March 22, 2007
Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Competing on a sore knee, freshman Cherice Robertson set a pair of personal bests Thursday to conclude the first day of heptathlon activities in second place at the Alabama Relays.
Robertson set PRs in the shot put and 200-meter dash to accumulate 3,087 points after the first day of activities, a total that puts the product of Memphis, Tenn., in second place behind Ashley Wilhelm of Cincinnati. Wilhelm, a fifth-year senior and former participant at the NCAA Championships, leads by 95 points. Sarah Gretzmacher, a Georgia senior and former All-SEC performer, is third 3,070 points, followed by Ashley Reyer of Southern Mississippi (3,013) and Francis Vital of Ole Miss (2,920).
On Friday, Robertson is expected to compete in the long jump, javelin and 800-meter run trying to break the existing Vanderbilt freshman heptathlon of 4,873 points set by former All-American Josie Hahn in 2001.
Another Commodore freshman, Mallory Hitt of Baton Rouge, La., – is 10th among 13 participants with a 2,692-point total.
Vanderbilt Head Coach Lori Shepard said Robertson started slowly, then gained confidence as the competition developed.
“I was really proud of how Cherice competed,” Shepard said. “She could have ran better in the hurdles and was hurting in the high jump and shot put. We talked about not taking her final shot put, but Cherice went ahead and popped a great throw, then finished strongly in the 200. She’s sitting in second, surrounded by seniors.”
In the first heptathlon competition, Robertson ran a sub-par 14.66 in the 100-meter hurdles, then struggled to clear 5’3.25″ in the high jump.
Robertson set her first personal best in the shot put, throwing the weight 35’11.5″ on her final attempt. Robertson set her second PR in the final race of the day, running 25.28 in the 200-meter dash. That effort ranks 11th all-time among Commodore sprinters.
Hitt also struggled in the hurdles, running 16.73, then steadily improved with each competition. Hitt cleared 5’3.25″ in the high jump, tossed the shot put 33’4″ and ran the 200 in 26.22.
“Even though Mallory had a disappointing hurdle race, she came back and really showed me a lot. I thought she performed pretty well after the hurdles,” Shepard said.
