March 9, 2017
A trio of Vanderbilt track & field athletes will be competing in College Station, Texas this weekend at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Sarah Bell (pole vault), Simone Charley (long jump) and Courtney Clayton (800-meters) all ranked in the top 16 in the nation for their respective events in order to qualify for the meet.
Clayton will be the first Commodore to compete this weekend in the women’s 800-meter semifinals, which will begin Friday at 7:10 p.m. (CT). If she qualifies, the finals for the 800-meters will be run at 5:20 p.m. on Saturday. Clayton’s qualifying mark is a school-record time of 2:04.24 at the Music City Challenge on Feb. 11.
Bell and Charley will both compete on Saturday, with the triple jump beginning at 3:30 p.m. and pole vault starting at 4:00 p.m. Charley qualified for Nationals after leaping to a new school record of 44’5.25″, which placed third in the SEC Championships and earned her All-SEC Second Team honors. Charley is a two-time NCAA Indoor First Team All-American and will be looking to qualify for third All-American team this weekend. Bell also qualified for the National Championships with a Vanderbilt record-setting mark at the SEC Championships with a vault of 13’11.25″, which was the sixth-best height at the meet. Bell is one of eight SEC competitors in the pole vault field this weekend.
Coverage:
The NCAA Championships will stream live on ESPN3 on Friday and Saturday. There will also be a tape delay edited broadcast on Sunday airing on ESPN2. Broadcasters will include Dwight Stones, Larry Rawson, Larra Overton and John Anderson.
Quoting Head Coach Steve Keith:
On the team’s opportunity to compete at the National Championships:
“I know the women are extremely excited and we’re all proud as well in sending three athletes to the NCAA Indoor Championships. Only the top 16 athletes in the NCAA qualify, which makes this the most difficult meet to qualify for in the country. Anybody who qualifies for this meet is competing at a exceptionally elite level.”
On the historical context of sending three athletes to the meet:
“What Courtney, Sarah and Simone have accomplished is truly special for both them and the program. With three athletes qualified, this is the most we’ve sent to the Nationals since 1998 when we competed in the 400-meter dash, 800-meter run and 4×400 relays.”
On how the SEC Championships will prepare the team this weekend:
“Hosting the SEC Championships two weeks ago and competing in a meet of that caliber was great preparation for the NCAA Championships due to the overall quality and depth of the conference, so our women will be ready this weekend.”