NEW YORK—Fifth year triple jumper Malik Cunningham (St. Andrew, Jamaica) was named the BIG EAST Men's Field Athlete of the Week in an announcement by the conference office on Wednesday afternoon. The honor is the ninth career weekly BIG EAST award for Cunningham and the third outdoors. He earned this weeks accolade after making his 2023 outdoor season debut at the Miami Alumni Invitational last week.
 
Cunningham recorded a mark of 15.99 meters in the triple jump in Miami to finish second in a field of 15 competitors. The distance is the third-longest jump of his career and his second-longest outdoors. Cunningham put himself into this year's BIG EAST lead by a wide margin in his first outing of the Spring, while his mark also ranks him fifth on the season's East region descending order list and 11^th on the NCAA Division I performance list.
 
Last week's performance is the latest strong outing for the second-ranked triple jumper in Villanova history. Cunningham has previously been a second team All-American in the event indoors, a three-time BIG EAST champion and one of only two athletes in school history to surpass 16 meters in the triple jump in collegiate competition. He is a previous qualifier for the NCAA East Preliminary meet outdoors and put himself in excellent position to return to the regional meet this season.
 
Cunningham was previously the BIG EAST Men's Field Athlete of the Week on two occasions during the 2022 outdoor season when he earned the honor in consecutive weeks on April 25 and May 2. He has garnered six career Athlete of the Week honors during indoor competition, including twice each in the 2020, 2022 and 2023 seasons.
 
Villanova sent contingents of athletes to both the Miami Alumni Invitational and the Duke Invitational last weekend. On tap for the team this week is competition on Friday and Saturday in the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton.