Commodores Set For Penn Relays

Vanderbilt to compete in 125th edition of historical event

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt track and field is set to head to Philadelphia this weekend along with some of the best athletes in the world for the 125th running of the prestigious Penn Relays.

“Last year was the first year that we had gone to Penn since I have been here,” said head coach Steve Keith. “Previous coaches had taken them there. It’s always a great experience and actually a really good recruiting experience too because it’s a big high school event, too. A number of kids on our team, like (Reagan) Bustamante, have run on relay teams there in high school, so it’s fun for them to go back. We are only taking relays that we think can do well and enjoy that level of competition.”

Vanderbilt will open the historic event on Thursday when Sara Tsai runs the 5,000 meters at 7:40 p.m.

On Friday, the Commodores will compete in two events, the 4×1,500-meter relay at 12:15 p.m. and sprint medley at 5:05 p.m. Haley Walker, Ginger Hutton, Grace Jensen and Reagan Bustamante will take part in the first event while Regan Clay, Jordan Smith, Taiya Shelby and Jenn Edobi will run the sprint medley.

The foursome has a chance to make history, being much better on paper than the school record set at 18:04.85. The mark was achieved in 2012 by Kristen Findley, Alexa Rogers, Allie Scalf and Jordan White.

On Saturday, Vanderbilt’s nationally-ranked 800 meter stable will run the 4×800-meter relay at 12:15 p.m. Walker, Edobi, Jensen and Bustamante average 8:31.06 in the race, less than four seconds behind second place Ohio State. The quartet will look to go for the school record in the event.

The current record of 8:38.34 was set in 2017. Bustamante and Hutton were both on the squad that set the mark.

Vanderbilt will be joined by three SEC teams at the relays: Auburn, Tennessee and South Carolina. Fifteen other Power 5 Conference schools will be in attendance: Boston College, Florida State, Notre Dame, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Duke, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland, Wisconsin, Penn State and West Virginia.

Four squads are top 25 in the nation, including Florida State (6), Tennessee (17), South Carolina (18) and Notre Dame (25).

PLAYERS MENTIONED

Reagan Bustamante

Distance
Junior

Regan Clay

Sprints
Sophomore

Jenn Edobi

Sprints
Graduate Student

Ginger Hutton

Distance
Senior

Sara Tsai

Distance
Senior

Haley Walker

Middle Distance
Freshman

Grace Jensen

Middle Distance
Freshman

Jordan Smith

Sprints
Freshman

Taiya Shelby

Sprints
Freshman