NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt ended Day 1 of its home meet, the Music City Challenge, with several top event finishes and season and personal bests.
In the first event of the day, freshman Lena Gooden won the invite section of the long jump with a season-best 6.14-meter mark (2.4 m/s). Her wind-legal 6.03-meter jump moved her up to fifth in program history in the event. Gooden surpassed the 6-meter mark in three of six jumps.
Fellow freshman Anaya Webster placed fourth in the invite division with a 5.78-meter jump. In the open long jump, Alix Still turned in the top collegiate, second overall performance of the day, jumping 5.85 meters.
On the throws field, Veronica Fraley registered her third consecutive discus win, throwing 61.34 meters.
In the 200 meters, Haley Bishop dropped 0.72 seconds off her previous season-best time, crossing the finish line in 23.47 seconds to win the event. The mark is just 0.27 seconds away from her personal best, 23.20 seconds, which is also the school record. Ella Escobar turned in a wind-assisted PR in the same event to finish ninth with a time of 24.10 seconds. Still’s 200-meter time of 24.89 seconds is a personal best.
Julia Rosenberg won the 1,500 meters by 2 seconds, recording a personal-best time of 4:15.60, which is the third-ranked mark in Vanderbilt history. Lainey Phelps crossed the finish line in 4:24.93, good for 10th place and a PR.
Caroline Eck placed fourth in the 5,000 meters with a time of 16:59.64.
On the men’s side, senior Mathew Ragsdale turned in a personal-best time of 8:58.73 in the 3,000 meters.
Freshman Brady Bliven shaved 4-seconds off his previous 1,500 meters PR to win his heat with a time of 3:51.08.
To close out the evening for the men, Zach Hodges knocked 37 seconds off his previous PR, recording a time of 14:56.92 to place 10th in his heat.
The Music City Challenge continues Saturday with events field events beginning at 11 a.m. The program will honor its 12 graduating student-athletes at 1 p.m. Running events kick off with the 4×100-meter relay at 1:30 p.m. Live results are available online.
