NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt men’s and women’s cross country announced its 2021 schedule on Friday as the Commodores prepare for their first season under the Althea Thomas, the director of cross country and track and field, and distance coach Michael Porter.
Vanderbilt will open the season at Missouri on Friday, Sept. 3 and then host the annual Commodore Classic at Percy Warner Park on Friday, Sept. 17 in Nashville.
Two weeks after that, the Commodores will be in South Bend, Indiana, for Notre Dame’s Joe Piane Invitational on Oct. 1, followed by a trip to the Blazer Classic (Oct. 16) for the second straight year.
The SEC Championships are set for Oct. 29 at Missouri, while the NCAA South Regionals will take place in Huntsville, Alabama, on Nov. 12. The NCAA Championships are Nov. 20 in Tallahassee, Florida.
Last season, Vanderbilt’s women finished with 198 points at the SEC Championships to earn the program’s 10th top-six finish in the last 11 years, including the 2011 SEC title, while the men accumulated 248 points—since 1980, that total was only bettered by last season’s 239 points.
Both the women’s and men’s team returns all of their regular scorers from last season. In addition to a new crop of freshmen, the men return Caleb Van Geffen for a fifth year, while on the women’s side, Gillian Mortimer returns for a fifth year and graduate transfer McKenzie Yanek joins the Commodores after an All-SEC stint with Alabama and earning an undergraduate degree from the University of San Francisco.
