HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's track & field team placed second at the indoor Centennial Conference Championships in February after advancing to the NCAA Championships during the cross country season. The Ford runners will now begin their third and final season as the year as outdoor track & field opens up this Friday and Saturday at Widener's Danny Curran Invitational.
Highlighting last year's outdoor season were Katie Sullivan and Nicole Giannetti advancing to the NCAA Division III Championships for the first time in their outdoor careers. Sullivan enters her senior year as the reigning 1,500 meter champion in the conference, the same event she qualified to nationals in a season ago. Claire Sargent is the defending conference champion in shot put and won that title during the indoor season as well over the winter.
Sullivan starts the final season of her decorated Haverford career as a two-time All-American on the indoor surface. She is a four-time Centennial Conference Champion, having won the 800 meters in 2016 and 1,500 meters last spring during her outdoor championship meet appearances. A nine-time All-CC performer in track, she is the second fastest runner in school history in the 1,500 meters and ranks sixth in program history in the 800 meters.
Giannetti qualified to the NCAA Championships in the steeplechase last spring and was the conference's runner-up in 2017. A three-time All-Centennial Conference performer in track, Giannetti holds the third fastest steeplechase time in school history. She is also ranked sixth in the 1,500 meters and eighth in the 5,000 meters. Classmate Amelia Keyser-Gibson enters her final season of track coming off of her conference championship during the indoor mile. Now a three-time conference indoor champion, Keyser-Gibson will look to carry that success into the outdoor season where she ranks as the third fastest 5,000 meter runner in school history to go along with being the 10th fastest individual at the 1,500 meter distance.
Sargent highlights a talented trio of throwers. A six-time All-Centennial Conference performer in shot put – winning that event on three occasions between the two track & field seasons – she is already the school record holder in both of those seasons and ranks ninth among the all-time Fords in discus. Emily Anderson is coming off of a third place finish in discus during the 2017 outdoor championships to earn her second All-CC accolade in that event. She ranks second in school history for that event and is also 10th in both the shot put and javelin all-time.
Unique Tuberville is the current school record holder in the weight throw and led Haverford with seventh place finish in that event last spring. Each of Haverford's three returning throwers have held the hammer school record at some point during their careers as the Fords began contesting that event with the state-of-the-art throwing facility being finished in the summer of 2015.
Haverford's sprinters look to be headlined by the first years as Jessica Lopez placed fifth in the 60 meter dash during her indoor championship debut. Kat Turner was sixth in her 60 meter hurdle conference debut during the indoor season. Tess Oberholtzer just missed All-Centennial Conference honors last spring in the 100 meter hurdles with her fourth place finish at the conference championship.
In the jumps, Sophia Nelson returns from a scoring performance during the Centennial Conference outdoor long jump championships in 2017. She is the fifth ranked long jumper in school history as Marisa Antinori is right behind her in the school's record book. Looking to carry momentum over from the indoor season, Lopez was fourth in the triple jump at the conference championships while Kerry Quigley placed sixth during that same meet.
Haverford is currently scheduled to compete in nine meets before the Centennial Conference Championships which will be held at Ursinus and run from Friday, May 4 through Sunday, May 6. The Fords' home meet this spring is set for Monday, April 23.