McEntee Outduels Coghlan as Villanova Wins Millrose DMR

Villanova's Sam McEntee and Ireland's John Coghlan battled each other in the 1600 meter anchor leg of last night's Millrose Games Byron Dyce College Men's Distance Medley Relay. McEntee and Coghlan had each recently entered the sub-4:00 mile club and their face-off in the DMR anchor position had been much anticipated -- even more so since Coghlan is the son of former Villanova legend Eamonn Coghlan (who was instrumental in bringing the Irish "dream team" together) and the Millrose Games was the venue that the elder Coghlan and Villanova coach Marcus O'Sullivan had for several years called their own in winning a combined 12 Wanamaker Miles. McEntee got the baton in third place, perhaps 10 meters behind Coghlan. Aftere closing the gap rather quickly, McEntee shadowed Coghlan through 400 meters splits of 56.5, 1:02.3, and 1:04.5, before McEntee kicked home in 56.5. McEntee sat on Coghlan until 200 meters to go and then went easily past to gap the Irishman by almost two seconds on the final lap. McEntee split 3:59.8, compared to Coghlan's approximate 4:01.7) to ensure a Villanova victory in the DMR, 9:38.02 to 9:39.68. The third place team from LaSalle was well back, some ten seconds in arrears.

The Villanova team was composed of Brian Tetreault in the 1200 (2:59.0), Sam Ellison in the 400 (47.0), Chris FitzSimons in the 800 (1:51.2) and Sam McEntee in the 1600 (3:59.8). They came up short on their goal of attaining the NCAA automatic qualifier (9:31.0), but are likely to compete at Notre Dame's Alex Wilson Invitational on March 2. Currently, Villanova owns the NCAA's #6 time in the DMR, pending complete results from around the country this weekend.

Byron Dyce College Men's Distance Medley Relay          
Finals
  1 Villanova University  'A'                           9:38.02  
  2 Dublin City University  'A'                         9:39.68  
  3 La Salle University  'A'                            9:48.52  
  4 University of Albany  'A'                           9:49.90  
  5 Duke University  'A'                                9:52.96         
  6 Manhattan College  'A'                             10:15.54