NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Over two days of competition at the Music City Challenge, Vanderbilt track and field recorded 21 season and personal bests, along with two school records and four program all-time top 10 marks.
“This weekend was a coming together of all the bricks we’ve laid,” director of cross country and track and field Althea Thomas said. “We focus on running well when it counts, and it’s the part of the year we call the ‘championship season.’ I would include this meet in that, because you want to be able to put your body in a position that is familiar for the SEC Championships, so everything we’ve been doing has been to show up and have a great February.”
After a late Friday night 5,000-meter race, the Dores were back in action early Saturday morning with the unseeded 3,000 meters where Cameron Fawcett placed fourth with a season-best time of 9:48.75.
Freshman Lena Gooden advanced through two rounds of competition to the 60 meters final where she placed fifth. During the prelims, she turned in a personal-best time of 7.53 seconds, which is the No. 3 all-time mark at Vanderbilt. Haley Bishop and Ella Escobar advanced to the semifinals with season-best marks of 7.62 and 7.67 seconds, respectively. Bishop improved upon her prelims time in the semifinals, finishing the race in 7.66 seconds.
Falon and Santana Spearman made it through two rounds of qualifying to the 60-meter hurdles final. In the first round, the two Dores turned in the No. 1 and 2 qualifying times just 0.003 seconds apart. F. Spearman recorded a time of 8.541 seconds and S. Spearman was right behind with a time of 8.544 seconds. S. Spearman’s best time of the day came in the semifinal where she clocked 8.53 seconds.
On the field, Anaya Webster was the sixth overall and second freshman finisher in the triple jump with an 11.71-meter mark.
Giavonna Meeks once again improved upon her shot put mark, throwing 15.66 meters for a new personal best. She finished second in the seeded division. Meeks ranks sixth on the program’s all-time top 10 performers list. Sarah Marvin earned a fifth-place finish in the event with a 15.34-meter throw.
In the invite division of the shot put, Sarah Omoregie posted a season-best performance, recording a 16.60-meter mark. She is third on the Vanderbilt all-time top 10 list for the event.
Later in the evening during the seeded division of the 3,000 meters, Julia Rosenberg’s 22-second PR of 9:15.99 won her the event and beat…