Vanderbilt Track and Field hosted the Vanderbilt Invitational last weekend at home in Nashville, where the program saw two event wins and numerous athletes add their names to program history books.
The weekend action began on Friday, when two Commodores grabbed wins and multiple others broke program records — building upon the success that began at the Commodore Challenge.
First-year Devyn Parham had herself a successful day, securing the top step on the podium in her first-ever collegiate pentathlon. Her 3,621 points slotted her at eighth overall in all points scored by a Commodore in this event. After achieving personal bests in the shot put (10.41 meters) and long jump (5.41 meters), she locked in the top step once again with a time of 2 minutes, 24.55 seconds in the 800 meters to wrap up her pentathlon.
The ‘Dores had many personal-best finishes on Friday. Junior Marta Sivina’s personal-best 5.72 meters in the long jump earned her a first-place finish. Allyria McBride rounded out the podium in the 200 meters, finishing in 24.30 seconds; her first collegiate 200-meter race garnered her the No. 4 time in program history. Fellow junior Falon Spearman also recorded a PR (25.26) in the event. Graduate student Ella Lambert also notched a career-best on Friday, running a 5:54.17 in the 1000 meters.
The Black and Gold continued to notch wins and personal bests on Day Two. The Commodores took off running on Saturday morning; in the first event of the morning, the 60 meters, graduate student Tina Benzinger clocked a 7.60 — good for ninth place and the fourth-best time in Vanderbilt history. In the same race, sophomore Brenay Williams (7.73) ran the 10th-best time in program history. Additionally, sophomores Anaya Webster (7.75) and Rowan Houston (8.19) both recorded personal-best 60-meter times.
Senior Julia Rosenberg earned second place in the mile, finishing at 4:41.14. Graduate student Ellie Wolski was close behind, finishing two places behind Rosenberg with a personal-best time of 4:46.47. First-year Claire Petersen (4:51.10) placed 12th in the event but was first among all first-years. Four more Commodores — seniors Gigi Clifford (4:57.09) and Cameron Fawcett (4:53.24), junior Mackenzie Culpepper (4:59.77) and sophomore Elsa Steer (5:01.27) — recorded personal bests in the event.
It wasn’t just the track events where Vanderbilt excelled this weekend. Webster jumped 12.25 meters in the triple jump to finish fourth — the third-best jump in Commodore history. First-year Jacqueline Rose cleared 3.53 meters in the pole vault, also finishing fourth and senior Sarah Marvin continued the fourth-place trend in the shot put (14.52 meters).
For its next meet, Vanderbilt Track and Field will travel to College Station, Texas, from Jan. 24-25 to compete in the Ted Nelson Invitational.