GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Vanderbilt track and field record book has a handful of new entries after the Commodores’ first day at Florida Relays. In total, there was one school record set and another five program all-time top 10 updates across three different events.
Lena Gooden, already the Vanderbilt record holder in the long jump at 6.17 meters, set a new school record with her best qualifying jump covering a distance of 6.26 meters. She would go on to win the event with her second-to-last jump measuring 6.38 meters moving her from third to first. That jump, however, was ineligible for the record books as it was wind-aided at 2.9 miles per hour.
Cali Bryant and Mackenzie Dagrosa finished second and third, respectively, in the invite division of the high jump. Bryant cleared the 1.79-meter bar on her final attempt, moving into third in Vanderbilt history in the event. Dagrosa’s height of 1.76 meters is ranked sixth on the all-time list.
There were two more entries to the Vanderbilt all-time top 10 list in the 400-meter hurdles with both Falon Spearman and Madyson Wilson improving upon their personal-best times to move up in the record books. Spearman took fourth in the event and moved up a spot to fourth all-time with a time of 56.33 seconds. Wilson placed seventh in the event and improved upon her personal best by 0.31 seconds to hold onto eighth all-time.
The last record book entry came from the 4×400-meter relay team of Josie Donelson, Faith Franklin, Joy Moorer and Wilson. The quartet combined to run the event in 3:34.04 seconds and needed a photo finish to determine their placement. They would have to settle for fourth after finishing 0.006 seconds behind the third-place team, but they put together the second-best performance in the relay in program history.
Other notable Commodore performances included Sofia Day finishing fourth in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:32.74, and Elizabeth Bailey, improving her distance throughout the event, finishing seventh in the javelin with a 49.76-meter mark.
Saturday’s events kick off at 11 a.m. CT with the 100-meter hurdles prelims.
