PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Fifth year triple jumper Malik Cunningham (St. Andrew, Jamaica) cleared 16 meters in competition for the third time in his career and the first time this season to secure a second place championship finish at Franklin Field on the final day of the 127^th Penn Relays on Saturday afternoon. Cunningham, junior javelin thrower Nick Coffey (Cranston, R.I.) and the men's 4x400 meter relay team all had impressive performances for Villanova, which also won its 95^th Championship of America title with a win in the 4xMile relay.
 
There is a reason why the oldest and largest track & field event in the world is known as a carnival. The spectacle of the Penn Relays, especially when it reaches its apex during the middle of the day on Saturday, is unlike any other. It speaks to the depth of the Wildcats roster that Villanova had athletes qualify for seven individual events this week in addition to having distance medley, 4xmile and 4x400 meter relay entries. Cunningham, Coffey and the 4x400 squad were all in action at the height of competition on Saturday in their respective events.
 
Cunningham is of course no stranger to the Penn Relays, as he qualified for the championship section of the event this season for the third time in his career. He has placed in the top seven all three time, with this year marking his second straight runner-up showing. The second place finish came after a strong competition between Cunningham and eventual champion Clarence Foote-Talley from Ohio State. The pair traded ownership of the lead throughout the contest, with none of the other athletes from the field of 13 competitors ever ranking higher than third.
 
The best jump of the day for Cunningham was measured at 16.08 meters and came on his last of six attempts. It is the second-longest distance he has recorded in outdoor competition and the No. 3 mark of his impressive collegiate career. Cunningham already led the BIG EAST this season, while Saturday's performance moved him up a spot into ninth place on the East Region descending order list.
 
After the first round of jumps it was Cunningham in the lead with a measurement of 15.71 meters on his first jump. He fouled on his next attempt and Foote-Talley passed him with a mark of 15.85 meters on his second trip down the runway. The standings stayed the same until the sixth and final round of jumps. Cunningham extended his mark for the day to 15.80 meters on his fourth attempt and added one more centimeter on his fifth jump. His final effort was for the mark of 16.08 meters and briefly gave Cunningham back the lead before Foote-Talley had a jump of 16.71 meters to close the competition. The pair will likely compete against each other again in the NCAA East Preliminary meet next month.
 
The final field event of the weekend was the championship section of the javelin. Coffey has established himself as one of the up-and-coming athletes to watch on the Villanova roster, with his personal best mark of 67.90 meters earlier this season ranking as the third-longest in school history with the current javelin implement.
 
Coffey finished ninth in Saturday's competition with a throw of 63.62 meters. It came on his second attempt of the day and was good for an eighth place standing through two rounds of throws. Coffey was among the nine athletes in the field who advanced from three initial throws to make three more attempts. He registered successful throws on all six of his trips down the runway, with five throws ranging from 58.74 meters to 60.93 meters to go along with his top mark of the day.
 
The men's 4x400 meter relay team of freshman Luke Rakowitz (Dallas, Texas), junior Jakob Kunzer (George Town, Grand Cayman), junior Nicholas Mollica (Jackson, N.J.) and freshman Jimmy Milgie (Wildwood, Mo.) came in eighth in the college final with a time of 3:12.87. Milgie had an anchor leg of 47.82 after he ran the 400 meter leg of the distance medley relay in 47.96 a day earlier. Villanova qualified for the final in the college section after it came in fourth in the preliminary heats on Friday night. Mollica, freshman Ronan O'Neill (Wilmette, Ill.), Kunzer and Rakowitz posted a time of 3:17.88 in the heats.