Villanova's Langon Dives To Line, Runs 7:34.00, Beats North Carolina's Sands In 7:34.05; Wes Porter Run U.S.#10 All-Time Indoor Mile, Aaron Ahl Breaks Canadian Indoor Mile Record

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Adam Parshall photos

Marco Langon may have lost his footing in the final five meters, but his dive past Colton Sands to the finish line delivered one of the great finishes of the 2026 collegiate season.

Langon of Villanova flung himself to the third-fastest 3,000 meters time in collegiate history on Friday at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational, running 7 minutes, 34 seconds. North Carolina's Sands finished second by .05 seconds, running 7:34.05 for fourth all-time on the collegiate list.

Langon didn't hesitate to lead the race from the start. He went through 1,000 in 2:32.42, 2,000 in 5:04.93 and closed his final 1,000 in 2:29.07, all while never once losing his lead position.

Sands was on Langon's shoulders until the end, running 2:32.43 at 1,000, 5:05.17 at 2,000 and 2:28.88 his last kilometer.

With Sands jumping to fourth on the all-time collegiate list, North Carolina now owns three of the top four times in NCAA history. Ethan Strand (7:30.15) and Parker Wolfe (7:30.23) are 1-2.

BYU's Tayvon Kitchen continued his fantastic freshman season with a 7:36.23 effort to finish third to Langon and Sands, moving to No. 8 on the all-time collegiate list. 

Oregon's Tomas Palfrey and Ben Balazs finished fourth and fifth in 7:39.03 and 7:39.31, respectively.

Wes Porter, a little over a month removed from competing at the World Cross Country Championships for the U.S. in Tallahassee, Fla., ran the 10th-fastest indoor mile by an American in 3:50.37. Porter was second at the bell to Aaron Ahl by less than half-a-second and closed his last 200 in 27.73 to beat Ahl.

Ahl, a former Washington Husky, broke the Canadian indoor record by six-hundredths-of-a-second in 3:51.33. The Canadian record stood for two weeks with Foster Malleck running 3:51.39 in Boston on Jan. 31.

Northern Arizona's Colin Sahlman, who broke the collegiate record in the indoor 800 at the Millrose Games, added another milestone to his senior season, running the eighth-fastest collegiate indoor mile in 3:52.30 to finish fourth overall. Oregon's Elliott Cook also cracked the NCAA top 10 list, running 3:52.32 for ninth all-time.

Tyler Edson of Virigina clocked the fastest 800 time, running 1:46.48 to win section four of the men's invitational races. Josue Le Cadre of Indianapolis ran the second-fastest time NCAA Division II time in 1:46.97 to finish fifth overall.

Dismus Lokira of Alabama won the men's 5,000 in 13:21.54, beating both Myles Hogan of Princeton and Hyuga Endo of Japan by a combined .42 seconds. Seth Clevenger of Rowan, who transferred in from Iowa State this indoor season, broke the NCAA Division III record by 12 seconds in 13:32.09.