AUBURN, Ala. – Coming off a strong season-opener at the Clemson Invite last weekend, the Auburn track & field team will look to pick up the pace at the Vanderbilt Invite this weekend. The two-day meet will be held Friday and Saturday at the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility in Nashville, Tennessee with action starting Friday at 9:30 a.m. CT with the women's pentathlon and Saturday at 10:00 a.m. with the men's heptathlon.
"I think we competed quite well, especially on day one at the Clemson Invite," said Tigers head coach Leroy Burrell. "We need to learn to be finishers because champions finish until the end."
At its indoor season debut, Auburn started strong racking up five event wins and 35 athletes recorded a new personal best mark.
The highlight of the first day was freshman Arianna Sharpe running the national leading time of 53.01 in the women's 400m dash. This performance propelled Sharped to be named the SEC Freshman Athlete of the Week. Also breaking into the top-5 nationally was Favour Ashe in the men's 60m dash final with a time of 6.57.
Other freshman with notable performances were Alyssa Quinones-Mixon (pole vault), Jeremy Zammit (long jump) and LeBron Bessick (400m). Quinones-Mixon's mark of 4.05m/13-03.50 vaulted her to become the number two performer in Auburn history while also capturing the freshman record in the event. Bessick claimed gold in 47.17 to complete the sweep of the event alongside Sharpe. Zammit broke the 36-year-old freshman record in the event on his final jump of 7.84m/25-08.75.
Tiger throws held down the ring as Madi Malone captured another title in the women's weight throw with a mark of 21.53m/70-07.75. Senior Maura Huwalt was third with a throw of 20.23m/66-04.50. On the men's side, Kyle Brown claimed in the weight throw the silver with a mark of 20.48m/67-02.25.
The second day in Clemson was headlined by Huwalt shot put win throwing a new career best mark of 17.29m/56-08.75, which was the nation's fourth-best mark second on Auburn's all-time performers list.
Also jumping into the record books was senior Amy Warren in the women's triple jump. In her Auburn debut, Warren jumped 12.98m/42-07.00 to finish fourth and became the number eight performer in Auburn history.
Joining the Tigers this weekend will be host Vanderbilt, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Ole Miss, TCU, UCF, among others.
Tickets prices are $10 for adults. Live results for the meet can be found at https://pttiming.com and the live stream of the event can be found at ESPN.com.