April 7, 2012
With the end of another track meet comes a new list of personal and school bests for the Vanderbilt Commodores, who have worked hard this spring to push beyond their limits.
The Dores finished competition Saturday at the Colonial Relays, hosted by William & Mary, with an impressive finish by their relay team, who nearly broke a meet record against strong competition from thirty-two entered teams, including team winner Villanova.
“Overall we had a very solid weekend with a number of personal bests and improvements on our seasonal bests,” said Head Coach Steve Keith. “This meet offers our team a chance to compete against a number of schools and individuals that we don’t normally see which keeps things interesting. Our women responded well and in a few events, we put ourselves in position to qualify for the NCAA first round as well as improving our individual standings within the SEC.”
Top performers on Saturday included Alyson Hasty, who set an outdoor personal best in the pole vault with her second-place finish of 11-05.75, and the 4x1500m team of Allie Scalf, Kristen Findley, Alexa Rogers, and Jordan White.
“Our 4×1500 team of Scalf (4:35), Findley (4:27), Rogers (4:35) and White (4:26) ran a school record by 9″ and just barely missed setting a meet record by less than a second. Nice efforts by all four as we had to run the majority of the race on our own. We also showed some good depth with our second team placing 5th overall.”
Friday’s highlights included Ellie Tidman winning the high jump. “Ellie winning the HJ with a jump of 5-9.75 was a real highlight,” said Keith. “The conditions were far from optimal and she competed well.”
Also on Friday, Kristen Smith’s 5000m finish of 16:21.22 was both her personal best, and put her on the all-time list of Vanderbilt runners as the No. 2 in the event.
“Smith ran a smart race, having to commit to a hard early pace and held together,” said Smith. “Grace Orders made the most of her first ever 5k on the track running 16:48 and gaining some valuable experience.”
The Commodores head to Oxford, Miss. next weekend for the Mississippi Open and then host the Vanderbilt Invite the weekend of the 20th.
