NEW YORK—Sophomore Liv Morgan (Bronx, N.Y.) opened competition for Villanova at the Dr. Sander Invitational/Columbia Challenge with a seventh place finish in the pentathlon at the New York Armory on Thursday night.  Morgan scored 3,336 points in her third collegiate pentathlon and first this season.  Two full days of action on Friday and Saturday make up the remainder of the schedule at the meet.
 
Morgan is the reigning BIG EAST pentathlon champion and continued her progress for this season with her first multi-event competition of the year.  She set a personal best with a mark of 12.22 meters in the shot put, good for the second-longest throw among the 11 athletes in the field.  Morgan also tied a personal best in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.95.  Her other marks were a high jump of 1.49 meters, a long jump of 4.79 meters and a time of 2:35.34 in the 800 meters to close out competition.
 
Entering her sophomore season, Morgan ranked fourth in school history in the pentathlon and second in the heptathlon. 
 
The first event for the Wildcats in Friday's action is the preliminary heats of the women's 60 meter dash at 1:30 p.m.