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:
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 #8 (December 10, 2013)
From a fall to 10th - As close to Pennsbury as ever.
The entire weekend was just incredible and the rumors I heard that Nike treats the athletes like royalty were one hundred percent true. It was such a special and amazing experience and was also really great bonding both for within our team, and with other runners across the country. Cross country runners are all such nice and friendly people.
I think Unionville and Pennsbury really bonded this weekend, especially on our journey home where we were stuck in Arizona for five hours together.
This was Emily's and my last XC race with the Unionville girls and we couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to spend our high school careers with. Even though nationals didn't go exactly as we hoped, overall the season was still amazing and I'm so proud of how hard everyone worked.
Unfortunately, in the first 1k or so of my race, I fell on the frozen ground which basically felt like falling on concrete. I banged up/scraped my knees and my hand and obviously lost a lot of momentum. Thankfully, girl runners are really nice and no one stepped on me so I was able to stand back up and try to make up some of the lost ground. By the time I got back up to my pace, I was really far back and I was kind of still in shock.
At the mile, I think I had made my way up from around 60th place. I just tried not to panic and also to stay focused and not let myself use the fall as an excuse to slow down or not do well. The beauty of cross country is the results don't lie, but that also means there are no excuses so I cleared my mind and just kept moving up. The race went by really fast and I wished it was a lot longer because I kept making up ground as the race went on.
I want to thank Coach Lac, Mr. Scott (our pole vaulting coach) and his wife, my teammates, our parents, Nike, and Don Rich for all of their contributions to making this weekend one that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Good luck to all the PA runners at Footlocker! Courtney
