INDIANAPOLIS – Malone and Findlay were selected for Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Indoor Track & Field Athletes of the Week on Wednesday as teams prepare for the postseason.
 
The Great Midwest Indoor Track & Field Championships will be conducted this weekend at Hillsdale inside the Biermann Center for the first time.
 
All 13 Great Midwest institutions will have their talents on display during the two-day event starting with the multis on Friday.
 
A handful of automatic and provisional qualifiers will be looking to best their already impressive times and distances while trying to win the coveted championship trophy.
 
Track Athlete of the Week
Jade Smith
Malone
Senior
Uniontown, OH (Lake HS)
 
After placing 20th out of 247 competitors at the NCAA DII Cross Country Championships, Smith was destined for big things carrying over into the track and field season.
 
Smith ran one event at the Kent State Tune-Up and shined in the 3K, a distance where the Great Midwest has excelled in with seven different provisional qualifiers for nationals this season alone.
 
Smith turned in the third-fastest time of the season with a 9:50.80, good for fourth all-time in the conference record books.
 
She won the event with 30 total individuals in the race.
 
Hillsdale’s Hannah McIntyre holds the overall record while Pioneers’ teammate Hannah Thompson is also included in the impressive group of provisional times.  
 
Field Athlete of the Week
Alex DeVincentis
Findlay
Senior
Findlay, OH (Liberty Benton HS)
 
For the third time this season, DeVincentis impressed in the throws cage to earn conference field athlete of the week honors.
 
At the Findlay Meet for Everyone!, DeVincentis established a new Great Midwest record in the weight throw, a standard that has predominantly held by Hillsdale’s Rachael Tolsma most of the year.
 
The head-to-head showdown between DeVincentis and Tolsma in the throws cage will be a must-see matchup going into the weekend’s conference meet. DeVincentis now holds the conference records in both shot put and weight throw.
 
Her new top mark of 17.94m (58’ 10.25”) was achieved on the first attempt. Tolsma had the previous best of 17.91m set just two weeks ago at the GVSU Big Meet.