Vanderbilt Track and Field finished in 12th place at the SEC Indoor Championships behind three bronze medal performances. Ahead of only Mississippi State and Missouri, the Commodores finished one spot lower than they did a season prior.
“As far as our goals for the year, our goals are not complete,” head coach Althea Thomas said. “Our goals include all [of] our seasons. I think this is setting us up to have a great outdoor season and is going to help us meet all our goals.”
Giavonna Meeks began the weekend by placing third in the weight throw with a distance of 23.04 meters. The freshman broke her personal record in the weight throw for the fourth time this season.
“Giavonna is just an amazing athlete,” Thomas said. “When she comes, you can see she’s there for business. She does a very good job of shutting out the noise.”
Later on Friday, the tandem of Emma Curry, Allyria McBride, Audrey Allman and Julia Rosenberg placed third in the distance medley relay with a time of 11 minutes, 15.13 seconds — good for the second best finish in Vanderbilt history.
“[DMR] requires you to prepare in each separate discipline,” Thomas said. “As coaches, you can kind of see it forming together as you see each athlete in each discipline growing … we had a lot of options, and we just really went and thought about what would be the best option for us to be competitive.”
On Saturday, Sarah Omoregie placed third in shot put with a distance of 17.11 meters. It was an indoor personal best for the graduate transfer from Harvard.
Despite the lowly finish in team points, the Commodores still had a number of other performances to hang their hats on. McBride finished seventh out of 20 competitors in the long jump with a height of 6.13 meters, while her medley partner Rosenberg landed at seventh in the 3,000-meter at 9:19.94.
Freshman Bria Bennis finished 10thin the 5,000-meter with a 16:17.40 time that was good enough for second in program history. Adding to Omoregie’s dominance in the shot put was fellow graduate Veronica Fraley, who finished seventh.
“This is just a special group,” Thomas said. “I’m really happy for this group of ladies … they are part of the foundation for this staff and for this era of track and field.”
The Commodores will conclude the 2024 indoor season in Boston, Mass. with the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 8-9. The outdoor season will begin one week later with a trip to Tampa, Fla. for the USF Bulls Invitational.
