Smith College Track and Field: NEWMAC Championship: A Grand Finale to the Regular Season!

Lotte, Katie, and Danielle take off in the 5k.

The NEWMAC Conference Championship took place on Saturday, April 27, at Springfield College Blake Track. The weather was pretty much as perfect as it could be for a track meet - warm but not too warm, a slight breeze but not windy. The Smith Track and Field team came ready to compete.

The team tent area was conveniently located next to the speakers blaring a wide variety of music from the past three decades. Paige, Micaela, and Kirsten (with Katie Ferrall on maracas!) led the team in a warm-up dance party. Throws coach Erica even busted a few of her own old-school moves when the classic "Bust a Move" (circa 1991) came on for about 15 seconds.

The team kept rocking as long jump, high jump, and shot put began, and they did not stop until the final event of the 4x400 relay. There were so many outstanding performances that it is hard to know where to begin, so we'll start with the team's nominees for track athlete, field athlete, and teammate of the meet (we had plenty of time while waiting for the awards ceremony to nominate and vote).

Kristi Hammond, en route to a PR.

The Track Athlete of the Meet award goes to Kristi Hammond, although there were some murmurs of giving her an award in an entirely new category: Meet Superstar. This is Kristi's first year at Smith and first season participating in track and field. She comes to practice every day ready to work hard, and she arrives at meets ready to compete. She competed in three events at NEWMAC and got a personal best in all three of them. She took three seconds off her 400 time, finishing in 63.25 (and narrowly missed scoring a point for Smith, finishing in 9th place). In the 200, she took two seconds off her time, finishing in 28.67 seconds. In high jump, she jumped 1.45m, once again, just out of scoring positing in 10th place.

Amanda hands off to Meadeshia in the 4x400.

The Field Athlete of the Meet award goes to senior Amanda Zakoske who placed third in the javelin with a new personal record of 35.70m (which qualifies her for Div III NE Championship next weekend). Amanda also came in 13th in the high jump (1.40m), and placed eighth for Smith in the 100m hurdles, setting a PR of 15.72 in the prelims. There's more. Amanda also raced the second leg in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays, helping Smith take fourth place in both events.

The award for Teammate of the Meet goes to junior Paige Sarlandt. Not only did she lead the team dance party, but she also set a personal record in the shot put (11.37m), finishing third. When she was not competing, she managed to be everywhere else at once, cheering on teammates, checking them in for events, helping at the end of races, and keeping everyone smiling.

There are many other performances to highlight. Senior Kirsten Silfvenius hurdled to a NEWMAC Championship Record in the 400m hurdles, placing first with a time of 62.30. She came in second in the 100m high hurdles with a time of 14.92 in the prelims and 14.97 in the finals. She also anchored both of the relays, flying in with a sub-60-second 400 in the 4x4, almost catching WPI at the end. Senior Kristen Warren PRed in both the 100m (14.30) and 200m (28.68) dashes. Senior Becca Gordon PRed in the discus with a throw of 32.55m. She also took 7th in the javelin (31.00m) and narrowly missed scoring in shot put (9th place, 10.44m). Junior Maya Rittmanic came in fourth in the high jump (1.58m), fourth in the triple jump (10.46m), and seventh in the long jump (4.87m). Junior Sonia Brown raced to a new PR in the 100m dash with a time of 13.28 seconds. Junior Micaela Young shaved a second off of her 1500m time with a PR of 5:09.01. In the 5k, first year Lotte Dzialo achieved her season goal of breaking 20 minutes with a time of 19:56.04, and first year Danielle Opatovsky, who has been out most of the season with injury and illness, took the 5k field by surprise, finishing second (thanks to a gutsy kick and pushing through the finish line) with a time of 18:15.03. In the 400m, first year Meadeshia Mitchell finished fifth and qualified for Division III New England Championships next weekend with a time of 60.79 seconds.

As a team, Smith finished fifth out of ten with a score of 67. MIT, Wheaton, Springfield, and WPI took first through fourth places.

Thus, the regular season has ended, but many athletes will continue competing for the next several weeks. First up is Div III New England Championships at Colby College (May 3-4).

Finally, a huge thanks to Katie's mom Jennifer Dempsey for taking these fantastic pictures.