FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Commodore track and field team concluded day one of the SEC Indoor Championships Friday night at the University of Arkansas.
Ginger Hutton gave Vanderbilt a strong start, clocking a personal-best in the mile at 4:54.13. The senior’s previous best was 4:54.16. Tonight’s time put her just one spot out of the final, finishing 11th out of 21 runners.
Reagan Bustamante (5:02.05), Kendall Derry (5:09.95) and Lauren Moffett (5:10.78) rounded out the Commodores that competed in the mile.
Freshman Taiya Shelby ran her second best collegiate time in the 400 meters (55.32) and ran a 54.00 split in the distance medley relay (DMR).
Regan Clay was the lone Commodore who competed in multiple individual events tonight. The Rossford, Ohio native moved up to fourth on the all-time Vanderbilt records list with a 24.79 in the 200 meters after clocking a 56.59 in the 400 meters.
Haley Walker led the way for Vandy in the 800 meters with a personal-best 2:08.91. The time etched her name in the sixth spot on the all-time records list, but missed the final by just 0.4 seconds. Emily Cohen completed the 800 meters with a 2:19.49.
Caroline Pietrzyk clocked a 17:18.20 in the 5000-meter run to finish 15th.
The DMR team of Bustamante, Grace Jensen, Shelby and Walker finished with an 11:48.67 to finish eighth and put the Commodores on the board.
“We came away with some personal-bests, season-bests and VU all-time top 10 marks, but ended short of our goal,” stated head coach Steven Keith. “Scoring in the DMR was good to get the team on the board. In this challenging of a meet, especially in a tough conference, no points come easy. We’ll look forward to adding to our total tomorrow.”
After day one, Vanderbilt sits at 14th in the team standings. Alabama leads while Arkansas, Texas A&M, Florida and Georgia round out the top-five.
The Commodores will return to action tomorrow at 4:50 p.m. CT.
