April 26, 2018
Penn Relays results | Louisville Meet Info
A small contingent of Vanderbilt runners will compete at the famed Penn Relays this weekend aiming to break a pair of middle-distance relay school records.
The Commodore middle distance corps of Reagan Bustamante, Maddie Criscione, Kendall Derry and Ginger Hutton are scheduled to compete in the 4×1,500-meter relay on Friday at the Penn Relays, held on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. On Saturday, Bustamante, Derry, Hutton will double back with Courtney Clayton to run the 4×800-meter relay.
While the Commodore runners look to establish new records at the Penn Relays, Vanderbilt field event athletes Sophia Falco, Caleigh Lofstead and Margaret Ollinger will try to secure and strength NCAA qualifying marks Saturday at the Lyles/Wood Invitational held at the University of Louisville.
“We’ll be competing in Philadelphia and Louisville off a strong performance last week and solid week of training,” Vanderbilt head coach Steve Keith said. “If we run to our abilities, I truly think we could lower both relay records at Penn. I’m also looking for big things from Caleigh, Margaret and Sophia in Louisville as we get in our final competitions before the SEC Championships.”
Bustamante, a sophomore from Springfield, Va., Criscione, a senior from Park City, Utah, Derry, a sophomore from Fair Oaks, Calif., and Hutton, a junior from Aspen, Colo., will attempt to eclipse a six-year-old mark in the 4×1,500-meter relay.
The team’s existing 4×1,500-meter team record of 18:04.85 was set at the 2012 Colonial Relays by Allie Scalf, Kristen Findley, Alexa Rogers and Jordan White.
Bustamante, Derry, Hutton and Clayton, a senior from Roscoe, Ill., will try to top a 4×800-meter record that three of them helped establish a year ago. Bustamante, Hutton, Clayton and Criscione broke the event record by seven seconds at the 2017 Tennessee Relays with a 8:38.34 performance.
Three of the team’s middle distance runners – Bustamante, Hutton and Derry – are competing at peak levels entering the Penn Relays. Bustamante, Hutton and Derry set new personal records last week at the Duke Invitational, with Bustamante establishing new bests in both the 800 and 1,500. Criscione also narrowly missed a personal-best in the 1,500 at Duke.
The Commodores received a huge boost last week by Clayton’s return. A 2017 All-American and the school’s 800-meter record holder, Clayton came from a two-month layoff to produce a 2:09.50 effort at the War Eagle Invitational last Saturday in Auburn, Ala.
Lofstead, a sophomore from Camas, Wash., and Ollinger, a sophomore from Fairhope, Ala., want to improve their personal-bests at Louisville. While Lofstead has met the NCAA regional qualifying standard with a clearance of 13-03.50 (4.05 meters), Ollinger probably needs to improve on her season-best of 13-01.50 (4.00 meters) to assure entry in NCAA postseason competition.
Falco, a freshman from Lakewood Ranch, Fla., will look to improve off her bests of 41-01.75 (12.24 meters) in the triple jump and 18-10.75 (5.76 meters) in the long jump.