Wildcats men capture DMR after long drought

PHILADELPHIA » Casey Comber could not contain his emotions as he crossed the finish line to give the Villanova men’s team the victory in the distance medley relay Championship of America at the 124th Penn Relays Carnival Friday.

The sophomore from Hatboro-Horsham flashed a smile and thrust his arms in the air. His relay teammates, Ben Malone, Brian Faust and Ville Lampinen, could not hold back, either. They jumped up and down as they ran toward Comber for what became a group hug on the infield.

The overflow of emotion, which stretched into the post-race press conference, was understandable. Villanova has owned this event throughout the history of the carnival, but had not won the DMR since 2011.

“This means everything,” Malone said. “When I first committed to Villanoa, this is why I came here, to win at the Penn Relays. I wanted to be part of the tradition here. It’s been a while. The last time we owned the DMR I think I was a junior in high school. That inspired me to look at Villanova and to add another DMR title means everything to the alumni, to Marcus (O’Sullivan, the head coach) to all of us and to add on to that legacy is really special.”

It was Villanova’s first relay win of any kind since the Wildcats won the 4 x mile in 2015. O’Sullivan choked up when he tried to talk about what it means to have someone like Comber, who was not in the relay mix a few weeks ago, be the one to bring the baton home.

“It was very special to me just having a local person anchoring,” O’Sullivan said as he fought back tears. “… If you would have told me he was on the team two weeks ago I would have said no. For me to really see the light and to see how much grit he has and how tough he is; winning today wasn’t what it was about. Just for him taking the lead with a quarter to go, I knew I put the right person on the anchor because, if you want it you’re going to have to come get it and there was nobody who wanted it as bad as Casey did.”

Comber ran a sizzling 3:59.79 anchor split in the 1,600-meter anchor leg to hold off Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse to bring the baton home in a time of 9:34.37.

Comber took control of the race with 400 meters to go.

“I knew I had to go eventually,” Comber said. “I consider myself more of a strength guy than a speed guy at this point and when the race packed back up I didn’t want to be reactive. I thought I had to be proactive and I thought I should make the first move.”

Once Comber made his move the rest of the field was finished.

“You never quite know how it’s going to play out,” Comber said, “but when the Notre Dame guy passed me and a couple of guys packed me then I came back into the pack I thought, ‘Am I going to wait to get passed again or am I going to wait for them to go? ‘ I decided to take things into my own hands and do what I had to do.”