{"id":206610,"date":"2026-03-26T08:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T08:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/206610\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T08:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T08:23:09","slug":"famu-womens-track-gears-up-for-the-outdoor-season-the-famuan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/206610\/","title":{"rendered":"FAMU\u00a0women\u2019s\u00a0track gears up for the outdoor season\u00a0 \u2013 The FAMUAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheFAMU women\u2019s track and field team celebrating after winning the 2026 SWAC championship (FAMU Athletics)<\/p>\n

The Florida A&M women\u2019s track and field team\u00a0continued its dominance at the Southwestern Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Rattlers\u00a0clinched their second consecutive conference title after\u00a0finishing the\u00a0meet with a total of 131 points, beating second-place Alabama State\u2019s total of 124 points.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With standout performances across the board, the\u00a0Rattlers finished strong to take it home. A couple of those key performances came from\u00a0Diandrenique\u00a0Gaines,\u00a0a\u00a0freshman\u00a0sprinter who\u00a0delivered an electric showing in the short sprints.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gaines took first place in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.41 seconds and followed it up with another win in the 200-meter dash, finishing in 23.45 seconds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These two performances helped snap Alabama State\u2019s lead and allowed the rattlers to sit comfortably in first place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant a lot to me because I prayed for it and asked God to allow me to win,\u201d Gaines\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m always just grateful to have the opportunity to be able to compete and help out my team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gaines\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0the only athlete contributing.\u00a0Kiersten\u00a0Clark,\u00a0a\u00a0freshman\u00a0sprinter,\u00a0finished second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.45 and placed fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.05.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rattlers also stood out in the hurdles with\u00a0Ty \u2018Yana Adams, a\u00a0freshman\u00a0sprinter\u00a0and hurdles runner, who\u00a0qualified\u00a0with a personal best after finishing third in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of\u00a08.32\u00a0seconds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Head\u00a0coach\u00a0Garfield Ellenwood III said that the championship reflects how hard the team has been working throughout this indoor season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just goes to show that the program is steadily\u00a0ascending,\u00a0and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0going in the right direction to really build something here at FAMU,\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Ellenwood\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After marking another milestone for\u00a0Ellenwood and the Rattlers, they continue to build momentum as the\u00a0outdoor\u00a0season goes on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team is scheduled to\u00a0compete at\u00a0the University of South Florida for the Spring Break\u00a0Invitational. The\u00a0two-day meet begins Saturday, March 21 in Tampa, Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ellenwood and the rattlers are eager to continue their success in this next chapter of their season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEach day we want to get a little bit better, Ellenwood said.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re outside, and they really enjoy being outdoors, so we just want to build upon what we did during the indoor season and grow each day\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For athletes like Gaines, the transition to outdoor competition offers another opportunity to break personal records and continue building momentum.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal for the outdoor season is to continue to dominate and let my name be known by breaking records and giving my\u00a0team\u00a0a chance to compete at the NCAA\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida A&M\u2019s track program is known for turning overlooked recruits into record-breaking athletes, proving development matters just as much as talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FAMU women\u2019s track and field team celebrating after winning the 2026 SWAC championship (FAMU Athletics) The Florida A&M…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-206610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}