COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Haverford College women's indoor track & field team crowned two individual champions on Sunday and placed second in the final team standings with 77 points at the Centennial Conference Championships. Amelia Keyser-Gibson (mile) and Claire Sargent (shot put) won their events to give Haverford multiple individual conference indoor champions for the 15th time in the Centennial's 25 year existence. The Fords have also placed first or second as a team at the indoor meet during 19 of those 25 seasons.
A day after running to a second place finish in the 5,000 meters, Keyser-Gibson held off her challenger from Johns Hopkins in the mile, crossing the line in a time of 5:07.51. That first place showing marks her third indoor conference title as she won the 5,000 meters in 2016 and was a member of the winning DMR that same season. Haverford has now won the indoor mile during three straight seasons with three different runners and has claimed the mile title a total of 10 times at the conference meet. Katie Sullivan, the defending champ in that event, placed third with a time 5:09.38 and is now a five-time All-Centennial Conference performer during the indoor track season.
Sargent continued her shot put legacy with her second indoor individual title. She broke her own school record that she shared with Jackie Freund '10 to do so. Her best throw was marked at 12.85 meters. Measuring 42 feet, two inches, that throw was nine inches further than her previous indoor best. Sargent is the program's first repeat winner in the shot put after also taking home top honors during the 2016 season. Sargent finishes her indoor career as a four-time All-Centennial Conference performer in the shot put as she was the conference's runner-up during the other two years. Kerry Quigley added two crucial points to Haverford's field events with her seventh place finish in the long jump. Her season-best mark of 4.77 meters allowed her to score from the first group of participants.
Sullivan returned to the track to score in the 800 meters where she placed fifth with a time of 2:20.80. Sophie Drew gave the Fords two scorers in that event with an eighth place showing as she crossed the line in a time of 2:22.10. Drew also anchored the Fords' 4x800 meter relay that placed second overall with a time of 9:46.25. She was joined by Molly Hawkins, Hannah Yeakey, and Hannah Doll as second-team All-Centennial Conference performers.
In the sprints, first years Jessica Lopez and Kat Turner continued to hit their stride at the conference meet. Lopez placed fourth in the 60 meter dash with a personal best time (8.17 seconds) for the second straight day. This time, she shaved another four-hundredths of a second off her time to cross the line in fifth place – tying her for the fourth fastest individual in school history. Turner followed suit with another PR in the 60 meter hurdles. She cut nearly three-tenths off her personal best entering the weekend, placing sixth overall with a mark of 9.72 seconds. That time makes her the seventh fastest individual in program history for that event.
Even with all of those personal bests and individual crowns, Haverford's team placement was not secured until the 4x400 meter relay of Marly Banatte, Quigley, Amalia Axinn, and Lopez closed the day in thrilling fashion. They won the first two of two heats with a time of 4:21.92 to claim the Fords' final two points of the day with a seventh place overall result. That was enough to hold off the second place charge of Dickinson as the Red Devils placed third overall in the 4x400 relay and scored 74 total team points.
Up next, the Fords will have to decide if they want to enter any last chance meets to improve their potential for qualifying individuals to the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships. Taking 17 declared entrants in each event on the women's side, Nicole Giannetti is currently the highest ranked individual on the team with the 21st fastest mile in Division III so far this season.