NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Althea Thomas, Vanderbilt director of cross country and track and field, will add a quintet of sprinters and hurdlers to her second-year roster.
Allyria McBride, Taylor McKinnon, Brooke Overholt, Rondajai Washington and Madyson Wilson will join the Commodores in the upcoming 2022-23 season.
McBride is a native of Marietta, Georgia, and competed for Wheeler High School in the hurdles and long jump. Her prep bests are 14.43 in the 100-meter hurdles, 42.53 in the 300-meter hurdles, 1:01.87 in the 400-meter hurdles and 5.99 meters in the long jump. She is the 2022 Georgia High School Association state champion in the 300-meter hurdles and scored in the long jump. She garnered All-America honors while competing at the 2022 Nike Outdoor Nationals in the 400-meter hurdles. She was named an All-American at the 2021 AAU Junior Olympics in the long jump and placed eighth in the 400-meter hurdles in 2019.
McKinnon prepped at Cardinal Gibbons High School and is a native of Durham, North Carolina. She has prep bests of 13.77 in the 100-meter hurdles, 8.05 in the 55-meter hurdles, 8.70 in the 60-meter hurdles and 43.51 in the 300-meter hurdles. The 2019 N.C. 4A state championship in the 100-meter hurdlesfinished twice as the runner up in the same event. McKinnon has garnered recognition as the Milesplit National Girls Performer of the Week in 2022, 4A Girls Sportsmanship award recipient in 2021 and was Cardinal Gibbons’ Girls Athlete of the Year nominee in 2022. She maintained a grade point average of 4.0, a member of the A&B Honor Roll, National Honor Society member and Spanish Honor Society member.
Overholt hails from St. Mary’s, Ontario, and is a graduate transfer from Cornell University. She garnered second-team All-America honors in the hurdles and is a six-time All-Ivy League selection. Overholt was the Ivy League 400-meter hurdles champion in 2022 and won the 400-meter dash during indoor season. Her collegiate bests are 13.88 in the 100-meter hurdles, 54.70 in the 400 meters and 57.48 in the 400-meter hurdles. In 2019, she won the Canadian U20 trials, earning her a spot on Canada’s U20 national team.
Washington is a transfer from the University of Missouri and prepped at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She has prep bests of 24.3 in the 200 meters and 55.60 in the 400 meters. After she redshirted the 2019-20 indoor season and the outdoor season was canceled due to COVID-19, Washington developed to improve times of 23.69 (-0.3) in the 200 meters and 55.15 in the 400 meters.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Wilson prepped at Westlake High School andcompeted in the long jump, 100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles and the 400 meters for the Lions. She was a finalist at the 2019 Georgia High School Association meet in three of four events. The 2021 Georgia High School Association 6A state champion in the 300-meter hurdles finished the event with her prep best of 42.22. She was ranked third in the nation for the class of 2022 in the hurdles and was named the Lions’ female track athlete MVP in 2021 and the Atlanta track club MVP in the 300-meter hurdles. Wilson was also a member of the nationally ranked 4×100-meter and 4×200-meter relays. She was the 2022 Atlanta track club’s Patty Foell scholarship recipient and the 2022 Westlake High School AJC Cup Winner and was named to the Powerade All-Metro girls team. She also holds Westlake’s school record in the long jump. Her prep bests are 14.31 in the 100-meter hurdles, 42.22 in the 300-meter hurdles, 55.98 in the 400 meters and 5.86 meters in the long jump.
The quintet will join a roster that has competed at the pinnacle of collegiate track and field, the NCAA Track and Field Championships. The Commodores enjoyed a record-breaking year under Thomas, from Taiya Shelby shattering a 26-year-old record in the 400 meters to Haley Bishop becoming the first person in Vanderbilt history to score in the 100-meter dash. Academically, Vandy had a total of 34 student-athletes honored by the SEC and U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, combined. Veteran Shelby earned second-team All-America status during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. She also competed at the 2022 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field competing in the semifinals of the 400 meters.
