NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Competing for the final time ahead of the Skyline Conference Championship, the Manhattanville University track & field teams closed out the regular season on Friday at the Southern Connecticut State University Wilton Wright Outdoor Invitational. The Valiants competed in 20 different events in the action-packed day serving as the last tune-up before the conference meet in two weeks.

Four program records fell over the course of the day, highlighted by a pair of historic efforts from Shai Graham (Bronx, N.Y./Bronx Theatre High School). The senior ran the 100-meter in 11.01 seconds, beating his own program top-time of 11.11 seconds from two years ago, placing seventh overall in the field of 41. Not content with one program record, Graham went on to post a new best mark of 22.54 seconds in the 200 meter to place 13th, breaking Chrys Malone's 15-year-old record of 22.60 seconds.

Aka Udeagha (Rye, N.Y./Rye) also shined in 200, tying for 24^th with a time of 23.01 seconds that now stands fourth in program history.

The other record setting performances of the day belonged to Zach Garrant (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill High School) and Jayda Birch (Queens, N.Y./Excelsior Preparatory). Garrant ran the 3000 steeplechase in 10:17.84, finishing in second place and shaving nearly 17 seconds off Joey DeMilio's (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) previous top mark set in 2024. Birch, meanwhile, had just enough power on her fourth toss in the shot put to break a record that had stood for 12 years, besting Katie Mollahan's mark from 2014 by one one-hundredth of a meter, recording a distance of 11.91 meters to place seventh in the field.

Ten other performances worked their way into the Valiant record books on Friday. Manhattanville showed out in the men's and women's 400, with all five combined competitors posting program top-ten times. On the men's side, Udeagha's time of 52.48 was good for 23^rd in the race and ranked fourth fastest in program history. Courtney Brown's (Clarendon, Jamaica/Mount Vernon) time of 52.80 seconds was good to rank sixth all-time in the Valiant records, while Khalil Williams (Menands, N.Y./Shaker) posted a time of 53.12 to climb into ninth.

Not to be outdone, Birch and Alicia Bibi (Marlborough, Mass./Marlborough) etched their name into the women's 400 top times, with Birch's 1:07.80 ranking sixth and Bibi's 1:11.78 good for 11^th in Manhattanville history.

In the long jump, Williams' 18^th-place finish of 5.78 meters was the sixth-furthest recorded by a Valiant, with Luca Perez (Somers, N.Y./Somers) not far behind with a 5.41 meter jump to take 22^nd and move into a tie for seventh all-time. Williams had one more top performance in store, finished the 400 hurdles in 1:00.21, the fourth-fastest time in program history with an 11^th-place finish.

Just in case that all wasn't enough notable efforts, Lilly Savnik (Mastic, N.Y./William Floyd) took third place in the javelin with a throw of 23.85 meters, the sixth-best score in Manhattanville history, while Sam Delgado (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) ran the 5000 in 23:02.71, seventh all-time in the school.

Recapping the rest of the men's track events, DeMilio took 12^th (2:02.00) and Brown placed 25^th (2:13.61) in the 800, with DeMilio also running the 1500 with a time of 4:28.34 to place 16^th. Danny Noia (Honolulu, Hawaii/McKinley) clocked in at 17:20.24 in the 5000 for 14^th place.

For the women's remaining track efforts, Uzoma Nweze (Valley stream, Long Island/Valley Stream North High school) finished the 100 dash in 14.07 seconds to place 23^rd. Birch paced three Valiants in the 200, placing 34^th with a 28.80 seconds split, leading Nweze (35^th, 29.10) and Saage Palmer (Brooklyn, N.Y./Medgar Evers College Preparatory School) (36^th, 29.61). Palmer would later run the 400 hurdles and take 11^th with a 1:26.25 finish. Bibi followed up her 400 performance with a showing in the 800, claiming 20^th with a time of 3:05.59. Jennifer Oliveros (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) completed the 1500 in 6:14.55 to nab 16^th.

Gabrielle Billetz (Clarksburg, Mass./Hoosac Valley) took fifth in the women's discus with a mark of 38.38 meters and placed 17^th in the hammer throw, scoring 33.04 meters.

Up Next
Riding no shortage of momentum, the Valiants now have two weeks to train and prepare for the Skyline Track and Field Championships, hosted by Farmingdale on April 26^th.

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