COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Junior Grace Jensen qualified for Saturday’s finals while two others shifted the Vanderbilt track and field record book on the second day of the SEC Championships on Friday at E.B. Cushing Stadium.
Jensen will compete for a conference title in the 1,500 meters at 5:45 p.m. Saturday. She automatically advanced with a third-place finish in her heat and placed sixth overall in the prelims at 4:18.75.
Dal wasted no time recording the seventh-best long jump in school history. In the first event of the day in the heptathlon, she launched 18 feet, 10.75 inches (5.76 meters). In the last decade at Vanderbilt, only Sophie Falco’s school record was better than Dal’s final jump Friday.
Sims finished strong in the heptathlon to post the seventh-highest score in program history. Sims set personal bests in the javelin (107-03 ft.) and 800 meters (2:21.86) to close out the event with 5,130 points. She finished 11th overall while Dal placed 15th with 4,502 points.
Two of the fastest sprinters in school history competed in the 100 meters. Freshman Haley Bishop blazed to a finish of 11.75 and placed 12th overall, while sophomore Madison Fuller was 17th in 11.96.
Also in the 1,500 meters, freshman Lainey Phelps was 18th at 4:30.20 and Haley Walker was 21st at 4:32.79, while in the 400 meters, Taiya Shelby (52.77) was 11th, Kaira Brown (55.93) was 24th and Jordan Smith (58.00) was 26th.
Including Dal and Sims on Friday, the Commodore women have now posted 28 top-10 performances during this year’s outdoor campaign, including three in two days at the SEC Championships.
Competition resumes Saturday at 5 p.m. and can be seen live on SEC Network from 5-9 p.m.
