We just wrote about Princeton junior Arianni Smith, but we have to again because she set two more PRs Saturday and moved up in both events on the all-time Princeton top-10 lists.
Last weekend at the Raleigh Relays, the Pennsville native ran 14.02 in the hurdles, 57.74 in the flat 400 and 24.74 in the 200. Those moved her into No. 6 on the all-time Princeton list in the hurdles and No. 4 in the 400.
On Saturday at the Big 5 Meet at Franklin Field in West Philly, Smith won both hurdles and set lifetime bests in both races.
In the 100-meter highs, she broke 14 seconds for the first time, lowering her PR from 14.02 to 13.94 and beating the field by 2 ½ meters. Monmouth’s Yasmeen Tinsley was 2nd in 14.28. That 13.94 is No. 5 in Princeton history and No. 3 this year in the Ivy League, behind two Harvard runners – Izzy Goudros ran 13.66 and Josefina Biernacki 13.81 at a meet last month in Houston.
In the 400-meter intermediates, Smith lowered her PR nearly a second from 59.69 to 58.76. She had run 59.69 in a meet last April in Coral Gables, Fla. The 58.76 is No. 1 in the Ivy League this year and No. 2 in Princeton history, behind only Sally Anderson’s 58.19 when she placed 9th at the 1983 NCAA Championships in Houston. Anderson is now Sally Willig, an accomplished geologist. The woman Smith bumped to move into the No. 2 spot is Haddonfield’s Carly Bonnet, who ran 59.12 at 2019 Heps at Princeton.
In the highs, three of the top six finishers are from South Jersey. Penn’s Shevell Higgs from Winslow ran 14.78 for 5th place in only her second race in the last 14 months and Monmouth sophomore Meredith Upikle from Cinnaminson was just behind her in 6th place in 14.85.
Updike also placed 3rd in the 400IH in 1:02.97, followed by Anne Rutledge of Egg Harbor in 4th place in 1:03.16 in her first intermediates race since the 2021 Meet of Champions.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 