A little old hard work is starting to pay off for track and field star Vensherrie Campbell.

The junior from Hephzibah, Georgia was disappointed in her performance at last year's SEC outdoor championships, so she decided to hit the weights in the off-season, change her physical and mental routines and return for her third year a more competitive all-around athlete.

Judging by the results of the season's first track-and-field event - the Middle Tennessee State Invitational - Campbell has succeeded.

Campbell, who goes by the nickname "V", set a new Commodore indoor weight throw record at the MTSU event, tossing the weight 54' 7.5 to win the indoor weight competition. At 20 pounds, the indoor weight is the indoor version of the hammer, the weight thrown in outdoor competitions.

Needless to say, Campbell was excited about her performance and the record. She credited Coach Lori Shepard with helping her prepare mentally for the year's first event.

"Coach Shepard was telling me how a former Vanderbilt thrower - Leslie Vidmar - used this MTSU meet as a predictor of how her season was going to go," Campbell said. "Since it was the first event of the year, I knew I wanted to do very well to set the tone for the season."

"She put on a clinic at the MTSU event," Shepard said of Campbell. "There were probably a dozen or so throwers there, and she was by far the best."

In assessing how she was able to perform so well, Shepard could not overlook the importance of Campbell's off-season work. Shepard pointed directly to the work Campbell did with the team's throws coach, Fran Hoogestraat.

"After the outdoor championships in May, Coach Fran challenged Vensherrie to commit the summer to being a better athlete, to train and live like an athlete, and not be a normal college student," Shepard said. "She really took that to heart. She was home all summer and she made herself a better athlete, by her workouts, her mindset, and nutrition as well."

"V's disappointment last May at her performance in both events started a fire in her," Hoogestraat recalled. "From that point on, everything changed."

At the end of her sophomore year, Campbell returned to her home outside Augusta, Georgia. In preparing for her junior year, she established consistent physical and mental routines and worked out harder than ever before.

"I just decided that I had to get after it in the weight room, because that's what sets the tone for my season," Campbell said recently. "I have to be able to lift what the other girls in the SEC are lifting to be able to compete with them."

These days, Campbell is a self-described gym rat.

"I love to lift. I do a lot of hard lifting and I work very hard at it," the junior said. "I love to squat and my bench is significantly better this year than my freshman year."

SETTING GOALS and SETTING RECORDS
As for setting the indoor record, Campbell was not completely surprised.

"I had made some throws in practice that led us to believe I could break the school record, but the problem is consistency," she said. "Often times I do very well in the warm-ups, but then I don't do as well as I want to in the actual competition. That is something I have had to work through mentally. To be able to do that and do it in the first meet, that was a great start for me."

Hoogestraat sees Campbell as a field athlete peaking at the right time.

"V's always been talented, and we've spent the first couple of years working on her technique, getting it to match her power," the eighth-year coach said of Campbell. "Now it does and because she is becoming such a fine athlete, her technique is starting to blossom."

In the eyes of her throws coach, Campbell's future knows no boundaries.

"V has broad shoulders, long arms, long torso, long legs and she's so strong. She's going to demolish our records," Hoogestraat said proudly. "By the time she graduates, I have no doubt that she will hold all of our throws records."

For this upcoming season, Campbell has set specific goals of 60-feet for the indoor weight throw and 50-feet for the shot put. The current indoor shot put record is 53' by Leslie Vidmar.

"Those are really high goals," Campbell admitted, "but no one knows at the end of the day how much further you could have thrown except you. When I step out of the ring, I don't want my coach to question if I could have had a better throw."

Shepard acknowledges that while her goals are attainable, whether or not they are met will depend on how Campbell prepares.

"Can she do it? I am 100% sure she can do it. Will she do it? I don't know - that's the exciting part," Shepard said recently. "The possibility that she will throw 60 and 50 is 100%. Now, the probability … well, I don't know that part. That's going to take her going into the ring with the right mental attitude, good competition and a lack of injuries."

BUSY OFF THE FIELD
Like so many of Vanderbilt's exceptional student-athletes, Campbell is just as active and successful off the field as she is on. When she is not competing, practicing or studying, the junior is an active leader with the Student Athletic Advisory Board (SAAB) and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).

"I'm the vice-president of SAAB, and it's been a great experience for me," Campbell said. "We're the liaison between the student-athletes and athletic administration. If the student-athletes have concerns or problems, they can come to us and we can make a difference. I love being a leader and helping people out, so it was a natural fit."

"V is one of the most giving athletes we have here," Shepard said of Campbell. "She gives of herself all the time. She's a great listener and she's not afraid to talk when she has to."

"Her high school coach told me when she was a senior that V was a gem," Hoogestraat agreed. "He told me that I would be hard pressed to find someone hungrier to grow than her. And he was right. She's very special."

In describing how she maintains such a positive balance in her life, Campbell admitted that these are the passions in her life.

"It's hard balancing academics and athletics, but I'm usually pretty consistent," she said. "At times, it's really hard, but I love athletics as much as I love academics."

Both on and off the field, Vanderbilt is certainly seeing that love pay off.