NEW YORK—One of the potential storylines to watch for Villanova during the 2019 season is the emergence of a group of multi-event athletes who have a chance to make their mark in BIG EAST competition next month.  Thursday evening offered a glimpse at what may be to come as four athletes took part in the pentathlon on the first of three days of competition in the Dr. Sander/Columbia Challenge at New York Armory. 
 
Led by freshman Liv Morgan (Bronx, N.Y.) who finished in fourth place, the Wildcats quartet all finished in the top 14 out of 23 competitors.  Morgan scored 3,360 points in her first collegiate pentathlon, not a personal best score for the talented newcomer but good enough to jump into a tie for sixth place on the all-time Villanova performance list. 
 
Junior Sofia Calabrese (Edwards, Colo.) finished in fifth place with 3,323 points, setting a new personal best and solidifying her hold on eighth place among the Wildcats leaders in the pentathlon.  Junior Ava Coleman (Southington, Conn.) finished ninth with 3,121 points in her first career pentathlon and senior Niki Cleary (Flemington, N.J.) placed 14^th with 2,958 points.  Coleman and Cleary rank 11^th and 12^th on the updated Villanova performance list. 
 
Morgan set new personal bests in the 60 meter hurdles and the shot put along the way to reaching her total score.  She ranked fourth in the field with a time of 8.95 in the hurdles and had the second-longest throw in the shot put with a mark of 11.39 meters.  Morgan also cleared a height of 1.46 meters in the high jump, measured a distance of 5.29 meters in the long jump and closed out competition by running the 800 meters in 2:37.46. 
 
The score of 3,323 points for Calabrese was over 100 points higher than the mark of 3,195 points she had tallied at the BIG EAST Championships as a sophomore two seasons ago.  She set new personal bests on Thursday evening with a time of 9.54 in the 60 meter hurdles and a throw of 10.04 meters in the shot put.  Calabrese finished strong and posted a time of 2:26.37 in the 800 meters, good for third among the field of competitors.  She also had a high jump of 1.58 meters and a long jump of 4.93 meters. 
 
Coleman recorded personal best marks in all five of the pentathlon events.  She had scholastic experience in many of the sprints and jumps but had previously competed almost exclusively in the pole vault during her first two collegiate seasons.  Coleman was sixth in the pentathlon field with a time of 2:29.43 in the 800 meters and ranked eighth with a time of 9.27 in the 60 meter hurdles.  Her other marks were a height of 1.46 meters in the high jump, a long jump of 4.94 meters and a shot put throw of 8.74 meters.
 
Cleary posted a time of 10.01 in the 60 meter hurdles and closed the pentathlon by running the 800 meters in 2:34.26.  She reached a height of 1.40 meters in the high jump, had a long jump of 5.09 meters and threw for a distance of 9.74 meters in the shot put.

While it is still relatively early in the indoor season, no other athletes from BIG EAST schools aside from the Wildcats quartet has completed a pentathlon to this point in the season.  The scores for Morgan and Calabrese each rank in the top 50 nationally.