 15:27.02.
10,000: I–1. *Grace Hartman (NCSt) 31:20.60 (3, 3 C);
2. ***Joy Naukot’ (WV-Ken) 32:21.84; 3. ***Monica Wanjiku’ (Mo-Ken) 32:21.97; 4. ***Edna Chelulei’ (EnKy-Ken) 32:22.80; 5. *Florence Caron’ (PennSt-Can) 32:26.52; 6. ***Hannah Prosser’ (Co-NZ) 32:49.37.
100H(-0.3): 1. Erin Marsh (VSA) 13.10; 2. Gabbi Cunningham (unat) 13.25.
400H: 1. Ally Gomm (Duke) 57.12; 2. Aliya Garozzo (Duke) 57.16.
4 x 100: 1. Duke 44.80.
4 x 400: 1. Duke 3:31.31; 2. North Carolina 3:37.14.
LJ: 1. **Molly Wise (Rich) 20-9w (6.32).
TJ: 1. Jada Joseph (Brown) 42-8¼ (13.01).
SP: 1. Lacey Stringer (OhSt) 55-¾ (16.78).
DT: 1. Estel Valeanu’ (Va-Isr) 177-0 (53.97).
HT: 1. Annika Kelly’ (Va-Est) 212-3 (64.71); 2. *Paola Bueno’ (Lib-Mex) 211-3 (64.40).
JT: 1. *Christiana Ellina’ (Va-Cyp) 172-6 (52.59); 2. **Evelyn Bliss (Buck) 170-6 (51.97).
