ORLANDO – Latasha Smith, on the heels of a career weekend, has been named the American Athletic Conference Track Athlete of the Week, announced the league office Tuesday. For the fourth time in her career at UCF, Smith has once again claimed the honor, just weeks after she took home her program record third Track Athlete of the Week award. Smith has now surpassed teammate Adrienne Adams for the most outdoor weekly honors as the thrower too claimed her third earlier this season.
At the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational at the University of Florida this past weekend, Smith was responsible for not just one, but two program records going down. In the 400-meter dash, the West Palm Beach, Florida, native toppled her own school record with the first sub-52 second time in the program's history. The 51.47 performance is currently tenth in the nation and first in the AAC. It came just one day after the first anniversary of her previous record-breaking performance in Gainesville, Florida, where she ran a 52.01.
Smith's busy Saturday wasn't done as along with Daija Lampkin, Kiah Williams and Rayniah Jones, the 4x400-meter relay squad set a new program record with their time of 3:31.42. Smith, along with Williams, was also a part of the previous record-breaking squad a year ago. Joined by Samieryah Bradwell and Danielle Bess, the previous program record of 3:31.88 was, unsurprisingly, also set during the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in 2022.
The Knights have now taken home all but one Track Athlete of the Week honor this season. In total, the Knights have garnered six honors, including two Field Athlete of the Week nods received earlier in the season. The 2023 squad is now just two away from matching last year's eight weekly honors.