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

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.  

The 4x200 team

Meadeshia handoffs to Kirsten

Kerry races the 1000

Katie D races the 1000

Katie F races the 1000

Maya flies over the high jump!

Lotte and Cynthia after racing the mile.

Mei-Li and Lauren

Atema 

Becca

Kirsten

Sonia races the 200...but what is that upside-down person in the stands doing?

Kristi and Sonia

Go Smith!

Pre-meet huddle

Go Smith, woof woof.

More Pics from Beynon Invitational

Abby Mosca

Sonia Brown

Victoria Schein

Kristen Warren

Becca Gordon

Becca

Meadeshia Mitchell

Katie Dempsey

Cameah Wood

Lotte Dzialo

Abby leads off the 4x800 relay

Team Awards from Smith's Beynon Invitational

After each meet, the team nominates and then votes for athletes they think deserve to be awarded the Track Athlete, Field Athlete, and Teammate of the Meet Awards.  Congratulations to Kristen, Kirsten, and Micaela for their performances at Smith's Beynon Invitational!  Kristen won Field Athlete of the Meet for her performance in pole vault despite a nagging injury.  Kirsten won Track Athlete of the Meet for two incredible performances in the hurdles and the 500m.  Micaela won Teammate of the Meet for her split-taking diligence and boundless energy cheering on her teammates.  Thanks to all three of you for your hard work and great performances!

The team competes next at the University of Southern Maine, this Saturday, January 26.

Exciting Performances at the Beynon Invitational

Kirsten PRs in the 60m hurdles.

Smith hosted its final home meet of the season on Saturday, January 19.  It proved to be an excited meet for a variety of reasons.  Senior Kirsten Silfvenius placed first in the 60m hurdles with a new PR of 9.39 seconds.  She has now qualified for the Open New England, NE Division III, and the ECAC Championships in the hurdles.  She also won the unusual and rarely offered 500m event with a time of 1:21.21, which qualifies her for New England Div III and ECACs.  

Meadeshia Mitchell en route to a first place in the 400m.

First year Meadeshia Mitchell won the 400m event in 1:02.28, which qualifies her for New England Div III Championship.  

Junior Abby Mosca set a personal record in the mile with a time of 5:37.79, and teammate Atema Addy, now with two weeks of shot putting practice under her belt, improved her throw by a quarter of a meter.  In the 3k, Lotte Dzialo ran even splits and would have passed the girl in front of her had there been one more lap (which, due to some poorly timed last-lap bell-ringing, she thought there was.  Sign this girl up for the 10k!)

There were a few other notable performances.  In her first track meet performance ever, Yoo Eun Kim raced 1000m and had enough left in her to run a leg of the 4x800 relay.  Brianna Jackson has successfully transitioned from sprinting and is now running soundly into the middle distance category; she tried out the 600m as well as running a leg of the 4x800 relay.  Speaking of that relay....it was the last event of the day, starting at 5:25pm, the time when most athletes and spectators are ready to re-enter the world beyond the vortex of the indoor track , but Abby, Katie, Brianna, and Yoo Eun stayed focused and energized to represent Smith in this final event.  This relay team showed all the other teams what good baton hand-offs look like and managed to finished the meet strong, earning some final points for Smith!  

Although injury prevented Maya and Lauren from competing, it did not prevent them from being photogenic...or from cheering on their teammates throughout the meet.  Big thanks to Micaela (also injured, but not for long) for taking splits all day, to Victoria for getting a fantastic camera to bring to the meet, and for all the team members who helped take pictures throughout the day.  Here is a sampling of a few of them.

Lauren and Kristen

Cameah assists Meadeshia's start

Cameah

Brianna

Yoo Eun

Lotte races the 3k

The most amazing picture ever.  

Junior Sonia Brown

Kristen prepares to vault.

Head Coach Carla and Number One Fan Sabine