NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Althea Thomas, Vanderbilt director of cross country and track and field, will add a quintet of sprinters and hurdlers to her second-year roster.
Allyria McBride, Taylor McKinnon, Brooke Overholt, Rondajai Washington and Madyson Wilson will join the Commodores in the upcoming 2022-23 season.
McBride is a native of Marietta, Georgia, and competed for Wheeler High School in the hurdles and long jump. Her prep bests are 14.43 in the 100-meter hurdles, 42.53 in the 300-meter hurdles, 1:01.87 in the 400-meter hurdles and 5.99 meters in the long jump. She is the 2022 Georgia High School Association state champion in the 300-meter hurdles and scored in the long jump. She garnered All-America honors while competing at the 2022 Nike Outdoor Nationals in the 400-meter hurdles. She was named an All-American at the 2021 AAU Junior Olympics in the long jump and placed eighth in the 400-meter hurdles in 2019.
McKinnon prepped at Cardinal Gibbons High School and is a native of Durham, North Carolina. She has prep bests of 13.77 in the 100-meter hurdles, 8.05 in the 55-meter hurdles, 8.70 in the 60-meter hurdles and 43.51 in the 300-meter hurdles. The 2019 N.C. 4A state championship in the 100-meter hurdlesfinished twice as the runner up in the same event. McKinnon has garnered recognition as the Milesplit National Girls Performer of the Week in 2022, 4A Girls Sportsmanship award recipient in 2021 and was Cardinal Gibbons’ Girls Athlete of the Year nominee in 2022. She maintained a grade point average of 4.0, a member of the A&B Honor Roll, National Honor Society member and Spanish Honor Society member.
Overholt hails from St. Mary’s, Ontario, and is a graduate transfer from Cornell University. She garnered second-team All-America honors in the hurdles and is a six-time All-Ivy League selection. Overholt was the Ivy League 400-meter hurdles champion in 2022 and won the 400-meter dash during indoor season. Her collegiate bests are 13.88 in the 100-meter hurdles, 54.70 in the 400 meters and 57.48 in the 400-meter hurdles. In 2019, she won the Canadian U20 trials, earning her a spot on Canada’s U20 national team.
Washington is a transfer from the University of Missouri and prepped at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She has prep bests of 24.3 in the 200 meters and 55.60 in the 400 meters. After she redshirted the 2019-20 indoor season and the outdoor season was canceled due to COVID-19, Washington developed to…