NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt will host the final indoor meet of the season, the Music City Challenge this weekend.
The two-day meet will have the Commodores will compete against Alabama, Arkansas State, Cincinnati, Duke, Eastern Kentucky, FIU, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Kennesaw State, Kentucky, Lipscomb, LSU, Memphis, Meridian Community College, Miami [Ohio], Michigan State, Mississippi State, Murray State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Samford, SMU, Southern Illinois, Southern Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UMass Lowell, Villanova, and Western Illinois.
Last weekend, Vanderbilt traveled to the Charlie Thomas Invitational back on Feb. 4-5. In the two-day meet, the Commodores set numerous school records. Josephine Dal began the meet in the women’s pentathlon and shattered her own personal record in the 60 meters hurdles, establishing herself in the top-10 in school history. Her time of 8.74 positioned her at silver finish on the day and tied for fifth in school history. Continuing on, Dal registered top-10 finishes in the high jump [1.61 meters], shot put [8.71 meters], and long jump [5.40 meters]. In the final event of the pentathlon, Dal cruised to time of 2:28.41 in the 800 meters, a personal best. She concluded the pentathlon in eighth place overall with 3,541 points which placed her seventh in school history, in addition to a new personal best.
Ella Escobar, Lainey Phelps, Joslin Blair, Caroline Eck, Jordan Smith, Nicole Anderson, Cameron Fawcett, and Ella Lambert all competed in the distance medley relay for Vanderbilt. The Commodore teams crossed the finish line back-to-back with the B-team finishing in third place overall at 11:38.24 and the A-team directly behind in fourth with a time of 11:40.96.
In the final day of the Charlie Thomas Invitational, Vanderbilt competed in eight different events. The 800 meters was highlighted by Grace Jensen’s and Taiya Shelby’s back-to-back finishes. Jensen took gold in the event with a person best of 2:07.40, the third best mark in program history, 38th in the NCAA this season and seventh in the Southeastern Conference. Shelby also set a new personal best in the event with a time of 2:07.41 for fourth in the record book, 39th in the NCAA this season and eighth in the SEC. Phelps (2:11.09; personal record) and Anderson (2:11.91) also competed in the event. Madison Fuller shed time off of her previous best, setting a new personal of 24.25 to stay third in school history in the event.
In the final event of the day, the 4×400 meter relay, the Commodores deployed two teams in the race. The B team of Escobar, Anderson, Phelps and Jensen completed the relay in 3:49.65 for 12th place.
The A team of Shelby, Fuller, Kaira Brown, and Smith notched a time of 3:37.20 to finish first in the race. The team’s finish positions them second in school history, 22nd in the NCAA and seventh in the SEC.
Elsewhere this weekend, Divine Oladipo competed in the Doc Hale Virginia Tech Elite in the shot put, finishing second overall with a mark of 16.97m.