Jan. 28, 2012
The Vanderbilt Commodores set eight individual personal records in their final day at the Rod McCravy Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky.
Ellie Tidman set the bar high to start the morning with her high jump result.
“Ellie got us off to a good start with her seasonal best of 5-7 ¼, ” said Head Coach Steve Keith.
Tidman was one of seven Commodore athletes to set bests for the day. Junior Kristen Findley, who set a new personal best in the mile in her last outing at Kentucky two weeks ago, dropped her PR by four seconds in the 800m, moving to No. 6 on the all-time Vanderbilt list. She won her heat with her time of 2:11.19.
“It is always enjoyable to see the excitement on the athletes faces when they compete and win races,” said assistant coach Rhonda Riley, who works mainly with the distance runners. “We had a lot of excellent performances that we will build off of for the next meets.”
In the mile race, several of the women found themselves pushing limits–something they did well in the fall in cross country and a trend they seem to be continuing into their track and field season.
“Very nice race by all of the milers with PRs by the first three women,” said Keith. “Liz’s 4:52 ranks 7th and Allie’s 4:55 ranks 9th on the all-time list. Good to see Lou and Liz open up their season.”
Kara Slavoski, who also ran in the mile, won her heat, taking her lead in the final lap to finish with a time of 5:13.8.
“Our final race proved to be our best with Jordan White running a school record in winning the 3k,” said Keith. “This was her first ever 3000 and she looked great. Grace Orders and Becca Chandler also had nice PRs in the 3k, running equivalent times well under their HS bests.”
“Overall we showed good competitiveness but we also still have areas that need work,” said Keith. “The most important thing is to always try to improve our mental approach and the upcoming meets should afford us that opportunity.”
The Commodores head to South Bend, Indiana this coming Friday for the Meyo Invitational.
