Piccirillo’s return has Villanova women ready to go the distance
PHILADELPHIA >> Angel Piccirillo is back for the Penn Relays and Villanova women’s track coach Gina Procaccio could not be happier.
The Wildcats did all right a year ago as Piccirillo sat out the 2016 outdoor season as a redshirt. Villanova won the 4 x 1,500-meter relay for the 10th time in program history with Siofra Clerigh Buttner running the anchor leg. The Wildcats also were third in the distance medley relay behind Georgetown and Oklahoma.
With Piccirillo back, the Wildcats are entered in all three distance relays (4 x 800, 4 x 1500 and DMR) for the 123rd Penn Relays Carnival, which kicks into high gear Thursday morning at historic Franklin Field.
“I think we can be really competitive so I’m excited to see what happens,” Prococcio said. “Dave (Johnson, the Penn Relays race director) brought in some really competitive teams this years, which makes it great. It makes it the place to be at the end of April so I’m really excited to get out there and compete against Oregon and Stanford and see where we measure up.”
The Ducks and the Cardinal did not participate last year because of a scheduling conflict, but both teams are back this year.
Villanova has three members of that winning 4 x 1,500 team back in Clerigh Buttner, a junior, and sophomores Bella Burda and Nicole Hutchinson. As to the lineup, that is still being determined.
“I think we have one of the better DMR’s we’ve had in a while,” Procaccio said, “but I think this is one of the strongest DMR fields that’s been here in years.”
Piccirillo has won six Penn Relays wheels in her career. One more and she joins Michelle Bennett and Kathy Franey as the only Villanova athletes to win seven times at Penn. Clerigh Buttner, though, is the key if the Wildcats are going to be competitive in all three races.
“She’s actually an amazing athlete,” Procaccio said of Clerigh Buttner. “She was our No. 2 runner in cross country. She finished runnerup in the Big East meet to Angel and then a few weeks ago in Miami split 52.64 in the 4 x 400 so she has an incredible range. Plus, she opened up with a 2:03 in her first 800 of the outdoor season so she’s definitely strong enough to run all three.”
Keep an eye on Hutchinson. She qualified for the NCAA indoor championships in the mile, the only sophomore to do so, Procaccio said, and was part of that winning 4 x 1,500 relay last year.
“I was showing a recruit around last fall and somehow ended up in Nicole’s dorm room,” Procaccio said. “I saw a goal thing on her wall and it said something like ‘Show Gina I can run all three relays at Penn,’ or something like that. It was in the fall, but it showed that she was thinking in the right way.”
Don’t expect to see the Villanova men compete in all three distance relays. Injuries have left the Wildcats with a small, but competitive bunch, head coach Marcus O’Sullivan.
“We’ll be competitive in the distance medley and then we’ll see where we go on the 4 x 8 or the 4 x mile,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re probably leaning toward the 4 x 8.”
The Wildcats were fifth in the DMR and 4 x mile a year ago, but did not compete in the 4 x 800.
Harry Purcell and Ville Lampinen will certainly be on the DMR. They’re Villanova’s top 400- and 800-meter runners, respectively. Ben Malone, Ishmael Muhammad and rising redshirt freshman Logan Wetzel will fill out the 1,200and 1,600-meter portions of the event. Malone ran on both relays last year, while Muhammad was on Villanova’s 4 x 800 relay in 2015.
“I’m excited about the group we have this year, particularly a young kid, Logan Wetzel out of Michigan,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s a redshirt freshman. The cartilage in the back of his kneecap fell off last year so he sat the whole year. The other kneecap fell off in high school so he sat out a whole year too, so in the last six years he’s had two full years of no running. His first race for us was a 4:14. I said that wasn’t going to do much for us, but then his second race he ran a 4:09 and his third race was a 4:01 so that’s kind of the excitement we have.”
*** All eyes will be on the Penn Wood girls as the Patriots try to double up in both the 4 x 800 and 4 x 400-meter relays. Terri Turner, Elicia Moore and Janae Pitt are back from the team what won the Philadelphia area 4 x 400 last year and also qualified for the Championship of America in the 4 x 800.
Upper Darby’s Michelle Brown-Jones is entered in the girls long jump Thursday. On the boys side, Penn Wood’s Dennis Manyeah is in the high jump. He’ll also be part of Penn Wood’s 4 x 400- and 4 x 800-meter relay teams. Strath Haven’s Dayo Abeeb is in the triple jump while teammate Cooper Driscoll is in the javelin.
Cardinal O’Hara is entered in both the boys and girls DMR Championship of America.