Maureen Johnson
Connie Price-Smith, the SIU women's track and field head coach, has every right to be proud of her team.
Despite the first-year-coach's challenges of recruiting new athletes, her team placed fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships back in May.
"Everyone performed very well," Price-Smith said. "Latrice [Gray] won the high jump, Korto [Dunbar] won the hurdles, and Danielle Lawary won the shot put. They definitely met my expectations."
Senior Julia Roundtree agreed.
"We did a good job keeping our confidence up," Roundtree said. "We finished better in conference than people thought we would."
But the SIU women's track team is indeed lacking - not in talent or in spirit, but in size.
According to Roundtree, the current team membership is only about one third of what it was during her freshman year.
"The numbers aren't there," Roundtree said. "But I think once the program is built back up, it will be a lot better."
Price-Smith agreed the team would need to rebuild to be successful in the MVC.
"Low numbers affect the team a lot because you don't have the depth," Price-Smith said. "We had people that competed well in conference and placed first or second, but we don't have the numbers to get a second or third."
Price-Smith anticipated several new recruits that will add much-needed depth to the women's team, but she admitted the process of rebuilding is a slow one.
In the meantime, Price-Smith praised her current team's unity.
"You can look at track in two ways: It is a team sport because you need the points for conference, but it is an individual sport as well," Price-Smith said. "I think that everybody helped each other along in their individual areas. Dee Dee [Nathan, SIU assistant coach] and I both stress team unity a lot. I think we had that."
Reporter Maureen Johnson can be reached at mjohnson@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
