UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—Senior high jumper Roschell Clayton (Montego Bay, Jamaica) broke the Villanova indoor record with a mark of 1.85 meters at the Penn State National Open on Saturday afternoon. Clayton's performance gives her sole possession of the record after she had tied the old mark in her season debut two weeks ago. The new record highlighted the second and final day of competition for the Wildcats at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track this weekend.
 
Clayton has reeled off four straight successful jumps to start out each of her first two competitions of the indoor season. She came into Saturday's meet with the bar at a height of 1.73 meters and easily made it over at that height and later progressions of 1.76 meters and 1.79 meters. Clayton was already the winner out of 26 competitors at Penn State and she took her fourth jump of the day with the bar at 1.85 meters (6-0 ¾).
 
Two weeks ago in Staten Island, Clayton recorded a then-lifetime best jump of 1.84 meters (6-0 ½) to tie former teammate Sanaä Barnes at the top of Villanova's indoor performance list. Clayton beat the mark by a centimeter with Saturday's effort and has now increased her top mark three times in the last eight months, including a jump of 1.82 meters outdoors in May 2023 and her two record-tying and record-breaking attempts over the past two weeks. Clayton is currently tied for ninth on the NCAA performance list this year after being a second team All-American in the high jump outdoors.
 
Freshman Malaika Cunningham (St. Andrew, Jamaica) came in fifth in Saturday's high jump competition with a height of 1.73 meters. She made three of her first four jumps of the day before being eliminated with the bar at 1.76 meters which would have tied Cunningham's lifetime and season best mark.
 
The duo of fifth year athletes Jordan Williams (Fresno, Calif.) and Adria Retter (Quakertown, Pa.) competed in the shot put and posted similar marks of 13.34 meters and 13.28 meters. Williams moved up a spot to ninth place on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the shot put after coming in at 10^th in her Villanova debut last weekend.
 
Saturday's track results were highlighted by a first place finish in the open section 4x400 meter relay. The lineup of sophomore Myonica Jackson (Bolingbrook, Ill.), sophomore Micah Trusty (Philadelphia, Pa.), freshman Olivia Allen (Kingwood, Texas) and fifth year Madison Martinez (Gahanna, Ohio) posted a time of 3:43.69 to come in less than four-tenths of a second in front of runner-up UMBC and the rest of the field. Martinez anchored the relay with a split of 54.32 on the final leg.
 
Earlier in the day, Allen ran the 400 meters in 57.18 and junior Margaret Carroll (Mount Wolf, Pa.) registered a personal best time of 9:38.98 in the invitational section of the 3000 meters. Junior Maya Dorer (New York, N.Y.) and freshman Caelen O'Leary (Taunton, Mass.) tallied times of 1:33.83 and 1:39.31, respectively, in the 600 meters. O'Leary won her heat by two-hundredths of a second.
 
Villanova will have athletes in competition at the Scarlet Knight Open in New York next Friday (February 2). The next full weekend of competition is February 9-10 when several meets make up the schedule on the last big weekend prior to conference championships.