April 8, 2017
Vanderbilt finished the Tennessee Relays strong by setting a school record in a relay race for the second consecutive week. Ginger Hutton, Courtney Clayton, Maddie Criscione and Reagan Bustamante won the 4×800 meter relay with a time of 8:38.34 and broke the previous school record, which was set in 1996, by over seven seconds. Hutton set the tone for the relay with an opening split of 2:11.91 before handing the baton off to Clayton, who ran a team-best split of 2:07.42 to vault the Commodores into first place. Criscione ran a split of 2:11.52 and Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech were neck-and-neck heading into the last leg of the relay, but Bustamante ran an impressive anchor split of 2:07.48 and outgunned Shannon Morton of the Hokies to give the Commodores the win and a final time of 8:38.34. Virginia Tech finished second with a time of 8:47.27.
It was the third school record that Vanderbilt has set in the past two weeks. Jake Van Geffen broke a 35-year-old record in the 10000-meter run on Thursday with a time of 30:51.97 and at last weekend’s Florida relays, the distance medley relay team also set a new school record.
Despite featuring a different group from last weekend’s record-setting effort, Vanderbilt’s distance medley relay team had a second-consecutive strong performance with a time of 11:45.25 and a fourth-place finish. This weekend’s relay team featured Carmen Carlos, Becca Schulte, Courtney Kriegshauser and Megan Huebner. That time was also good for fourth-place all-time on Vanderbilt’s outdoor season performance list.
Senior Sarah Bell, who competed this weekend unattached, competed in the pole vault on Saturday and earned a new personal-best mark after clearing the bar at 14′ 1.25″ (4.30m).
Vanderbilt is off next weekend, but will return to competition the following week with a trip to Charlottesville, Va. for the Virginia Invitational on Apr. 21-22.
