Feb. 14, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt track and field team closes out its regular season this weekend as split squads will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational and Bloomington, Ind., for the Hoosier Hills Invitational.
“Tyson is one of the top collegiate meets in the country,” Vanderbilt track and field coach D’Andre Hill said. “The competition is going to be great. Several highly ranked teams will be competing there so it will be a great competition for us going into the SEC Indoor Championships.”
The Commodores will be facing some of the stiffest competition of the season at Tyson, with eight teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association scheduled to compete, including SEC foes Arkansas, LSU and Tennessee.
Vanderbilt will also be sending athletes to Bloomington, Ind., for the second time this season as the Commodores take part in the Hoosier Hills Invitational. Earlier in the season, the Black and Gold competed in the SEC/Big Ten Challenge held on Indiana’s campus.
“The Indiana event will serve as a maintenance race for our athletes,” Hill said. “It will be the last opportunity before the conference meet to tweak some of the smaller things we’ve been working on in practice.”
Last weekend, the Commodores competed at the Meyo Invitational in South Bend, Ind. The `Dores produced some of their top performances of the season at the meet. Kristabel Doebel-Hickok finished 10th in the 5000 meters with a time of 17:24.08. Taylor Jackson ran the 60 meters in a season-best 7.81 while Lauryn Smith finished the 200 meters in 25.44.
Other top performers included Val Kazmer, who improved her PR in the 3000 meters with a time of 10:12.21 and the 4×400 meter relay team of Amani Floyd, Lauren Fortson, Lauryn Smith and Sheri Sullivan that ran a season-best time of 3:49.22, improving their time by seven seconds.
Action at the Tyson Invitational begins Friday at 9 a.m. and continues on Saturday at 10 a.m. Competition at the Hoosiers Hills Invitational commences on Friday at 3 p.m.