For the penultimate meet of the indoor season, Vanderbilt Track and Field headed to Virginia Beach, Virginia, for the East Coast Invitational. Split over Feb. 7 and 8, the Black and Gold participated in all events except for the 3000-meter run, triple jump and weight throw. Continuing the season’s record-setting trend, the Commodores captured five program top-10 times along with 12 personal bests.
Field
5 Vanderbilt athletes participated in the high jump, the most of any field event. First-year Mackenzie Dagrosa soared to second place with a leap of 1.69 meters, a personal best, earning her the program’s ninth all-time high jump performance. She was followed by sophomore Rowan Houston, who jumped 1.64 meters, placing her third in the invitational. First-year Pryncess Jackson also jumped 1.64 meters but was placed in fifth since she took over two attempts on her jump, unlike Houston and William and Mary’s Katriel Amoyaw, who cleared the distance on their first tries. Junior Marta Sivina and first-year Devyn Parham also participated in the event, placing sixth and seventh, respectively.
4 members of the Black and Gold attempted the long jump, with sophomore Anaya Webster sailing to a third-place podium finish with a leap of 5.72 meters. Sivina placed fifth in the event with a jump of 5.69 meters. First-years Kayleigh Stargell and Anya Carey also jumped, placing ninth and 12th in the event, respectively. Stargell jumped 5.51 meters while Carey lept for 5.17 meters.
Only one Commodore participated in the pole vault: first-year Jacqueline Rose, who placed seventh by clearing 3.57 meters. Similarly, senior Sarah Marvin was the only one to participate in the shot put, also finishing in seventh place after a 14.58-meter toss.
Track
Most of the record-setting occurred on the track for the Commodores, who shone in the 60-meter hurdles. Even before the finals, in the preliminary rounds, Sivina and Parham achieved personal bests of 8.47 and 8.53 seconds, respectively. Sivina’s time earned her a spot as the fifth fastest in school history, while Parham tied the eighth-fastest time ever. In the finals, junior Falon Spearman took home first place with a time of 8.25 seconds. This was not only the second-fastest 60-meter hurdles time in program history but she also broke her own record of 8.44 seconds, which she had just set in the preliminaries.
While 10 Vanderbilt athletes entered the 60-meter dash, only international transfer Tina Benzinger reached the finals. Her time of 7.61 seconds placed her seventh in the finals, but her 7.59-second performance in the preliminary rounds ranked her fourth fastest in school history.
In the 200-meter race, no Commodore cracked the top 10, but Webster and junior Taylor McKinnon both attained personal bests. Webster posted a time of 25.61 seconds and placed 25th overall. McKinnon ran a 25.73-second time that put her in 28th. Junior Santana Spearman also ran the race and achieved 30th place in 25.99 seconds.
Isabella Dagrosa, a first-year, was the only Commodore running in the 400-meter race. She ran the event in 57.89 seconds, a personal best, but finished just outside the top 10 in the invitational.
The Black and Gold sported three athletes in the 800-meter finals as juniors Audrey Allman, Mackenzie Culpepper and first-year Kenyah Conner lined up. They placed fourth, seventh and ninth, respectively. Allman’s time of 2:09.02 was a personal best.
Sophomore sprinter Eva Gautreaux reached the finals for the women’s one-mile race thanks to being seeded fourth in the second heat but did not finish with 200 meters left.
Vanderbilt put two teams in for the 4×400-meter relay to close out the track events. One of the teams, consisting of juniors Allyria McBride, Madyson Wilson, Joy Moorer and Dagrosa, led the way for the Commodores and sped their way to a podium finish in second place with a time of 3:46.57.
Vanderbilt Track and Field will close its indoor regular season in Nashville when it hosts the Music City Challenge on Feb. 14-15.
