RALEIGH, N.C.—Graduate student thrower Grayce French (Ridgeland, S.C.) set a new school record in the discus with a mark of 50.39 meters at the Raleigh Relays on Friday afternoon. It is the second record that French has broken this year, as she also established a new Villanova mark in the shot put during the indoor season. Her performance highlighted the second day of competition for the Wildcats at Paul H. Derr Track at the annual North Carolina State meet.
 
French surpassed the previous Villanova record of 49.14 meters which had been set by Christine Heffernan at the BIG EAST Championships on May 4, 2003. She beat Heffernan's mark on her first throw of the day which was measured at 49.43 meters. French competed in the second of two trial flights and stood in third place in the overall standings after her initial three throws. In the final, she bested her own record on each of her last two throws in the competition. Her fifth attempt of the day went for 49.99 meters and then she broke the 50-meter threshold with her final throw.
 
A newcomer to the Wildcats as a graduate transfer this season, French is a former ACC scorer in the discus as an undergraduate at Clemson. She recorded a then-personal best mark of 46.96 meters just a week ago when Villanova hosted the first outdoor meet of the season. That effort put her into fourth place on the Wildcats all-time performance list. With her record-setting performance on Friday, French passed Melinda Boykin in third place and Anne Mielnik in second place in addition to eclipsing Heffernan's previous record.
 
French concluded a terrific two days of competition on Friday, one day after she recorded a mark of 14.38 meters in the shot put on Thursday afternoon. That represents the second-longest outdoor throw in school history and the fifth-best overall mark. French is the record holder in the shot put with a mark of 14.85 meters recorded in an indoor dual meet at Army West Point last month.
 
A trio of Villanova's middle distance runners were in action later on Friday when competition shifted to the track events. Fifth-year senior McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.) posted a time of 54.80 in the 400 meters to win her heat and finish fourth overall. The time was a collegiate PR in an open race for Keegan, who ranks ninth in school history in the 400 meters. Her lifetime best in an open 400 is 54.6, while she has run as fast as 54.05 in a relay split during her collegiate career.
 
Junior Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) and sophomore Anna Helwigh (Soborg, Denmark) competed in the 1500 meters on Friday evening and recorded times of 4:22.28 and 4:23.22, respectively. Olivere beat her previous top time by nearly seven seconds and finished third in her section, with Helwigh placing sixth in the same race. The previous PR for Olivere was 4:29.01 at the Larry Ellis Invitational during her freshman season in 2019.
 
One event remains for the Villanova women in Raleigh as the trio of Madison Martinez, Amari Onque-Shabazz and Brynne Sumner will compete in the 800 meters at 11:40 a.m. on Saturday morning. Additional members of the team will be competing locally at the Penn Challenge.