Georgia’s Kendell Williams Breaks Her Own NCAA Pentathlon Record To Win

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Georgia’s Kendell Williams Breaks Her Own NCAA Pentathlon Record To Win

Kendell Williams
(Photo by John Kelley)
[su_spacer size=”20″] For the second time on Saturday, Georgia sophomore Kendell Williams set a collegiate record at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and in doing so won her third career NCAA title.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Driven by three personal-best efforts, including her first collegiate record of the day, the Marietta, Ga., native scored 4,678 points to better her previous record of 4,635 (2014 NCAA Championships, Albuquerque, N.M.) by 43 points.  With her performance, Williams owns the top three collegiate scores all-time in the pentathlon.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Williams opened her day with a collegiate record in the 60-meter hurdles of 8.10.  She followed that up by clearing 6 feet in the high jump and reaching 40-2 in the shot put.  The Kell High School graduate made her push for the championship in the long jump after traveling a personal-best distance of 21 feet, 5 ¼ inches on her opening attempt.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In the pentathlon’s final event, the 800, Williams needed to stay within seven seconds of Mississippi State’s Erica Bougard, who won the 2013 NCAA title and was runner-up in 2014, to clinch the victory.  Williams stayed within striking distance of the SEC West’s Bulldog through the first three laps and closed to less than a second at the end with a career-best 2:17.30.
[su_spacer size=”40″] This is Williams’ fourth collegiate record: pentathlon (twice), heptathlon 100 hurdles (12.99) and pentathlon 60 hurdles.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Also of note, Williams’ senior teammate Quintunya Chapman scored a personal best 4,259 points to finish sixth in the pentathlon and add three points to the Lady Bulldogs’ total.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Please stay tuned for more updates from the NCAA Championships on Saturday.

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