COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Four individuals and one relay team earned medals for the Vanderbilt track and field team at the Texas A&M Charlie Thomas Invitational over the weekend.
The Commodores also finished with six new marks among the school’s all-time top 10 lists and finished fifth among 14 teams with 62.5 points.
“It was a great weekend for our sprinters,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Donnie Young said of his group. “We had some really big personal bests and to put up the fourth and sixth fastest times in the 400 in early February is really impressive. It’s always exciting to see them go out there and compete like that.
“We’ll be ready to get back to work with one more race at home next week before the conference meet.”
Commodore Medalists
In Vanderbilt’s only event of the first day, the Commodores finished second in the distance medley relay with the ninth-fastest time in school history. Senior Reagan Bustamante, senior Becca Schulte, sophomore Haley Walker and sophomore Grace Jensen earned the silver with a finish of 11:31.42.
It was Vanderbilt’s fastest time since Bustamante, Jenn Edobi, Schulte and Ginger Hutton finished in 11:24.94 at the 2018 SEC Championships.
On Saturday, Bustamante and sophomore Taiya Shelby earned individual silvers in the 800 meters and 400 meters, respectively. The senior finished in 2:11.11 — the exact time that earned her bronze in her last meet at Clemson — for her second medal of the meet while Shelby posted the fourth-fastest time in school history at 54.64 and was one of three Commodores to score in the 400.
Senior Margaret Ollinger earned her first collegiate victory in the pole vault at 4.03 meters (13 feet, 2 1/2 inches). She was one of two vaulters to reach that height and won the tiebreaker after clearing 3.83 meters on her first attempt, 3.93 meters on her second attempt and cleared the winning height on her first try.
In the 3,000 meters, sophomore Jensen took home the bronze with a finish of 9:45.30.
All-Time Top 10 Times
Also in the 400, sophomore Jordan Smith was fourth with sixth-fastest time in Vanderbilt history (54.90) and freshman Kaira Brown was eighth overall at 56.02. Shelby and Smith were the second Commodore teammates to break 55 seconds in the same season, joining Faith Washington and Erin Edmond in 2015.
A pair of freshman sprinters etched their name into the school record book. In the 60 meters, Madison Fuller raced to a finish of 7.77 which ranks seventh in program history and was the fastest for a Commodore since Sophia Falco nearly set the school record (7.65) at the 2018 SEC Championships.
Fuller also posted the fifth-fastest time in Vanderbilt history in the 200 meters with a time of 24.83.
Freshman Josephine Dal stopped the clock in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.83 which is now No. 7 in school history and was the program’s fastest finish since Sarah Goodale (8.77) in 2017. Dal finished ninth as she missed the finals by just one-hundredth of a second.
More Scorers
In the mile, senior Lauren Moffett scored for the Commodores with a sixth-place finish of 4:54.89 while junior Gillian Mortimer was sixth in the 3,000 meters at 9:50.70.
Freshman Kaitlyn Deutsch and senior Caleigh Lofstead each scored in the pole vault with a fifth and sixth-place finish, respectively, at 3.83 meters (12-06.75 ft.).
Brown, Smith, Schulte and Shelby finished sixth in the 4×400-meter relay at 3:46.15.
Up Next
Its the final home meet of the season as the Commodores host the Music City Challenge on Feb. 14-15. After that Vanderbilt will return to College Station for the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 28-29.
