Unionville senior Courtney Smith entered her third year of XC with a resume that has been growing season-to-season. As a sophomore, she was 4th in AAA at Hershey. Then last year, she won her first state title, setting a meet and course record. In the winter, she broke the state record in the 3000 meter run, but had to settle for 2nd place. She more than made up for it by twice outsprinting the same competitor, first for 3rd place in the Girls 3000 Invitational at the Penn Relays, and then in the finals of the AAA 3200 meter run at the PIAA State Championships. Smith led her team to a qualifying spot and trip to NXN after winning the Northeast Regional. But in the first 1000 meters in Portland, she fell and was spiked. She recovered for 10th. Then during indoor, and despite an injury, Smith captured 3rd in an incredible 3000 at PTFCA Indoor States, and anchored her DMR to a state title. Two weeks later, she anchored that DMR to a 6th place finish in the New Balance Nationals Indoor champs in a time ten seconds better than their state title... and anchored the 4xmile the next day to a 3rd place finish - both earning all-American recognition. But the injury endured. She went through PT, and returned to racing at the Henderson Invitational on May 2nd. Beyond happy to be back.
Outdoor Track:
Indoor Track:
Indoor Track:
Cross Country:
Entry #1 9/2 | Entry #2 9/30 | Entry #3 10/7 | Entry #4 10/14 | Entry #5 10/28 | Entry #6 11/10 | Entry #7 12/5 | Entry #8 12/10
Courtney Smith
SR. Unionville HS, PA
Journal Entry #4 (October 14, 2013)
The college choice is made.
Hi PA,
This past week I finalized my college plans! Choosing which college I wanted to attend was definitely one of the hardest decisions I have ever made and I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Although the process was stressful (but still fun!), I knew that I couldn't go wrong with any of the three schools. The first three weekends in September I visited Duke, Harvard and Princeton.
That being said, I am very proud and excited to say... Harvard Class of 2018!!!!!
Harvard seemed like a great fit for me. It is very challenging academically and the XC team is getting better every year! I am really looking forward to joining the Harvard team and the girls have made me feel like I'm already a part of it. Coach Bayley is a great coach and she fosters a really close team environment, which is important to me. I can't wait to join them!! On Tuesday, Emily and I wore our college shirts to school . We are officially frenemies now!
Both of us are so happy with our decisions and love all the girls on our future teams and the coaches. We are going to miss our high school team and coaches so much, but we are looking forward to joining our college teams next year.
I asked Emily for a quote about her college choice/process:
"After visiting Penn and Cornell this fall, I had a tough decision ahead of me. I had a great time on both visits, but after some hard thinking I decided Penn was the place for me! I loved the atmosphere of the team and campus and I really liked Coach Dolan too! I can't wait to be a Quaker! Also I can't wait to compete against my new frenemy(but mainly friend) in the Ivy League!"
In addition to finding out my future school this week, we also ran at the Manhattan Invitational on Saturday. We drove up early Saturday morning and brought two vans of nine runners plus Coach Lac and Coach Stanczuk. We want to thank the coaches (and their families for letting us borrow them!) for giving up some much time from their lives for the team and we wouldn't be able to do any of this without them. Coach Stanczuk is someone who doesn't always get as much credit as he deserves, but he volunteers so much time and support for us and we really appreciate it!
Our race wasn't until almost three so we walked around, watched some races, and tried to get onto the back hills to see the course but were unsuccessful. Even though this threw a bit of a curve ball, we all stayed positive and didn't make excuses. It was perfect weather and the course was in nice shape. I got to see my friends from North Penn, Melanie Vlasic and Colleen McGovern. I also got to spend some time with one of my future freshman teammates next year!
All in all, I think the race was a good learning experience for the team and although we didn't all have our best races, we had some girls really step up and do well! Olivia Young hit her time exactly and ran to an amazing 6th place finish! Emily Fisher, normally our third runner right with Olivia, was not feeling well at all, but since we ended up winning by only 3 points, if she would have dropped out we would have lost! We are so proud of her and Bridgette for toughing it out and finishing the race even though neither of them felt well! Our new runners Kacie and Elizabeth ran well and navigated the unknown course as their own underclassman pack. In addition, we entered two of our top three JV runners in the JV race and they ran to an incredible 1-2 finish! Our guys team also came as well and finished 9th behind Colin McDonald's 11th place finish in Varsity F and six out of the seven guys medaled!
Personally, I wouldn't say I was thrilled about my race, but it was a really great learning experience and definitely got me ready for the other big races later on this year! Even though I wasn't happy with how I did, I'm really happy Kennedy Weisner was able to represent PA for the win! Congrats on an amazing run and for showing NY how fast PA is. Also, congrats to Tony Russell for winning the guys race with what I heard was a very exciting finish!
Courtney