Records rather than hearts were broken at Friday’s Boston University Valentine’s Invitational. The Violets’ track and field teams were led by a handful of men and women who rewrote history and set the stage for the upcoming UAA Championships.

Rather than let someone else break his 200-meter school record in the future, senior captain Matthew Powers’ college career came full circle, building on his previous record with a time of 21.63, two tenths better than his previous freshman mark.

The invitational was also the sight of several personal bests for the men’s squad. Junior Jorge Maldonado finished 30th in the 5,000-meter competition, with a personal-best time of 14:53.93. Junior Curtis Mann also had a big day, with a personal-best finish in the 800-meter (1:56.11) and a near-record breaking 4×400-meter relay. Mann, alongside Powers, sophomore Malcolm Montilus and junior Budd brown finished in 3:18.64. Good enough for 11th place, the finish was just a couple of seconds off of the school record.

If the men’s 4×400-meter teased breaking a record, the women’s competition had no time for games. Freshmen Danielle Murray and Justina Sanders-Schifano, sophomore Ireland Gibson and senior Drew Gibson scorched the school’s old record by two seconds, setting a new Violets record with a stellar time of 3:55.73. In her last year of competition, Murray seems to have finally mastered the strategy that is so important in a relay event.

“We each focused on running the best 400 we could which collectively allowed us to break the record this weekend,” Murray said. “And even though we had some hiccups like my teammate running without a shoe on during the race, I think it just shows how badly we wanted it.”

Sanders-Schifano also excelled in the 400-meter, setting a new personal record and nearly breaking the school’s mark in 59.77. Gibson also flirted with history, with just under a half second standing between her and the NYU 800-meter record. And freshman Alyssa Jean continued her progression, finishing the 200-meter in a new career-best time of 26.56.

In other weekend action, senior Max Avila edged out Mann in the 800m, finishing in 1:56.04, while Brown led the violets with a 48.79 mark in 400-meter, good enough for 28th. In the 3,000-meter, sophomore Max Mudd finished in 8:38.71 with sophomore Karn Setya and junior Nick Haram close behind.

In the women’s 400-meter, Murray also finished strong, setting a new personal-best time at 59.77. Meanwhile, senior captain Kristina Harris looked to be hitting her stride at the ideal time in the 60-meter dash, finishing in 8.16 seconds, her best performance of the season.

The Violets will look to stay in shape with the UAA Championships approaching as the men and women will compete on Saturday Feb. 19 at the Ramapo College Indoor Tune-Up in Manhattan.

A version of this article appeared in the Feb. 16 print edition. Email Michael Thompson at [email protected].