Trecia Smith Earns Big East's Outstanding Performer Award

5/4/1998

Panthers finished second at track and field event.

Junior Trecia Smith won two individual titles and earned All-Conference in one other event as she was named the Outstanding Field Performer for the second straight year at the Big East Outdoor Championships. Her performance helped Pittsburgh to a second-place finish at the 13-team event, held in Villanova, Pa., May 1-3.

Smith (Westmoreland, Jamaica/Mannings) won the triple jump (42-4) and shot put (46-2) championships for the second straight year. She earned All-Big East in the long jump (19-6) with a second-place finish. Smith also had a pair of fourth- place finishes in the discus (143-2) and javelin (134-5).

A four-time national champion, Smith now has 11 Big East titles to her credit, the second most in school history behind Najuma Fletcher's 14. Fletcher, presently an assistant coach at Pittsburgh, was a three-time Big East Outstanding Field Performer from 1994-96.

Pittsburgh boasted two other Big East individual champions in sophomore Chantee Earl (Hampton, Va./Hampton Christian) and freshman Gina Bundy (Ambler, Pa./Wissahickson). Earl won the 800 meters in 2:05.08, an NCAA provisional qualifying time. Bundy won the heptathlon with 4,387 points. Additionally, the 3,200-meter relay team placed first in 8:46.57. The team was comprised of senior Anna Kohler (Berlin, Germany/Menchville [Va.]), Earl, freshman Shauna McFadzean (Maplewood, N.J./Columbia) and junior Tamika Dorin (Philadelphia, Pa./Simon Gratz).

Other All-Big East performers included freshman Bettina Lee (Pittsburgh, Pa./Schenley), who finished third in the heptathlon with 4,300 points, and senior Joetta Purter (Newport News, Va./Menchville), who was third in the 400 intermediate hurdles with an NCAA provisional time of 58.74.

The Panthers' 92 points were second only to Miami, who captured the team championship with 134 points. Pittsburgh's finish was its highest since 1994, when it won the Outdoor Big East championship.

Pittsburgh will host the Pitt Invitational this Saturday, May 9, at Pitt Stadium. Following a week off, the Panthers will participate in the ECAC Championships at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.