Givans' Two Golds Leads Women's Track & Field to Fifth-Place Finish at Centennials

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Add two more gold medals and another school record to Kenyetta Givans' already impressive resume.

The senior earned three medals on Sunday – including golds in the 100 and 400 meter hurdles – to lead the Swarthmore College women's track & field team on the final day of the Centennial Conference Championships from Ursinus College. Givans has now earned nine Centennial Conference gold medals and 14 overall medals for her decorated career.

As a team, the Garnet women finished the day with five medals and 73 points, good for fifth place overall in the team standings.

Givans set the school record in the 100 meter hurdles, finishing in a time of 14.52, just .02 seconds ahead of runner up Victoria Goodenough of Ursinus.  Givans topped Goodenough once again in the 400 meter hurdles – this time more comfortably – with a time of 1:03.28. Hoping to earn a spot in the NCAA Division III Championships later in the month, Givans' time in the 100 hurdles currently ranks 14th in the nation and her time in the 400 hurdles ranks 25th.

Givans' third medal of the day came in the 4x100 relay. Givans teamed with freshman Ruth Talbot, sophomore Chelsea Hicks  and senior Ogechi Irondi to earn bronze with a time of 50.76.

The Garnet's other individual medalists for the day were Hicks and junior Rebecca Hammond. Hicks took home silver in the triple jump, as she finished second overall with a jump of 35-09.50. Hammond took home the bronze in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:19.32

Several other Garnet athletes had exemplary performances that just missed the podium.

Hammond just missed a second medal for the day, finishing fourth in the 1,500 run with a time of 4:43.23, just .15 seconds off of third place.

In the 4x400 relay, the team of  Givans, Hammond, senior Stephanie Beebe, and Irondi also just missed a medal, finishing in fourth place with a time of 4:02.03.

Senior Melissa Frick took fifth in the 5,000 meter run, crossing the finish line in  17:42.85.

Talbot took fifth place in the 100 meter dash with a time of 13.15.

Beebe finished eighth in the 1,500 meter run with a personal-best time of  4:46.62, which ranks eighth all-time. Senior Jen Johnson (4:49.28) took 13th in the event with the ninth fastest time in school history.

One day removed from her silver-medal performance in the discus, freshman Osazenoriuwa Ebose finished seventh in the shot put (35-07.25).