Villanova women cruise to another victory in the DMR
The plan was for Villanova’s Nicole Hutchinson to sit for a lap on the opening leg of the women’s distance medley relay Championship of America race Thursday and then gauge the situation, which is exactly what she did.
Hutchinson took the lead with about 100 meters to go in the first lap of her 1,200-meter leg. When no one else took the initiative on the second lap, Hutchinson did.
Once she separated from the pack it wasn’t a matter of if the Wildcats were going to win the DMR for the second year in a row and the sixth time in the last seven years, but by how much.
Hutchinson’s leadoff leg led to a convincing victory for the Wildcats in the DMR of the 124th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field
Villanova finished in 11 minutes, 1.94 seconds. Notre Dame crossed the finish line in 11:03.94.
“Gina told me to get a little bit of daylight and I probably took it a little too seriously,” Hutchinson said with a reference to coach Gina Procaccio. “It ended up that I got myself in front and no one was willing to go by me, so I figured I just may as well take it and go with it.”
Hutchinson was untouchable once she did get daylight. She powered through and turned in a blistering split of 3:21.86. That was nearly five full seconds ahead of Penn State’s Greta Lindsley.
“I was surprised,” Hutchinson said of her big lead. “I didn’t realize I was all alone. I checked over my inside shoulder and didn’t see anyone and got really confused. Then I checked over my outside shoulder, too, and didn’t see anyone and kind of figured, ‘OK I should be up here.’”
Hutchinson’s strong start made life easier on teammates McKenna Keegan, Rachel McArthur and Siofra Cleirigh Buttner. Keegan turned in a 55.71 second split in the 400. McArthur ran 2:08.30 in the 800 portion of the event and Buttner finished it off with a 4:36.09 time in the 1,600.
“I was really thankful for (the big lead),” Keegan said. “With the 400 it’s nice to not have a super messy handoff. It was nice to have space in front of me where I could stretch out. I had faith that Hutch was going to bring us the lead. She’s been running good so I was thankful for the lead and I knew that when I got the baton, and I knew I could keep the lead when I handed off to Rachel.”
McArthur was able to run a control leg in her first race at the relays as a collegian. Cleirigh Buttner looked over her shoulder several times during the anchor leg, but was in no danger of losing the lead even though she did tire a little down the stretch.
“Today was kind of different for me because I had never anchored the DMR (at Penn Relays) before,” Cleirigh Buttner said. “It was new to me, but as I have said before it is such a group effort. When you anchor you see every girl put their heart into it and leave it all on the track. You can’t let it drop back and you know you have to bring it home and finish the job the rest of the girls started.”
Cleirigh Buttner did and now it’s on to the 4 x 1,500 Friday and the 4 x 800 Saturday.
“It is always good to get the first one, then you can kind of relax the rest of the weekend,” Procaccio said. “It was tough. Hutch is really strong on the leadoff leg and she opened it up. The rest of the girls are racers so it was a little bit harder for them to be out there by themselves. They all kind of misjudged the first lap and ran hard. It wasn’t the most comfortable racing for them but that’s when your heart and guts take over. You know you have to get it done and you finish strong. I’m really proud of them.”