Wins by Vensherrie Campbell, Hahn, Roberts, Mullins-Hall and Cicely Campbell Spark ’Dores to VU Invitational Victory

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Individual victories by Vensherrie Campbell, Josie Hahn, Amanda Mullins-Hall, Paige Roberts and Cicely Campbell sparked the Commodores to the women’s division title at the Vanderbilt Invitational Saturday.

A personal record discus toss by junior Vensherrie Campbell in the last women’s event of the meet sealed the Commodores’ first team title of the year. The Vanderbilt women concluded the meet with 125 points, seven more than Illinois State. Tennessee State and Middle Tennessee finished third and fourth with 104 and 97 points, respectively.

In the men’s division, Middle Tennessee used the pair of sprint wins by all-American Mardy Scales, a 400-meter victory by Sean Waller and a 4x100 relay win to earn the team title, edging Illinois State 148-147.

The Commodores’ performance was easily their best overall showing of the year. In addition to the individual victories, both Vanderbilt relay squads earned valuable points and several other team members recorded personal bests to gather important points.

Mullins-Hall got the Commodores started in fine fashion, setting a school record of 13:51 to win the 100-meter hurdles. The performance was .53 better than her previous best, and bettered the former VU record by 13:65 held by all-American Ryan Tolbert. Her effort was followed by an outstanding 800 meters by Cicely Campbell, a senior running in her last Vanderbilt Invitational. Campbell’s season best of 2:11.05 capturded the race by more than a second.

As the Commodores were creating momentum on the track, Roberts, Hahn and Vensherrie Campbell were dominating in field events.

Roberts set a team record in winning the pole vault. After trying successfully for in several recent meets, Roberts cleared 11’8”, raising her own Commodore record by two inches.

Hahn was superb, scoring a pair of victories Saturday. The sophomore won the high jump with a leap of 5’8” and the javelin with a toss of 131’7”.

No Commodore performed at a higher level than Vensherrie Campbell. After setting a school record of 169’7” to win the hammer toss, Campbell uncorked the second longest discus throw in school history in front of the entire Vanderbilt team to claim the discus.

Two other Commodores, Joy Parker and Vanessa Lagios, added valuable points for the Commodore cause. Parker finished seventh in the 800 with a time of 2;14.98. Lagios ran a personal best of 63:53 to earn third in the 400-meter hurdles.

Day 1

Freshman Caitlin Shannon Opens VU Invitational With 1500 Win; Commodores Second In Team Competition After First Day 4/18/03

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Commodore freshman miler Caitlin Shannon smashed her personal best and used a powerful stretch drive to hold off Western Kentucky’s Olga Cronin in capturing the Vanderbilt Invitational 1,500-meter run Friday night.

Shannon, a native of DePere, Wisc., topped her previous record by more than eight seconds, running 4:33.03 to edge Cronin by .02. She became the sixth fastest Commodore ever at 1,500 meters and needs to improve by only a second to qualify for the NCAA Regionals.

The Commodores used strong performances by an abundance of distance runners to gather 38 points in the opening day of competition of the 13th Annual Vanderbilt Invitational. The squad enters the second day just two points out of a first place tie with Illinois State. Three local teams - Western Kentucky (third, 22 pts.), Tennessee State (fourth, 21 pts.) and Middle Tennessee (fifth, 21 pts.) - are in contention for the women’s team title. Illinois State also leads the men’s division with 56 points, with Western Kentucky in second with 43 points and Middle Tennessee in third with 28 points.

The Invitational, which features a record number of participants and teams, continues Saturday with throwing events starting at 10:00 a.m.ith several throwing events. Running events, the high jump, triple jump and pole vault will begin at 12:00 noon. The meet, staged on Vanderbilt’s new $1.7 million track complex, is free to the public.

Shannon pushed the 1,500-meter field from the start, leading after each of the first three 400-meter intervals. On the final lap, she dueled with Cronin through the stretch, edging ahead for the win in the final 10 meters. Shannon had plenty of Vanderbilt support in the race, as VU senior Colleen Byrne posted a season best of 4:39.00 for sixth place. Another senior, Joy Parker, ran ninth in a personal best 4:46.84.

A trio of Commodore 5,000-meter runners - freshman Jackie Wachsman, sophomore Nadiyah Humber and freshman Anna Bishop - posted personal bests and earned valuable points. Wachsman finished third in 18:13.82, while Humber and Bishop ran sixth and seventh in 18:48.57 and 18:49.38, respectively.

Versatile Commodore sophomore Josie Hahn, who has a chance to capture the high jump Saturday, achieved an excellent long jump performance Friday. She leaped a personal best of 17’10” to claim third place overall.

Junior thrower Vensherrie Campbell missed a personal best in the shot put, but posted a solid 44’6” effort for third place.