GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Vanderbilt track and field student-athletes came together to tally 45 points for an eighth-place finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships Saturday. Ten scoring performances came from 12 Dores in eight events.
“Track and field is an individual sport that has a team concept at the end,” director of cross country and track and field Althea Thomas said. “It’s so easy in our sport to just focus on individuals, but this team lifts each other up and the athletes build on each other’s energy and success. Moving in a direction where we’re having a diverse portfolio of scorers across different events and people is something that we, as coaches and as a staff, have been working relentlessly to achieve—from developing the athletes on the team to recruiting athletes in diverse areas. And to see it happen in a championship is nothing short of amazing.”
Breaking the school record, the 4×100-meter relay squad of Lena Gooden, Haley Bishop, Ella Escobar and Allyria McBride started off Vandy’s scoring and placed eighth in the event with a time of 44.21 seconds. It is the No. 31 time in NCAA Division I this year.
Julia Rosenberg put together a 1,500-meter race that earned fifth place and 4 points for the Commodores. She turned in a time of 4:16.96.
Building off her gold medal-winning performance in the shot put Friday, Veronica Fraley returned to the ring to place second in the discus with a 61.62-meter throw. The mark is a collegiate season best and ranked No. 3 in NCAA DI.
McBride clocked 56.44 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles, good for a fourth-place finish.
The 4×400-meter relay team of Escobar, McBride, Eva Gautreaux and Falon Spearman closed out the meet with a time of 3:38.40, which is the 10th-ranked time in school history.
After the meet concluded, Fraley was recognized as the Co-Commissioner’s Trophy recipient for scoring the most points of any individual at the meet. Between the shot put and discus, she scored 18 points for the Dores. She also received her award for being named the Co-SEC Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
“To come and compete in events where, traditionally, Vanderbilt has never competed or hasn’t in years, and believing that we can do it in this conference where the best in the world compete is amazing,” Thomas said. “It shows what we’ve been saying: we as charter members of the SEC belong here. And that’s what we showed today.”
Commodore Scorers
- Bria Bennis – 10,000 meters (34:11.38), fourth
- Haley Bishop – 4×100-meter relay (44.21 seconds), eighth
- Ella Escobar – 4×100-merer relay (44.21 seconds), eighth
- Veronica Fraley – shot put (18.29 meters), first
- Discus (61.62 meters), second
- Lena Gooden – long jump (6.17 meters), sixth
- 4×100-meter relay (44.21 seconds), eighth
- Allyria McBride – 400-meter hurdles (56.44 seconds), fourth
- 4×100-meter relay (44.21 seconds), eighth
- Madison Murray – heptathlon (5,340 points), fifth
- Sarah Omoregie – shot put (17.02 meters), seventh
- Julia Rosenberg – 1,500 meters (4:16.96), fifth
- Marta Sivina – heptathlon (5,231 points), sixth
Qualifiers for the NCAA DI East First Round will be announced May 16 via press release on NCAA.com. For individual events, the top 48 declared student-athletes will be accepted into the competition. The top 24 relay teams will qualify for the regional event. The NCAA East First Round will be May 22-25 in Lexington, Kentucky.
