AUBURN, Ala. – Vanderbilt got off to a record-setting start in its first outdoor track and field meet in nearly two years. A trio of school records highlighted the season-opening Tiger Classic in Auburn, Alabama, over the weekend.
“This was one of our best openers,” said head coach Steve Keith. “It was a total team effort and fun to watch. It was a good start and a good place to build from.”
In the first relay race of the season, Haley Bishop, Madison Fuller, Jordan Smith and Taiya Shelby became the first Commodore quartet to break 46 seconds in the 4×100 relay. The foursome obliterated a 23-year-old school standard. When Shelby crossed the finish line, the clock was stopped at 45.81 — more than a half second better than any other Commodore 4×1 in history, including the previous best of 46.38 set in 1998.
“The coaches and the team were fired up after that 4×100,” Keith said. “It turned some heads, and that relay will continue to help us get the energy up at future meets.”
Just about an hour later, Bishop and Fuller made more history. The duo each broke an 11-year-old school record in the 100 meters. Bishop now holds the top spot with a fourth-place finish of 11.61, while Fuller was sixth overall with a time of 11.66. Each eclipsed the previous standard of 11.80 set by Anna Carr in 2010.
Just one more hour passed before Bishop rewrote the record again. She was fourth in the 200 meters with a finish of 24.03. That now stands as the third-fastest finish in school history and is the second-fastest finish in the last 25 years at Vanderbilt. Meanwhile, Shelby was ninth overall at 24.33 which was just two hundredths off her personal best.
In the men’s 3,000 meters, junior Matthew Estopinal won the event with a program-best time of 8:16.83, while classmates Jonah Bird (8:40.46) and Nick Laning (8:41.63) finished fourth and fifth, respectively. While on the women’s side junior Jacque Pinon was the top Dore and broke 10 minutes at 9:59.15. She was fifth, while Niki Narayani (10:00.81) was sixth and Gillian Mortimer (10:02.64) was seventh.
Sophomore Madison Murray’s first toss in the javelin — the first of her collegiate career — was the fifth-best throw in school history. She reached 123 feet, 11 inches (37.78 meters) which was the best toss for any Vandy athlete since 2007.
Junior Grace Jensen was one of three Commodores in the top seven of the 800 meters. Jensen’s fourth-place finish of 2:09.15 is the 10th-fastest in school history and was closely followed by junior Haley Walker’s fifth-place time of 2:11.26 and freshman Lainey Phelps (2:15.51).
On Friday night, Vanderbilt finished 2-3-4 in the women’s 1,500 meters. Jensen was the runner-up at 4:29.73, followed by senior Ruby Stauber (4:30.38) and junior Haley Walker (4:30.87), while on the men’s side, Nick Laning was fifth in 3:53.77.
In all, Vanderbilt posted three school record times and four other all-time top-10 program performances.
Vanderbilt will waste no time getting back on the track again with two meets next weekend. The Commodores will be at N.C. State’s Raleigh Relays and the Bulldog Relays at Mississippi State.
