COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. - The Haverford College women's track & field team opened up its championship weekend with day one of the Centennial Conference Championships hosted by Ursinus on Friday evening. The heptathlon took center stage, as well as the 10,000-meter finals with Katie Hirsche winning the event crown for Haverford.
Alice Creed took sixth place in the pole vault to earn three points for the Fords. Creed vaulted 3.02 meters (9 feet, 10.9 inches), an outdoor personal best. The sophomore passed on the opening three heights and cleared on her first attempts of 2.72 and 2.87 meters. She cleared 3.02 on her second attempt and then bowed out at 3.17 meters (10 feet, 4.8 inches).
Junior Kayla Robinson took part in the multi-events and, after four events, sits in second place with 2,283 points. Her day started with a third-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles, running 18.15. Next, Robinson took second place in the high jump, recording 644 points, her highest total of the day, after leaping 1.52 meters (4 feet, 11.8 inches). She then dominated the field in the shot put, winning by over two meters with a throw of 10.67 meters (35 feet), recording 573 points. Day one of the heptathlon came to an end after Robinson finished second in the 200-meter dash, scoring 593 points with a time of 28.49.
Ceanne Lyon and Sydney Cummings each posted solid efforts in the hammer throw, with Lyon logging a toss of 25.79 meters (84 feet, 7.35 inches) for 22nd place while Cummings earned a 24th place showing with a toss of 25.18 meters (82 feet, 7.34 inches). Each of those two marks is a top 10 mark in the program's outdoor history.
The Fords didn't have to wait long for their first champion of the weekend. Katie Hirsche took the win in the 10,000 meters in a personal best of 37:45.01. Hirsche finished five seconds ahead of the second-place finisher in a commanding performance. The first-year's personal best going into the weekend was 38:09.76, which she ran at the beginning of April. Hirsche is Haverford's first 10,000 meter champion at the CC meet since Emma Lo in 2008.
Haverford leaves day one with ten total points in the bank and will look to place athletes in scoring positions when day two action begins on Saturday. The events start at 11 a.m. at Ursinus.