NEW YORK—Sophomore jumper Malik Cunningham (St. Andrew, Jamaica) recorded the top mark of his collegiate career in the triple jump as Villanova opened up two days of competition at the Dr. Sander Invitational/Columbia Challenge on Friday afternoon.  Three field events and the 60 meter dash made up the Wildcats schedule for the day, with a full day of action on tap at The Armory for the second and final day of the meet.
 
Cunningham measured a jump of 15.43 meters on the last of his six attempts on the day to finish second out of 11 competitors.  His previous collegiate best mark came at this same meet a year ago, with Friday's performance beating last season by two centimeters.  Cunningham, who already ranks third on Villanova's all-time indoor performance list in the triple jump, notched the best performance by a Wildcats athlete in more then a decade with Friday's mark. 
 
After an opening jump of 14.53 meters, Cunningham surpassed 15 meters on four of his next five attempts.  He surpassed his season-opening mark of 15.14 meters on his second attempt (15.16m), then recorded consecutive jumps of 15.25 meters before his best mark of the day and the sixth and final attempt.  Cunningham sits atop the BIG EAST performance list for the current season, while his mark on Friday would have ranked 31^st nationally at the start of the day. 
 
Junior Michael Troup (Doylestown, Pa.) competed in both the 60 meters and the long jump on Friday afternoon.  Troup recorded a personal best time in the 60 meters for the second straight week with a time of 7.15 in the preliminary heats.  He also came in 11^th in the long jump with a mark of 6.91 meters. 
 
The final event of the day for Villanova was the shot put, in which junior Billy Loewen (Sparta, N.J.) and Chika Nwachukwu (Lawrence, N.J.) were each in action.  Loewen threw for 14.91 meters in the competition and Nwachukwu recorded a throw of 13.16 meters.
 
First up on Saturday's meet schedule will be the 400 meters at 11:20 a.m.