— Georgia track and field true freshman Kendell Williams has been named the Southeastern Conference Women’s Freshman Field Athlete of the Year, according to a league announcement on Friday.
Williams, pentathlete from Marietta, Ga., is the third Lady Bulldog to earn this award since the SEC started it in 2004 (Jenny Dahlgren, 2004; Levern Spencer, 2006). In 2013, Shaunae Miller was named the SEC Women’s Freshman Runner of the Year before turning pro during the offseason.
Williams stands No. 2 on the national list and in the school record books in the pentathlon with 4,302 points. She is the only freshman qualified for the NCAA meet thanks to her personal-best score that topped a 9-year-old American Junior record by 243 points.
The 11-time state champion while at Kell High School earned runner-up honors at the SEC Championships after scoring 4,283 points. Williams has collegiate career-best marks of 8.24 in the 60-meter hurdles, 5 feet, 11 ¼ inches in the high jump and 20-6.25 in the long jump, which are all currently ranked in the top 22 nationally.
Georgia will travel to Albuquerque, N.M., next week in preparation for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on March 14-15. Williams, along with pentathlete teammates Lucie Ondraschkova and Quintunya Chapman, start their first of five events (60 hurdles) in the pentathlon on Saturday, March 15 at 1:45 p.m. ET.
