NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Every story starts somewhere. At Vanderbilt, any story about track and field throwing events begins with multiple-time All-American Leslie Vidmar. She set the template.
As the first Vanderbilt thrower inducted into the Hall of Fame, she’s still at it.
From All-Americans and All-SEC performers like Veronica Fraley, Divine Oladipo and Sarah Omoregie in recent seasons to a bevy of current Commodores who are pushing for the top of the podium, Vanderbilt has emerged as a hotbed for track and field’s throwing events under Althea Thomas, director of cross country and track and field.
But before NCAA champion and Olympian Fraley set the program’s current outdoor records in shot put and discus, Vidmar set the standard more than 25 years ago.
Before NCAA heptathlon silver medalist Beatrice Juskeviciute set the current program record in javelin, Vidmar helped establish the marks that future Commodores chased.
When she completed her Vanderbilt career, Vidmar ranked second in program history in javelin and held the outdoor records in shot put and discus. Her shot put record stood for 25 years, until Oladipo, Omoregie and Fraley took it to new frontiers.
Vidmar was no less prolific indoors, setting program records in the weight throw and shot put—the latter again outlasting all challengers until Oladipo eclipsed it 24 years later.
In 1998, Vidmar became just the second Commodore to compete in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, finishing eighth in the shot put and earning All-America honors. Her efforts helped the Commodores finish the indoor season ranked No. 15 in the United States Track and Field Coaches poll, still the best ranking the program has achieved.
But it is perhaps telling that Vidmar’s first appearance in The Hustler had nothing to do with how far she could throw any of track and field’s implements. With the sports pages focused on football’s season-opening victory and women’s soccer sweeping its weekend slate, Vidmar appeared in the newspaper’s lead story on Sept. 6, 1994. Just days into her time at Vanderbilt, she was among first-year students who participated in Project Outreach Day—volunteering at one of 16 on- or off-campus sites with a Nashville social-service agency.
“It was definitely worth my time,” Vidmar told the paper. “I think it broadened my ideas for community service.”
Right from the beginning, Vidmar set the standard for what a Commodore should be.
And in joining former teammate and NCAA champion Ryan Tolbert as the track and field program’s second Hall of Famer, she’s the model for the new era of excellence now unfolding.
