RALEIGH, N.C./STARKVILLE, Miss. — More records fell for the Vanderbilt outdoor track and field team at the Raleigh Relays and Bulldog Relays this weekend. In all, the Commodores posted three school record times and eight other all-time top-10 program performances.
“It was another great weekend,” said head coach Steve Keith. “Dropping another tenth in the 100, a couple really good 200s, Taiya (Shelby)’s 800, Ruby (Stauber) dropping a couple seconds, Nick (Laning) gutted things out, Madison (Murray) with a good meet, and a couple nice PRs for Grace (Jensen). It was really encouraging all around. A week of training before (Tennessee Relays) and going down to Miami should set us up for some pretty good events.”
Sophomore Madison Fuller and freshman Haley Bishop were at it again. At the Bulldog Relays, Fuller bested Bishop’s one-week-old school record in the 100 meters with a second-place finish of 11.54, while Bishop was sixth at 11.81. The duo also posted two of the top three times in school history in the 200 meters. Fuller was the runner-up with the fastest finish for a Commodore since 1996 at 23.64, while Bishop was one-thousandth behind for a bronze finish.
Meanwhile, Taiya Shelby won the 800 meters with the eighth-best performance all-time at Vanderbilt. She paced the field with a career-best finish of 2:07.85.
In the men’s 5,000 meters in North Carolina, juniors Nick Laning and Jonah Bird each broke 15 minutes and set personal bests Thursday night. Laning finished 35th with a time of 14:13.34, while Bird clocked out at 14:59.29.
The following night in Raleigh, junior Matthew Estopinal set the school standard in the men’s 10,000 meters at 29:33.43 and finished 21st overall, while Caleb Van Geffen finished in a career-best 32:24.82.
“(Estopinal) is made for the 10k,” Keith said. :”He’s hard-headed and competitive, and you have to have those attributes to be successful in that race. And he was patient early. It was great to see.”
Junior Grace Jensen moved up the school record book in the 1,500 meters (4:20.74). She finished seventh overall in Raleigh with the fourth-best time in program history and the fastest finish for a Commodore in five years. She also posted a career-best in the 800 meters (2:08.70) the following night.
Back in Starkville, Madison Murray moved up several spots in the school record books in the javelin. Her fifth-place toss of 132 feet, 10 inches (40.50m) is fourth-best in program history. She was also second in the high jump at 5-6 ft. (1.67 meters), while Jada Sims was sixth at that height which ranks both of them seventh all-time at Vanderbilt.
Also at Mississippi State, Kaira Brown (55.71) and Jordan Smith (56.06) were sixth and eighth in the 400 meters, while Regan Clay was sixth in the 400 hurdles (1:03.09) and Kaitlyn Deutsch was fifth in the pole vault (3.50m).
Through two meets this year, the Commodores boast six school records (three men’s) and 12 other top-10 performances.
Vanderbilt returns to action at the Tennessee Relays and Miami Invite on April 9-10.
