AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn track & field heads to Nashville, Tennessee to compete in the Vanderbilt Invitational Jan. 19-20. The two-day meet will be held at the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility with the men's heptathlon kickstarting the action Friday at 9 a.m. CT and Saturday at 8:30 a.m. CT.
The Tigers enter the weekend fresh off the season-opener at the Harvey Glance Tide & Tiger Dual Meet in Birmingham in which the team racked up 10 event wins and equaled or set 34 new personal and collegiate bests. Auburn swept the men's and women's 60m hurdles and 300m dash.
"The overall meet got away from us a little bit in a few of the women's events," Tigers head coach Leroy Burrell said. "It came down to a jump or two in the high jump and long jump on the men's side, but I was pleased. We had some outstanding performances, but we still have a little way to go to build the kind of culture that we want to win a meet like the one last week."
One of the highlights of the dual meet was All-American Favour Ashe in the 60m. Ashe's time of 6.53 ranks him No. 1 nationally and No. 2 on the current world list. His outstanding effort was rewarded with a nod as the SEC Co-Runner of the Week.
Other notable performances from the indoor opener were freshman Ja'Kobe Tharp, junior Simone Johnson, and sophomore Matthew Rueff. With a time of 7.85, Tharp won the men's 60m hurdles, making him the fifth fastest Tiger in school history. San Diego State transfer Johnson kickstarted her Auburn career with a jump of 5.99m/19-8 to win the women's long jump. Rueff brought home a win for the field events in the shot put with a new best mark of 17.70m/58-1, placing him on Auburn's top-10 indoor list for the event.
Both the Auburn men and women took home gold in two relay events. Louis O'Loughlin, Matthew Rainer, Davis Plowden and Ryan Kinnane won the men's distance medley relay with a time of 9:53.62. Behind the efforts of Lalah Hasbrouck, Abasiono Akpan, Ashantae Harvey and Vimbayi Maisvorewa, the women won the 4x400m relay in 3:43.53.
This weekend, the Tigers plan to utilize a smaller squad for this weekend as the team expects a full-squad effort the following week in Arkansas.
Joining the Tigers this weekend will be Georgia, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and the host Vanderbilt.
Live results for the meet can be found on pttiming.com. The meet will be streamed on the SEC Network+.