PHILADELPHIA-  Marc Morrison (Orlando, Fla.) set a new UConn long jump school record on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia at the Penn 10 Elite Meet hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. The senior flew past the competition with a Husky record jump of 7.86m.

Morrison soared past his previous best of 7.64m that he set in the 2023 outdoor season, breaking the previous school mark set by Malik Snead in 2017 (7.67m). The historic performance was the top long jump of the day, and was a facility record at the Ott Center.

Morrison had company with other Huskies making history Saturday. Teammate Kasey Savage (Horsham, Pa.) finished third in the long jump competition, with his high of 7.50m landing him 8^th all time in UConn history. 

On the track, Jenna Zydanowicz (West Hartford, Conn.)  blazed through the 1 mile, finishing third in the meet with a time of 4:38.30. Following a historic cross country season in the fall, the West Hartford, Connecticut native cemented herself further in UConn history Saturday, with her personal best 4:38.30 mile time the second-fastest mile in UConn women's track & field history, trailing only Mia Nahom's 4:35.27 mark set in 2022. 

On the men's side, Mekhi Stone (Smyrna, Ga.) continued his strong indoor season with a 47.60 time in the 400m, landing him 7^th all-time in the UConn track & field marks. Terrel Williams (Maplewood, NJ), who already holds the 60m hurdle record at UConn, won the event on Saturday with a time of 7.72. Williams now has two of the top three all-time performances in the 60m hurdles. In addition to the top-10 performances, several Huskies set personal bests:

• O.J. Singletary (Rochester, NY) in the 400m at 47.81
• Griffin Mandirola (Suffield, Conn.) in the mile at 4:08.61
• Loghan Hughes (Enosburg, Vt.) in the mile at 4:56.25
• Piper Linn (Greencastle, Pa.) in the pole vault at 3.51m
• Abigail Bernas (Orchard Park, NY) in the pole vault at 3.51m
• Gabriela DeFelice (New Canaan, Conn) in the shot put at 13.39m

Quote from Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Beth Alford-Sullivan:

"We had a great day at UPenn's Ott Center for Track and field.  What an amazing facility.  Our team too big steps forward today and competed with great focus and   compromise drive.  Marc Morrison stole the show with a huge Long Jump mark of 7.86m.  New school record and a new facility record, and as of now top 5 in the NCAA rankings as well.

His performance and many others showed the squads are rounding out the early season meets and preparing well for the meets ahead!! Proud of all these Huskies today!"

Up Next: UConn returns to action next weekend starting on Friday January 31^st for the John Thomas Terrier Classic Invite in Boston, with the meet concluding the next day. The Huskies will also host an indoor meet on Saturday (2/1)  for the second time this season for the Coach Greg Roy-al Rumble.