Smith Captures Two All-ECAC Honors

The Smith College track & fielders competed at the ECAC Indoor Track & Field Championships last weekend, capturing two All-ECAC recognitions en route. Meadeshia Mitchell and Kirsten Silfvenius placed third and fourth in the 500-meter event, both earning All-ECAC honors. Kirsten’s mark of 1:17.43 and Meadeshia’s time of 1:17.63 both broke the school record in that event. Maya Rittmanic placed eighth in the high jump, clearing 1.63m comfortably. Katie Ferrall ran in a very bunched and tactical 1,000-meter race and clocked 3:07.63. Smith teams also competed in the 4x200-meter and 4x800-meter relays. The 4x200-meter team of Sonia Brown, Maya, Meadeshia and Kirsten ran 1:48.42, their best time of the season. The 4x800-meter team of Katie, Meadeshia, Micaela Young and Abby Mosca ran 9:54.12, breaking the 10-minute barrier and also bettering their previous season PR. 

Way to close off the indoor season! Smith will begin the outdoor season on the 30^th of March at the Mount Holyoke Spring Fling meet. See you all there!

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.

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.

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!

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