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2013 Track and Field Media Guide
Southern Illinois Track and Field
SIUSalukis.com
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Head Coach Connie Price-Smith
Connie Price-Smith
Head Coach
12th Year
Southern Illinois (‘84)
A four-time Olympian and one of the most decorated athletes
Southern Illinois has produced, Connie Price-Smith enters her
12th season as head coach at her Alma Mater. After spending
her first three years as the head women’s coach, Price-Smith
took over the combined men’s and women’s program in
2004-05 and has since kept SIU track and field among the top
programs in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Under Price-Smith, a 1990 SIU Hall of Fame inductee, the Sa-
luki women’s team has won four conference titles and finished
a program-best ninth in the nation at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor
Track and Field Championships. A four-time MVC Coach of
the Year, Price-Smith has coached SIU athletes to a combined
51 All-America honors and five individual national titles. Also,
SIU athletes have won a combined 148 MVC individual titles
with Price-Smith at the helm.
The Price-Smith led Salukis continued their MVC dominance
in 2012, notching 16 more MVC Individual Championships,
13 All-Americans, an MVC Track and Field Most Valuable
Player (Jeneva McCall, Indoor), and two more individual
national championships across both the indoor and outdoor
season.
The Saluki men took the Missouri Valley indoor conference
title, claiming four event titles to edge out Indiana State. The
championship was the first for the men in 20 years and was
the fifth MVC team championship won under Price-Smith’s
tutelage.
Senior thrower Jeneva McCall brought the Salukis to national
prominence with her two individual national championships
in the hammer throw in both seasons. McCall recorded five
MVC event championships in 2012 alone, which gave her 10
total titles during her career at Southern.
The 2011 season saw both the Saluki men’s and women’s
squads take second place at the MVC Indoor and Outdoor
Championships, winning a combined 23 individual confer-
ence titles between the two seasons. The teams also garnered a
combined nine All-America honors in 2011.
The 2011 indoor season was highlighted by senior Jeff
Schirmer winning MVC Most Valuable Athlete honors for
scoring the most points on the men’s side at the MVC Cham-
pionships, while junior Jeneva McCall was named Most Out-
standing Field Athlete for the women. SIU sent five athletes
to the NCAA Indoor Finals, where Salukis took home four
All-American honors.
Schirmer followed up with another Most Valuable Athlete
nod at the MVC Outdoor Championships, while McCall was
again named Most Outstanding Field Athlete. Fourteen Salukis
qualified for the NCAA Regionals with five advancing to the
NCAA Outdoor Finals, earning five All-American honors.
Salukis earned three of the four available MVC Elite 18
honors for track and field in 2011 as Lucas Cherry (men’s
outdoor), Toni Whitfield (women’s outdoor) and Emily Toen-
nies (women’s indoor) earned the award. Toennies was also
awarded the MVC’s prestigious Emerson Excellence Award.
In 2010, Price-Smith led the SIU track and field to one of the
best seasons in recent memory, with seven different athletes
earning NCAAAll-American honors, McCall winning the
national championship in the discus and the women’s team
finishing ninth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In addi-
tion, the women’s team won the MVC Outdoor Championship
for a second consecutive season as Price-Smith earned her
fourth MVC Coach of the Year honor. McCall became the first
Saluki in program history to earn All-America honors in five
events in the same season.
The 2009 season saw the SIU women’s team sweep the MVC
Indoor and Outdoor titles with Price-Smith earning women’s
Coach of the Year honors for both seasons.
Between 2005 and 2008, the SIU women’s team advanced
athletes to both the NCAA Outdoor and Indoor Champion-
ships each season, finishing in the top 25 nationally four times.
The 2007 and 2008 women’s indoor team finished 19th and
17th in the nation, respectively, thanks to Southern’s only fe-
male back-to-back national champion, Brittany Riley (weight
throw). The 2008 outdoor team finished in a tie for 25th na-
tionally, the program’s best finish until the 2010 season.
In addition to her duties at SIU, Price-Smith has been involved
in coaching at the international level for USA Track and Field
since 2004. She served as an assistant coach for Team USA at
the 2004 IAAF World Junior championships, the 2005 IAAF