Day one of the NCAA Division III national championship brought hard-earned national titles to two members of IC’s women’s track and field team. Juniors Brandy Smith ’17 and Katherine Pitman ’17 competed in May at Wartburg College’s Walston-Hoover Stadium in discus and pole vault, respectively.

Smith earned her second consecutive national title at the meet, with her best discus throw measuring 51.48 meters (168 feet, 10.75 inches). It was the fourth-farthest throw in championship history. Smith is also responsible for recording the championship’s second-farthest throw during the spring of 2015, when her best distance registered at 53.00 meters (173 feet, 11 inches).

She is the seventh Ithaca College student-athlete to record multiple national championships and the fifth in the history of IC’s track and field program to earn an individual national title.

In the pole vault, Pitman beat the national meet record, set in 2012, by .01 meters (half an inch). She cleared 4.21 meters (13 feet, 9.75 inches) to come in first place, at the same time breaking her own IC record.

Pitman is now a two-time all-American, having come in second place in pole vault during the indoor season. She is also IC’s first national pole vault champion and the college’s 24th student-athlete to win an individual championship.