Last weekend, the Commodores track and field team traveled to UCF’s Track and Field Complex to compete in the two-day Black and Gold Invitational. Following an indoor season that culminated in NCAA Championship appearances for Taiy Shelby and Divine Oladipo, the Black and Gold invitational marked the beginning of the Commodores’ outdoor season.
For the Commodores, the most notable event of the weekend came on Day 2, with sophomore Haley Bishop coming in fifth place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.51 seconds, breaking the record for best time in the event in program history. Teammate Madison Fuller had held the previous record, but Bishop beat it by just 0.01 seconds. As just a sophomore, this is now the fourth spot that Bishop holds in the Vanderbilt record books, joining her indoor records in the 60, 100 and 200.
Apart from the outstanding individual performance from Bishop, the two-day meet served as a helpful transition for the Commodores into the outdoor season.
“As a team, we attacked some secondary and new events with tenacity and zeal,”Althea Thomas, Vanderbilt’s director of track and field, told VUCommodores.com. “We had the opportunity to compete against great talent from other teams from the SEC, Big 10 10 and a national caliber team in host UCF.”
Although Day 1 was brought to an early close due to inclement weather, the Commodores were still able to compete in a variety of events. The first of these was the 400-meter hurdles, where graduate student Jess Creedon finished 17th overall in the field of 37 runners with a time of 1:05.17. The Commodores also had grade Kaira Brown and grade Jordan Smith compete in the 200-meter dash, finishing with times of 25.25 and 25.64, respectively.
The best results for the Commodores on Day 1 came in the 1,500-meter run, where the Commodores had two runners finish in the top-20 of the 65 competitors. Earning 12th place, freshman Cameron Fawcett clocked in with a time of 4:36.04 and was shortly followed by freshman Julia Rosenberg who completed the race in 4:40.62. For both Commodores, it was their first outdoor collegiate event.
The team was able to keep their momentum going into the second day of competition, where they had a few standout performances. In the first event of the day, sophomore Joslin Blair earned fourth place in the steeplechase with a time of 7:15.72. Vanderbilt’s next event was the 4×100-meter relay, where a team of Bishop, Fuller and seniors Smith and Taiya Shelby earned fourth place out of 16 teams with a time of 45.84.
Apart from Bishop’s triumph in the 100-meter dash, Fuller ran a blazing 11.62 in the event, earning her ninth place out of the 67 competitors. For the final event of the day, Fuller teamed up with Bishop once again, along with Nicole Anderson and Brown, to compete in the 4×400-meter relay, where they placed sixth.
Vanderbilt followed up their strong performances at the Black and Gold Invitational with a few Commodores heading to Raleigh, North Carolina for the Raleigh Relays, which took place from March 24-26. On Day 2 of the event, the Commodores had four athletes compete in the 1,500-meter race in different heats throughout the day. The best results of the day came from Grace Jensen and Caroline Eck, who completed their races in 4:21.51 and 4:27.99, respectively. Junior Niki Narayani and freshman Ella Lambert also competed, both setting personal bests in the event.
The Commodores will continue on with their outdoor season next weekend at the Florida Relays.
