Ebose Smashes School Record, Earns Silver to Lead Track & Field on Day 2 of Centennial Championships

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – First-year Osazenoriuwa Ebose earned the first Centennial Conference medal of her young career, taking the silver medal in the women's discus to highlight the Swarthmore College track & field teams second day at the Centennial Conference Championships.

Ebose tossed the discus 121-05, smashing the school record previously held by Cristi Charpentier '82 (118-6).

Outside of Ebose, several Garnet athletes set themselves up for medals on Sunday with solid performances in the preliminaries.

Senior Kenyetta Givans – the Most Outstanding Performer of the 2011 Championship Meet – easily qualified for the finals in the 100 and 400 meter hurdles. She turned in the top overall time in the 400, crossing the finish line in 1:05.74. In the 100, she crossed second with a time of 15.31.

Freshman Ruth Talbot earned a spot in the finals in both the 100 meter and 200 meter dashes. In the 100, she finished in 13.28, good for seventh among the field. In the 200, she crossed the finish line in 27.05.

In the 800 meter run prelims, junior Rebecca Hammond kept her medal hopes alive by easily qualifying for the finals with a time of 2:19.46.

In other finals on Saturday, the women's 4x800 relay team was unable to defend its Centennial title, as the team of senior Kathryn Gonzalez, senior Hannah Rose, Painter and senior Stephanie Beebe finished fifth overall with a time of 9:37.26.

In the women's steeplechase, senior Margret Lenfest finished 18th overall with a time of 13:18.02.

On the men's side, it was another first-year highlighting the afternoon. Freshman Jason Heo qualified for the finals in both the 110 hurdles and 400 meter hurdles. He posted a time of 17.10 in the 110 hurdles and 58.63 in the 400.

Also earning a spot in Sunday's finals was junior Matt Heck. A silver medalist at the Centennial Indoor Championships, Heck finished eighth in the 400 meter dash with a time of 50.20. Freshman Tim Vaughan-Ogunlusi just missed a spot in the finals of the 100 meter dash, finishing 11th overall (11.61).

In Saturday's finals, junior Eric Verhasselt wrapped up the two-day decathlon, placing eighth overall with 4244 points. His point total is a personal best and ranks second in program history. In Saturday's events, Verhasselt placed fourth in the 1,500 run (4:45.00), seventh in both the pole vault (9-08.00) and discus toss (88-08), eighth in the 110 hurdles (20.46) and ninth in the javelin
(103-03).

Senior Daniel Ly placed seventh in the long jump, reaching 20-10.75.

In the 4x800 relay, the team of freshman Jonas Oppenheimer, sophomore Richard Scott, freshman Erick White and senior Henry Ainley finished fifth overall with a time of 7:58.73.

Finally in the steeplechase, senior Chris Wickham finished 13th (10:08.30) and senior David D'Annunzio finished 16th (10:14.19).

In the team standings, both the men's (7) and women's (12) teams find themselves in ninth place.

The final day of the Centennial Conference Championships, which includes a majority of the finals, begins tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.