COLLEGE STATION, Texas — A new personal best in high jump for Rowan Houston highlighted Vanderbilt track and field’s second day of competition at the 2026 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Houston started Vanderbilt’s day by finishing in a tie for 11th in the high jump, missing out on securing a top-8 position and scoring team points for the Commodores through the event tiebreaker. But the junior still cleared the 1.76-meter bar on her third attempt and moved into seventh place all-time in the Vanderbilt record books.
Mackenzie Dagrosa and Cali Bryant tied for 13th in the event, having no problem in clearing 1.71 meters on their first tries, but just clipping the bar as they worked to leap over the 1.76-meter mark to join Houston in the standings.
The rest of the evening featured preliminary races on the track and while no Vanderbilt runner was able to post a fast enough time to qualify for tomorrow’s finals, each runner was competitive in their heats until they crossed the finish line.
Betsy Jepkemei posted her second-best time of the season in the mile after finishing in 4:49.26 to finish seventh in her heat.
Josie Donelson nearly overcame the leader of her 400-meter heat down the stretch, but she was edged out by 0.02 seconds, finishing in 53.07 seconds. Faith Franklin came out strong in her heat, pushing for the rail position early in the race before finishing in 53.82 seconds.
Vanderbilt had three women running in the 800-meter race, with the top time of the day going to Jayden Hill. Hill was trailing the leader of her heat by two seconds at the midway point of the race, but by the 600-meter mark she had cut that in half. She narrowly missed out on qualifying for tomorrow’s final as the winner of her heat, ending up 13th in qualifying with a time of 2:08.53.
The last event of the night was the 60-meter hurdles where Vanderbilt again had three women in the qualifying heats. Falon Spearman posted the top Commodore time in the event, crossing the finish line in 8.21 seconds, the 19th-best time of the night.
The final day of the 2026 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championship is set for Saturday. Vanderbilt’s day begins in the shot put final at 2 p.m. and eventually closes with the 4×400-meter relay.
