NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Smith College announced its newest class of inductees into the Smith Athletics Hall of Fame. The third class to be inducted, this year's group includes graduates spanning from five different decades, from as early as 1949 and as recently as 2005. The class includes one administrator, one team, and seven individual athletes.

1983 Field Hockey Team
The 1983 Smith "Unicorns" field hockey team set the program record for wins, finishing with a 16-3-1 overall record and a 13-2-1 regular season mark. Smith won the Northeast Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, with victories over league rivals Bates and Trinity. Nationally ranked as high as No. 7 with a 12-0-1 mark mid-season, the Unicorns headed into the NCAA Division III National Tournament ranked No. 12. At Nationals, Smith triumphed over Wooster, 6-0, before falling to Denison in the quarterfinals, 2-1. The team set records for most goals scored in a season (66) and consecutive wins (13), led in part by All-American and Smith College Hall of Famer Paola Prins '86.

Lisa Black '81
While at Smith, Black was a four-sport athlete, competing on the varsity field hockey, lacrosse, squash and crew teams, with special talents in the latter two sports. Black's success in squash and crew was unique because she began her Smith athletic career as a novice in both sports. In squash, she played in the No. 2 position her sophomore and junior years and moved to No. 1 her senior season, winning the consolation tournament at the Collegiate Invitational. On the crew team, Black helped row the Varsity 8 boat to three consecutive 3rd place finishes at the New England Regatta in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. She went on to participate in the Olympic Developmental Crew program after college.

Black has utilized her Smith education in economics to its fullest potential, becoming a role model for other Smith students who strive to step into the highly selective asset management field.

Dr. Julia Chase-Brand '64
Discrimination against women in sport was rampant in the first half of the 20th century. In track, a man could compete at all distances from sprints to marathon, but a woman who ran more than 220 yards would be banned from competition for life. The women's half-mile was grudgingly sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in 1958, and in 1961, Smith sophomore Julia Chase openly challenged the AAU restrictions by running a much-publicized 5-mile race in Manchester, Connecticut. Whole-hearted public support forced the AAU to back down,
and four months later, women's cross country was sanctioned in the U.S. for the first time. From 1960-65, Julia ran at the national level, tried out for two Olympic teams and set multiple records in New England. After Smith, Chase-Brand earned a Ph. D., and for a quarter century did fieldwork in Trinidad and Australia and taught at Barnard. At age 54, she became the oldest person to receive a medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in the Bronx. In 2012, she was named a Hero of Running by Runner's World.

Anne Lee Delano
Delano was a prominent figure in the history of collegiate and international women's field hockey and lacrosse. An All-American in both sports at Northeastern University where she was one of the original six inductees into the university's Hall of Fame, Delano was a captain and outstanding player on both the United States National Field Hockey and Lacrosse teams. She was the captain o the U.S. Touring Field Hockey team that traveled to England, Scotland, and the Netherlands in 1948 and was also the captain of the U.S. Touring Volleyball Team to Great Britain in 1951. A 1935 Northeastern graduate, she is the past vice-president of the United States Field Hockey Association and the United States Women's Lacrosse Association. Beginning in 1953, she brought her talent and expertise in sport to the women of Smith College as a physical education instructor. During her tenure, she taught classes in field hockey, basketball, lacrosse, squash, tennis, body mechanics, and fundamentals of exercise. She represented Smith abroad as an exchange teacher at Lady Mabel College in England and served as President of the Smith Faculty Club as well as the advisor for the student body's Athletics Association. From 1969-1980 Delano coached lacrosse and served as the Director of Physical Education and Director of Athletics at Bryn Mawr College.

Anne Martin '83
Martin began her collegiate athletic career as a member of the Smith swimming and diving team. In her first year, she qualified for the National Division III Championships in the 400 IM. After being introduced to rowing on Paradise Pond, Martin fell in love with the sport and switched from swimming to rowing in her sophomore year. During her senior season, she was the six-seat in the Varsity Lightweight Eight boat that captured the Eastern Sprints crown in 1983. She went on to win a bronze medal in the Lightweight Women's Single event at the Rowing World Championships in Hazewinkel, Belgium in 1985 - the first year lightweight rowers were represented in the Rowing World Championships. Anne claimed the gold medal in the Lightweight Four at the 1986 World Championships in Nottingham, England. After finishing fourth in the 1988 World Championships in the Lightweight Single event, Martin set out to gain a seat on the Olympic team in the Heavyweight Quadruple Sculls. She and her teammates stroked to a 9th place finish in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Martin held the record in both the Lightweight Single sculls and Lightweight Four sculls at the Head of the Charles for several years.

