Track Girls clean up well

Here are a few snap shots from the Student Athlete Banquet. Etta Grover-Silva was named Junior of the Year and Nora Youngs was named Senior of the Year. This is the 4th of 4 years that Nora has been named athlete of the year for her respective class. Also, big ups to the graduating Seniors: Claire Edwards (captain), Alina Ainyette, Nora Youngs, Genya Pepper, Jessie Katz, and Caitlin Ritchie.

4th in NEWMAC championship

Smith women have moved back into the top half of the conference championship. The team finished 4th with 81 points. We competed well despite the sudden extreme heat that hit the New England Area. Big Ups to all that have put in so much work in this season.

Aloha Aloha...

Saturday we traveled to Brunswick, Maine to compete at Bowdoin College in the 2009 Aloha Relays. We had an overall GREAT showing from the Smith women, adding more division III New England Qualifiers (Claire Edwards - 100m/LJ, Mary Cote - 100m, Uzuri Sims - 100m/200m, and Anna Cressotti - 800m), a host of personal records (way too many to list), and a new school record in the Discus by Ruby Western. To check out the full write up, copy and paste the link into you browser:

http://www.smith.edu/athletics/news/08_09releases/tra041809Bowdoin.html

The Aloha relays features an annual throwers relay (which our throwers competed their hearts out) and a hula hoop contest. Claire made it to the final three in the competition and represented Smith well. The top 6 competitors received leis for their performances and that was most definitely the joke of the day...that everyone got "laid." Here are some photos:

photo credits

Big Thanks to Liz Dernbach, Krissy Morgan for team photos. These ladies keep the blog interesting and colorful to say the least!

Faces in the crowd...

I spy Ruby and Shak in EVERY picture...do you?

iRUN

The Awesome-ness that we call Smith track!


(Anna Leversee, ZuZu Sims, Kristin Peck, Jackie Sparagna, Etta Grover-Silva)

Cool and the Gang...

The distance crew are the queens of keeping it cool under pressure...


(Genya Pepper, Carolyn Hoeckman-Percival, Anna Cressotti, Coach Valerie Lynch, Kristin Peck, Liza Rosenfield)



Nora Youngs

Eastern Connecticut State University Meet Recap

Despite the constant rain, mighty wind gusts, and close to freezing temperatures...Smith Women win BIG at the ECSU invite. 7 events total had Smith women at the helm (100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m, LJ [top collegian], Javelin, Hammer).

New qualifiers this week:

ECAC - 4x100 relay (Claire Edwards, Caitlin Ritchie, Katie Eison-Washington, Mary Cote)



The bus ride smelled like it was carrying a lot of wet puppy dogs, but it was all worth it for a successful outing.

Next week: Aloha Relays at Bowdoin in Maine!

For the Love of [jumping events]...

LONG JUMP (Claire Edwards [captain], Jackie Sparagna, Mary Cote





POLE VAULT (Krissy Morgan, Etta Grover-Silva [2009 Indoor ALL AMERICAN], Jean Egger)





HIGH JUMP (Allie Rissi)

interested in joining the team?

http://www.smith.edu/athletics/form.html

click on this link OR copy and paste the link into you browser to fill out the recruiting prospect form. If already a Smithie, just come on down to Carla's office...we promise she doesn't bite :-)

a coach's advice

Avoid using, wearing, or eating anything on a race day that you haven't tried in practice. You never know whether that new mango-flavored gel will disagree with you midway through the race or whether going barefoot in the new long jump spikes will cause blisters, and you don't want to find out during a competition. Maybe everything will be fine, but why take a chance? Test snacks, equipment, socks, and shoes in practice first. You don't need anything else to be nervous about.

outdoor has begun!

Smith women are ready to battle the rain...the cold...the snow (this is New England)...or whatever Mother Nature sees fit for each weekend. It's OUTDOOR SEASON...and we are ready to bring it!!!

So far this season we have competed at the Trinity Invitational in Hartford, CT and Mt. Holyoke Invitational in South Hadley, MA. Our championship qualifiers thus far are:

New England III
Anna Cressotti - 1500m, 800m
ZuZu Sims - 400H
Alina Ainyette - 400m
Katie Eison-Washington - 100m
Mary Cote - LJ, TJ
Caitlin Ritchie - JT
Etta Grover-Silva - PV
Ruby Western - DT, SP
Shak Etienne - SP
Nora Youngs - 3000 SC

ECAC
Caitlin Ritchie - JT
Ruby Western - DT
Shak Etienne - SP
Nora Youngs - 3000SC
Etta Grover-Silva - PV

NCAA
Etta Grover-Silva - PV


***a little coaching humor at picture time

Congrats Shak!!!!

Athlete of the Week
Shakwana Etienne
Track & Field

At the Trinity College Bantam Invitational, a non-team scoring meet, Shakwana competed in three events, Shot Put, Hammer and Discus, and threw personal best marks in all three, a rare accomplishment. She placed 5th in Shot, 7th in Hammer, and 11th in Discus, and qualified for Division III New Englands and ECACs in Shot Put. Of particular note, is the huge margins by which she PRed in all three events, Shot Put: 11.77m (previous PR: 11.04), Discus: 31.43m (previous PR: 27.48) and Hammer: 33.82m (previous PR: 21.44).

Congrats ETTA!!!!!

Athlete of the Week Etta Grover-Silva Track & Field Etta Grover-Silva (Arcata, CA) picked up where she left off last season as she won the pole vault with a leap of 3.67m (12' 1/2") this past weekend at the Wesleyan Invitational. Her performance qualified her for the New England III's, Open New England's, ECAC's and provisionally for the NCAA Championship. With her vault, she is currently ranked number one in the Division III standings.

new spirit mark unveiled!

"Determination." "Confidence." "Spirit." "Pride." "Sisterhood." These descriptors consistently rose to the top when the Smith College community was asked to describe what makes Smith, its students, and its student-athletes unique. A new visual identity for Smith's sports teams that captures these distinctive qualities marks the culmination of a year-long project to promote visibility and enthusiasm for Smith's intercollegiate and club teams -- and to generate school spirit broadly -- by adopting a unifying visual identity or "spirit mark" for athletics uniforms, casual apparel and promotional items for clubs and organizations.


Apparel can be purchased via the Smith bookstore or website:

http://www.smith.edu/spirit/

new team photo

This is the most current team photo...not the clearest picture but you can check it out on the website for a better view.

http://www.smith.edu/athletics/sports/track/roster/

80s day!!!!

Here are a few pictures from our 80s day practice: we had some pretty creative outfits today!


Hopefully our enthusiasm will transfer to our meet this weekend. We are competing at Wesleyan College in Middletown, CT all day Saturday. This will be our first meet since coming back from Christmas holidays.

***We were not able to compete at our meet last Sunday (Dartmouth relays) because of extreme weather conditions.