KNOXVILLE, Tenn./MIAMI, Fla. — As the weather heats up, so has Vanderbilt track and field. Sophomore Madison Fuller took more time off her school record in the 100 meters as the Commodores won three events and posted seven top-10 times at the Miami Invite and Tennessee Relays over the weekend.
“We have been coming along nicely and it’s fun to see,” head coach Steve Keith said. “All in all it was a really solid weekend. They were really productive meets for us.
“I think we moved all our event areas higher up on the conference and national level. Grace (Jensen) put herself in the national conversation in the 1500, Lainey (Phelps) dropped three seconds and the 5k crowd is improving a bit. Jada (Sims) broke 5,000 points with a good high jump in there, Taiya (Shelby) and Ruby (Stauber) performed well and Madison (Fuller) took time off her school record. So we are going to continue to compete, mange these big performances emotionally and move our focus to training for conference.”
Junior Grace Jensen got the Commodores off to a blazing fast start on Friday at the Tennessee Relays. She won the 1,500 meters with the second-fastest finish in school history. She stopped the clock at 4:16.74 which only trails Kristen Findley (4:14.74 in 2013) in the program’s history.
In Vanderbilt’s first track event Saturday at the Miami Invite, junior Taiya Shelby continued Vandy’s winning ways with a victory in the 400 meters. She cruised to a first-place finish of 52.70 and moved up one spot in the school record book. She cut off 1.5 seconds from her previous best and is now second all-time at Vanderbilt in the event. Not far behind was sophomore Kaira Brown who earned the bronze with the 10th-fastest finish in school history—55.30.
Not long after, Ruby Stauber broke the tape in the 800 meters. In her first 800 of the outdoor season, she earned the win with a finish of 2:06.40 and moved into seventh-place in the Vanderbilt record book. Freshman Nicole Anderson added another top-five finish for the Commodores with a fifth-place time of 2:12.92.
Fuller nearly pulled off Vandy’s fourth win of the weekend but was 0.003 short of victory in the 100 meters. In a wind-aided race, she was two-hundredths better than her school record time and finished in 11.52 to earn the silver medal. Fuller was also second in a wind-aided effort of 23.22 in the 200 meters.
In the first career heptathlon for sophomores Jada Sims and Josephine Dal, the tandem finished second and sixth, respectively. Sims was the runner-up with the eighth-most points in school history at 5,005, while Dal totaled 4,613. Among the heptathlon highlights, both posted career-bests in the high jump. Sims leaped up to sixth place in the school record books when she cleared 5 feet, 7 3/4 inches (1.72 meters)—the best jump for a Commodore in eight years (Brionne Williams, 2013)—while Dal cleanly passed 5-05.25 ft. (1.66m).
Sophomore Kaitlyn Deutsch reached ninth in the school record book in the pole vault. She cleared 12-5.5 ft. (3.80m) on her second attempt and finished fourth overall.
Also in Knoxville, Gillian Mortimer, Niki Narayani and Jacque Pinon went 3-4-5 in the 5,000 meters. Mortimer broke 17 minutes at 16:59.87, while Narayani finished in 17:18.81 and Pinon clocked out at 17:29.03. In the men’s 1,500 meters, Nick Laning earned bronze at 14:30.03, while Matthew Estopinal was fifth with a finish of 14:46.46.
Vanderbilt capped off the weekend with a second and third-place showing in the 4×400 relay in Miami. The Commodores ‘A’ team finished in 3:41.78 and was followed by the ‘B’ relay in 3:50.95.
In three competition weekends this year, the Commodore women boast four school records and a total of 22 top-10 performances.
Next weekend, Vanderbilt hosts its annual Black and Gold Invitational on West End on Friday and Saturday.
