Triple Australian Jr Champion Patrick Tiernan Joins Villanova:Won 1500 / 5000 / XC Junior Titles in 2012 as 17 Year Old

Queensland, Australia's Patrick Tiernan will enroll at Villanova for the spring semester and join Marcus O'Sullivan's men's squad next week, continuing Villanova's strong recruiting success in Australia and New Zealand. As a 17 year old in 2012 Tiernan showed impressive range, winning Australian Junior (U20) titles on the track over 1500 meters (see video at top) and 5000 meters in March, winning the Southern Cross University 10K on the roads (30:34) on June 30th, and dominating the Australian Junior Cross Country race in late August (which he won by a full 23 seconds over 8 kilometers in extremely muddy conditions (see video below)).  Tiernan has now won three Australian cross country national titles: Under-15, Under-18, and Under-20.  Here are the results from Tiernan's key races in 2012, including his three national titles (which included top runners from New Zealand as well):

5000 Meters -- Australian Junior (U20) Championship Final 3/14/12

 1.  Tiernan, Patrick       QLD    14:40.59
 2.  Wilson, Declan         NZL    14:48.40
 3.  MacDonald, Ruairidh    NSW    14:50.58
 4.  Cocks, Jacob           SA     14:51.77
 5.  Quirk, Samuel          VIC    14:57.80
 6.  Drake, Callum          VIC    15:09.17
 7.  Chambers, Charles      QLD    15:26.42
 8.  Land, Andrew           NSW    15:55.88
 9.  Zenonos, Aristo        QLD    16:02.50
10.  Bukovinsky, Jak        NSW    16:19.41
11.  Grey, Stuart           ACT    16:33.78
12.  Booth, Adam            NSW    16:34.59
13.  Nairn, Brandon         NSW    18:31.56

1500 Meters -- Australian Junior (U20) Championship Final 3/16/12

 1.  Tiernan, Patrick       QLD    3:50.67
 2.  Hansen, James          TAS    3:51.13
 3.  Moynihan, Ben          NZL    3:52.86
 4.  Beer, Matthew          VIC    3:54.86
 5.  Beadman, Jesse         NSW    3:55.02
 6.  McDonald, Kieron       NZL    3:57.25
 7.  Verwey, Ned            VIC    3:57.31
 8.  Bruce, Jack            QLD    3:59.11
 9.  MacDonald, Ruairidh    NSW    4:00.67
10.  Walters, Guy           NSW    4:02.61
11.  Donnadieu, Vincent     NSW    4:05.17
12.  Davies, Josh           NSW    4:16.19

Southern Cross University 10K (top 10 finishers) 6/30/12

 1.  Patrick Tiernan    30:34 
 2.  Hugh Williams      30:44
 3.  Daryl Crook        31:15
 4.  Marc See           31:19
 5.  Kenji Nener        31:30 
 6.  Matthew Carlsson   31:34
 7.  Dylan Evans        31:43   
 8.  Daniel Coleman     31:45
 9.  Nicholas Cope      31:47
10.  Andrew Buchanan    31:54

Australian Junior (U20) Cross Country Championship (top 20 finishers) 8/25/12

 1.   Patrick Tiernan        QLD           27:39
 2.   Declan Wilson          AUCKLAND      28:02
 3.   Brandon Hargreaves     WA            28:10
 4.   Matthew Baxter         NZSS          28:14
 5.   Antoine Bonnet         NZSS          28:26
 6.   Michael Sutton         NZSS          28:36
 7.   Ruairidh MacDonald     NSW           29:04
 8.   Jack Curran            QLD           29:11
 9.   Guy Walters            NSW           29:13
10.   Laurence Sorace        VIC           29:35
11.   Grant Gwynne           QLD           29:42
12.   Jack Bruce             QLD           29:47
13.   Seton Hill             AUCKLAND      29:50
14.   Sam Tickle             ACT           29:53
15.   James Hansen           TAS           29:55
16.   Josh Maisey            AUCKLAND      30:06
17.   Christopher Atkins     VIC           30:09
18.   Jai Birch-Edmonds      VIC           30:17
19.   Daniel Zinni           VIC           30:33
20.   Wubishet Murphy        SA            30:36