In their final meet before the NCAA preliminaries, the Georgetown track and field programs turned in dominant performances at the Big East track and field championships. The teams collected 11 event titles including nine individual titles and two relay titles.
As a team, the women’s track and field team finished second to Villanova in the eight-team field with 128 points. Meanwhile, the men finished third behind Villanova and DePaul, who finished first and second, respectively.
Over the weekend, graduate student All-American Amanda Kimbers won both the 100-meter and 200m dash. The first-place finishes capped an incredible campaign, and for her efforts she was named the 2014 Big East Outdoor Track & Field Championships Most Outstanding Female Track Performer. Kimbers is the first Georgetown athlete to win the award since 1984.
“I don’t think I would have wanted to end it any other way,” Kimbers said after accepting her award, according to guhoyas.com. “It was a lot of hard work coming back but Coach [Greg] Lambert and my teammates really pushed me and helped me out tremendously.”
In the 400m hurdles, senior All-AmericanAmerican Deseree King successfully defended her title. After winning the event last year, King dominated the field and finished in 58.79 — a full second ahead of the second-place finisher.
The Hoyas earned their final event title in the 4-x-400m relay. The team, comprised of King, All-American senior Chelsea Cox, sophomore Mirabel Nkenke and freshman All-American Sabrina Southerland dominated the field and cruised to the first-place finish with a time of 3:39.29.
Perhaps the women’s strongest event of the meet was the 800m, as four Hoyas earned points for the team. Senior Becca DeLoache was the top finisher for the Hoyas, coming in third, while Southerland, the 2014 indoor event champion, came in fourth and senior Shanique Dasilva in fifth. Cox, the 2013 event champion, completed the scoring for the Hoyas, finishing in eighth.
Meanwhile, the men turned in an equally strong performance in the 800m, as five Hoyas also earned points in the event. Freshman Ahmed Bile narrowly placed first, finishing in 1:49.04 — just 0.12 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Villanova senior Samuel Ellison. Junior Billy Ledder followed in third, while sophomore Cole Williams, freshman Nathaniel Gordan and sophomore Zach Zingsheim completed the scoring, finishing sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
In his final Big East championship, graduate student All-American Andrew Springer won the 10,000m run finishing in 30:01.82 — a second ahead of his teammate, junior Brian King. The win was the fourth Big East event title for Springer.
After the Big East championships, 30 Georgetown athletes — 17 men and 13 women — were named all-Big East. Georgetown received the second most total honors in the Big East.
Georgetown will now turn its attention to the NCAA outdoor track and field championships east preliminary. The meet will serve as a qualifier for the outdoor championships and will be held at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 29-31.
