For Immediate Release May 23, 2001
Smith Named To Region Academic Team
Senior Track Star Heads to National Ballot
WINCHESTER, VA--Roanoke College senior track & field star Casey Smith (Mechanicsville, VA/Atlee) has been named to the Verizon District III All-Academic First Team, the second consecutive season in which she has received the award. With her selection to the district’s first team, Smith advanced to the national ballot, where she looks to become Roanoke’s first Academic All-American. A Business major with concentrations in Accounting and Finance, Smith entered her final semester at Roanoke College with a 3.935 grade point average. A two-time Roanoke College Female Athlete of the Year, a honor she shared this season with softball’s Amy Layman, Smith will run for two individual national championships later this week at Millikin College in Illinois. On Thursday evening, she will run in the 10,000 meter finals, and event she placed second in a season ago. She will follow that with an attempt at the national championship in the 5,000 meters on Saturday afternoon. Last year, she was the nation’s seventh place finisher in the 5,000 meters. Two weeks ago, Smith ran Division III’s fastest national time this season in the 5,000 meters when she won the Occidental (CA) Invitational with a time of 16:48.60, less than a second off the Division I automatic qualifying time.
Smith is one of two Roanoke College female athletes currently in the running for Academic All-American honors. Layman was named to the District III All-Academic squad last week and is one the softball national ballot.