Anne is currently the Chief Investment Officer for Wesleyan University, where she manages the $950 milllion endowment. She serves on the Investment Committee for Smith College, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and Choate Rosemary Hall. Martin also served as director and Co-Chair of the National Rowing Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to preparing the next generation of U.S. Rowers for the highest levels of international competition.

 

Kanta Murali '99
Murali came to Smith as a strong tennis player and finished as one of the best, amassing over 100 career wins while being named to the All-Conference team each year during her time as a Pioneer. She began her athletic career as the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Rookie of the Year in 1995 and in the fall of 1996, Murali and Laura Beldiman '97 showed their doubles expertise by dominating New England tennis. The duo won two major titles, the Regional Rolex Doubles Tournament and the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament doubles championship. Murali continued Smith's national tradition by competing at the NCAA Singles Championships her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. As a junior, Murali earned All-American status and finished the year ranked No. 5 in the country. In 1999, she finished the season ranked No. 3 and received the East Region Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award. The prestigious honor is given to student-athletes who have exhibited excellence in sportsmanship, leadership, scholastic achievements, and extracurricular endeavors. Murali joined the Smith squash team in 1999 and promptly won the Wetzel Award, presented to a senior who began playing squash in college and who progressed to a high level of skill, demonstrating a sound understanding of the game and exhibiting good sportsmanship and a positive demeanor on the court. Murali served as captain and played at the No. 1 position for the 1999 squash team that finished 11th in the nation.

Anne Newell Robertson '61
Newell Robertson, a member of the Class of 1961, was a competitive, multi-sport athlete at Smith. She played on the 1st Team for the Class of 1961 in field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse and served as a captain in all three sports. She was awarded the S Pin, the honor given by the Physical Education department for contributions to Smith Athletics and Smith College as well as the Nickerson Cup, bestowed upon the student who contributed the most to basketball during the season. Newell Robertson was a member of the United States Women's Lacrosse Team from 1960-1964, earning All-America honors. After graduating, Newell Robertson coached high school lacrosse and umpired field hockey until her retirement in 2000. She began curling in 1963 and has been an active participant at the national and international levels, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 World Senior Women's Curling Championship in Javle, Sweden.

Kate Sorensen '06
One of the most decorated athletes in the history of the Smith College volleyball program, Sorensen was named the 2005 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Athlete of the Year while leading the Pioneers to the NEWMAC title. A two-time All-American and four-time New England Women's Volleyball Association (NEWVA) and American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-New England honoree, Sorensen was the first Smith athlete to be named AVCA New England Player of the Year in 2005. She was a Seven Sisters All-Tournament team member all four years in addition to being named the tournament's Most Valuable Player in 2004. In her senior season, Sorensen led the NEWMAC in digs per game and was second in kills per game and hitting percentage. As of her 2017 induction into the Smith Athletics Hall of Fame, the four-time All-Conference honoree is still Smith's all-time career record holder in kills and digs and is the single-season leader in the same categories.

Melicent Kingsbury Whinston '49
Kingsbury Whinston, a member of the Class of 1949, began weightlifting in the early 1990s. She set a total of 27 state, national, and world records in the Masters Division in two different weight classes and three separate age divisions. In 2010, Melicent completed a 157.5-pound single deadlift, setting a state record in Oregon as well as the national record for Women's Masters Division 80-84. Kingsbury Whinston was inducted into the World Association of Benchers and Deadlifters Hall of Fame in 2011. Along with her accomplishments in the world of weightlifting, Kingsbury Whinston also holds a number of state and regional titles in the Masters Division long jump, shot put, and 100-meter dash.

The induction ceremony and dinner will be held on Saturday, October 14, 2017.

Please contact Smith College Sports Information Director Ciara Lawrence (cmlawrence@smith.edu) for more information.