Smith College Track and Field: February 2013

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Smith PRs Undeterred by Snowstorm Q

Yet another winter weather watch was in effect as four members of the Smith team traveled to Boston University's gorgeous banked track this past weekend for the Open New England Championships. The snow never came, but PRs sure did. Kirsten Silfenius hurdled her way to a new PR of 9.30 seconds for 60m. Meadeshia raced in her first ever 500m and placed fifteenth overall with a time of 1:18.58. Katie Ferrall chopped over 5 seconds off her 1000m time to finish in 3:02.84.

Maya Rittmanic competed in the high jump on Saturday, jumping 1.60m and finishing in fifteenth place.

The championship meet showcased the best performers in New England from Divisions I, II, and III. The indoor season officially wraps up after next weekend's ECAC Championship at The Armory.

Monday, February 18, 2013

FOUR All-Div III New England Honors!

Smith College sent five athletes to the 2013 edition of the Division III New England Indoor Track & Field Championships last weekend and brought home four All-Division III New England honors. Kirsten Silfvenius set the tone placing 5th in the 55-meter hurdles. She and teammate Meadeshia Mitchell placed 5th and 7th, respectively, in the 600-meter dash. Maya cleared 1.62m in the high jump to place 2nd. Kirsten, Meadeshia and Maya's top eight performances earned them All-Division III New England recognition. Katie Ferrall competed well in the 1,000-meter run and the 4x200-meter relay team clocked 1:49.06 to capture 11th in the event.

The Smithies will be competing at the Open New England Championships this coming weekend, hosted by Boston University.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Winter Storm Nemo Cancels This Weekend's Meet

Every school in western Mass is closed today with the exception of....Smith College! Admittedly, it would be nice to have a snow day, but we are still missing the key ingredient that makes missing class and lounging in PJs all day seem meaningful: Snow. During the distance runners' practice this morning, we ran through the streets of downtown Northampton and experienced a rare and magical winter running combination: no cars and no snow. We had the town to ourselves.

But, in the great words of Game of Thrones, "Winter is Coming."

Track Athlete, Field Athlete, and Teammate of the Meet from Tufts

Congrats to Paige, Abby, and Maya! Paige was nominated Field Athlete of the Meet for her incredible performance in the shot put at Tufts despite having just started learning the event. Suffice it say that she met her goal for the meet, which was "to throw forward." Abby was voted Track Athlete of the Meet for her gutsy 3k race and stellar anchor leg of the 4x800. Maya was voted Teammate of the Meet for cheering on others when not competing, remaining upbeat throughout the meet, and helping out during a small uniform crisis.

Well done!

Monday, February 4, 2013

PRs Trampled at Tufts Stampede Invitational

Go Maya!

The Smith Track and Field team had a huge day on Saturday as they competed at the Tufts Stampede Invitational. The hugeness of the day, for starters, was the sheer length of it. The team's bus rolled out at 6:30am from Smith and returned at 8:30pm. Also, there was the size of the meet, with 22 teams competing--so many that we could not all fit in one gym, so much of the day was spent navigating back and forth between the two locations: one for the team's camp and one for competition. However, the results from the day were huge as well. The team had six PRs: Abby and Lotte both PRed in the 3k; Micaela and Cynthia PRed in the mile; Maya PRed in the high jump; and Kirsten PRed in the 60m hurdles. Also huge: in Paige's first meet (after 4 days of practice), she shot putted 9.93 m and earned 16th place!

There were also a few notable performances that deserve a bit more mention than the finish time alone. Abby's performance in the 3k came right out of a scene in a movie. She ran the race of her life, almost beating a former teammate who had previously beaten her by 30 seconds. Abby started towards the back of the pack and slowly made her way to the front, lap by lap, checking off the other runners as she passed them. She and her former teammate dueled out the final 800, pushing each other to the limit, both refusing to give up the fight. Abby's final time of 10:57 is a 13 second PR.

The question arises at every indoor track meet, once six or seven hours have passed inside the facility: what were we thinking, entering the 4x800, the LAST event of the meet? If we did not race the 4x800, we could leave before the 5ks! However, Kirsten, Meadeshia, Micaela, and Abby proved why we stick around. All had competed earlier in the day and were exhausted, but they rocketed around the track like it was the first race of the day. Their final time, 10:10, was fast enough to qualify them to run at the Armory for the ECAC Indoor Championship.

Congratulations to all for huge and fantastic performances this past weekend.

Cynthia races the mile, en route to a PR.

Kristi

Kristen races the 200

Track Athlete, Field Athlete, and Teammate of the Meet from USM

...and the winners are: Katie Ferrall for track athlete of the meet for her performance in the 1000m; Becca for her strong showing in the shot put; and Lauren and Victoria for taking pictures throughout the meet and emailing them out to the team.

Congrats!

Katie, Becca, Lauren, and Victoria

Friday, February 1, 2013

Smith Travels to Southern Maine

Last weekend the Smith Pioneers competed at the University of Southern Maine Invitational in Gorham, Maine. After one night’s rest in Portland, the women prepared for battle against NESCAC foes Bates and Colby and others from Assumption, Emmanuel, Gordon, Husson, Lasall, Merrimack, Norwich and St. Joseph’s.

A winning performance from Maya Rittmanic in the high jump set the Pioneers on track for a great day of competition! Kirsten Silfvenius’s second place performance in the 55-meter hurdles, Meadeshia Mitchell’s second place showing in the 600-meters and Katie Ferrall’s runner-up performance in the 1,000 were also notable showings from the day. With nineteen season personal record performances, the Smithies placed fourth of eleven participating teams. Maya, Kirsten, Meadeshia and Katie qualified for the New England Division III meet, and Katie and Kirsten also qualified for the ECACs. Kirsten’s 55-meter hurdles time of 8.66 ensures her qualification for the Open New England Championships, a meet featuring competition between NCAA Division I, II and III. Congratulations Smith College Track & Field!

Thanks to Victoria and Lauren for taking the following pictures.