Sports

Givans edged for gold in Centennial photo finish

In print | March 5, 2009

Kenyetta Givans ’12 didn’t know if she had won or not.

It was the final of the women’s 55-meter hurdles at the Centennial Conference Indoor Track Championship last Sunday at Ursinus. Givans had shattered the college record in her signature event, slashing 0.05 off her previous best to run a 8.67 in Saturday’s preliminary heats and become the top seed in the final. She was nearly a tenth of a second ahead of her nearest competitor, a comfortable spread despite seeming miniscule to the casual observer.

Imagine then, being edged by 0.002 for the conference title on Sunday afternoon at Ursinus’ Floy Lewis Bakes Field House.

“It took about eight or nine minutes before they announced [the official results],” Givans said. Sometimes she can see her competitors in her peripheral vision. “Usually I can tell [if I’m ahead] if the person next to me is still in mid-jump,” she said. But this race was too close to call.

Givans and Haverford junior Eliza Reiss cleared the finish together, each clocking times of 8.58. Further analysis of the finish, however, led officials to call Reiss the winner by just two thousandths of a second, 8.573 to 8.575.

Despite having the race snatched away before her eyes, Givans was pleased with the result. “I took myself by surprise. I was not expecting to go that fast,” she said. “I was thinking I could maybe go somewhere in the low 8.6s.”

Givans’ performance was one of a number of top finishes by the Garnet women. Middle distance linchpin Cait Mullarkey ’09 continued her winning ways with a couple of fourth-place performances, finishing just outside the medals in 800-meter run (2:21.95) and the mile (5:02.59). Mullarkey, the 2007 800-meter champion, had a busy weekend, running her two individual races plus two relays. Swarthmore Head Coach Pete Carroll knows it takes a toll on her body. “She probably would have won [the 800] if she had been fresh,” he said, explaining that by the time the 800 rolled around at the end of the second day of the championships, Mullarkey’s legs were tired. Indeed, her seed time of 2:19.59 would have won her the gold. “It’s bittersweet,” Carroll said of Mullarkey’s trio of fourth-place finishes (she anchored the women’s 4×800, which was fourth in 9:54.82), an impressive if frustrating result.

“The 800 was kind of tricky. It went slower than I expected, so it became tactical,” Mullarkey said. “No one really races that volume,” she added, citing fatigue and anxiety as byproducts of multiple races in a championship meet.

Mullarkey’s mile time was an NCAA provisional cut. She will travel alone to the ECAC Indoor Track and Field Championships at Tufts University on Saturday to try for a lower time to increase her chances of being invited the NCAA meet. “My time would have made the cut last year,” she said. “But I think the mile is a hot race this year.”

Even behind the standouts, the Garnet had much to celebrate. The always-solid women’s distance crew impressed again. Aside from Mullarkey’s contributions, Bess Ritter ’09 ran to a sixth-place finish in the 5,000-meter run in a lifetime best time of 18:08.94, which vaulted her to fifth place all-time for the Garnet. Margaret Lenfest ’12 emerged from one of the slower heats by shaving over eight seconds off her seed time in the 800 to run 2:28.25, good enough for seventh place in the conference. Carroll wasn’t surprised with Lenfest’s breakthrough race, noting that a first-year’s inexperience on the college circuit can sometimes work to an athlete’s advantage by allowing her to run without the pressure of “knowing names and faces” on the track.

The foursome of Nyika Corbett ’10, Givans, Natalie Stone ’09 and Mullarkey took the bronze in the distance medley (12:38.19). The distance medley, which sees four athletes run distances of 1200, 400, 800 and 1,600 meters, respectively, is the perfect opportunity for the Garnet to exploit its versatility in the women’s distance events.

Other impressive performances for the Garnet came in the field events. Taylor Wuerker ’12 propelled herself to clear a height of 2.78 meters for fourth-place in the pole vault, while classmate Nicole Cox ’12 added another fourth-place result in the high jump, clearing a height of 1.44 meters.

Dan Ly ’12 led the Garnet men in the field events, placing fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 12.96 meters.

On the track, the Swarthmore men were led by the dynamic duo of Erik Saka ’09 and Dan Hodson ’09, who finished 10th and 11th respectively in the men’s 3,000-meter run. Saka’s time of 8:56.43 lands him ninth all-time at Swarthmore, while Hodson’s finish in 8:57.19 is 11th all-time.

Carroll noted the absences of Connor Darby ’09 and Dan Kurz ’11 (who pulled his hamstring in the 4×200-meter relay finals) due to injury as a significant setback for the Garnet men.

Swarthmore track and field now transitions to the spring season and will kick it off at Widener’s Danny Curran Invite on March 28.