Raven Smith
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- Height:
- 6-0
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- Hometown:
- Atlanta, Ga.
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- Year:
- Sr.
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- High School:
- Lakeside High
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- Previous School:
- Lakeside HS
Bio
2018: Competed in the horizontal jumps … took third place while breaking her own program record with a 12.39-meter triple jump at the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships … took a new personal best in the long jump at the outdoor championships as well, leaping 5.64 meters … finished seventh in the triple jump at the OVC Indoor Championships with a best of 11.75 meters … took four top-six results in the triple jump, and two in the long jump.
2017: Smith had a solid sophomore season for the Golden Eagle squad...she recorded a personal best time in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.41 at the Samford Open and the shot put with a 9.57-meter throw at the Vanderbilt Opener in the indoor season...established an outdoor career-best mark in the long jump at the Hilltopper Relays with a 5.37-meter leap.
2016: Smith broke the Tech school records in the indoor triple jump (39'3") and outdoor triple jump (39'11")...notched a season-best mark of 16'11" in the outdoor long jump and 17'1.25" in the indoor long jump.
High School: Raven was a two-sport standout at Lakeside High Chool in Lithonia, Ga...played middle blocker on the volleyball team...competed in the jumps on the track & field team for coach Chadwick...twice won the Viking Award as the team's most improved athlete...also named MVP...selected as team captain...soared a career-best 37 feet, 4 inches in the triple jump and took first lace in Region 6-AAAAA meet.
Personal: Majoring in biology...the daughter of Raymond and Charelle Smith...born April 14, 1997 in Atlanta.
News mentions
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Khemani Roberts, Purity Sanga and Raven Smith will bring their talents to the University of North Florida for the first round of collegiate track and field’s version of the postseason, the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field East Preliminary. UNF’s Hodges Stadium will be the venue for the three-day meet, which will be held Thursday-Saturday, May 23-25. The Golden Eagle trio marks four straight outdoor seasons that the program has sent at least two athletes to the East Preliminary. Roberts and Sanga are both qualifiers for the second straight year.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Battling a cold rain that hung around for most of the day, the shorthanded Tennessee Tech track and field team received runner-up results from Raven Smith and Purity Sanga on its way to a sixth–place team finish on Saturday at the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Taking sixth in the final standings ends Tech’s reign of three consecutive OVC championships (2018 indoor, 2018 outdoor, 2019 indoor), which were also the first three in the program’s history. While some key pieces were not in the lineup this weekend, the Golden Eagles never gave up, and still managed to finished in the top half of the 12 women’s teams in attendance.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Jumpers Khemani Roberts and Raven Smith generated the storylines for Tennessee Tech on the second day at the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships, as Roberts claimed her second straight league title in the high jump, while Smith broke the school record with her second-place finish in the long jump. Roberts’ crown gives her the indoor/outdoor sweep as league champion in the high jump, where she was the only competitor to get over the bar at 1.75 meters (5 feet, 8 3/4 inches). The Bon Accord, Trinidad and Tobago native was perfect at the first five heights in the competition, needing just one attempt to eclipse 1.59, 1.64, 1.69, 1.72 and 1.75 meters, before bowing out at 1.80.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Coach Wayne Angel and the Golden Eagle track and field team will likely face their stiffest challenge to date as they try to repeat as outdoor champions of the Ohio Valley Conference. Rising programs around the league, along with an adjusted Tech lineup will make for an especially tall task when the OVC Outdoor Championships are contested at Southeast Missouri Thursday-Saturday, May 9-11. Action from Abe Stuber Track Complex, SEMO’s on-campus venue, will get underway at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning, continue Friday morning at 9:30, and conclude Saturday with events beginning at 8:30 a.m.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Raven Smith reeled in the fourth Ohio Valley Conference Athlete of the Week honor for Tennessee Tech track and field this outdoor season, as the league office recognized the senior jumps specialist on Wednesday for her most recent performance at the Louisville Lenny Lyles/Clark Wood Invitational last weekend. The Female Field Athlete of the Week award is Smith’s first of the outdoor season and her third overall in 2019, coupled with the two she won during the indoor year.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Raven Smith and Purity Sanga showed once again why they are among the stars on the Tennessee Tech track and field team, recording top-eight finishes in the triple jump and the 1,500 meters, respectively, at the Louisville Lenny Lyles/Clark Wood Invitational on Saturday afternoon. Smith took the top finish of the day, placing fourth among 29 in the seeded section of the triple jump with a mark of 12.26 meters (40 feet, 2 3/4 inches). It marked the third time in four tries that Smith – the owner of the league’s top triple jump, 12.46 meters (40-10 3/4) – has notched a top-six result in the event this outdoor season, and the second time she has leapt more than 40 feet. It was the third-best outdoor triple jump of the Atlanta native’s career.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships just two weeks away, Tennessee Tech track and field will undergo its final preparative step this weekend when it travels to Louisville for the Lenny Lyles/Clark Wood Invitational. The Friday-Saturday meet will be held at UL’s Track and Soccer Stadium inside Cardinal Park, with the first TTU athletes competing at 3 p.m. CT Friday afternoon and 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Khemani Roberts and Purity Sanga continued their impressive outdoor seasons for Tennessee Tech track and field, as Roberts reset her own program mark in the heptathlon, and Sanga added another No. 1 time to her Ohio Valley Conference resume on Saturday at the Virginia Challenge. Following an outstanding first day that saw her score 3,353 points over four events, Roberts responded with 2,129 points over the final three on Saturday for a new Tech record 5,482. Roberts took second place out of 17 entrants with that total, and finished just 199 points behind the winner, Jordan Gray of Kennesaw State.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – While it was only a small contingent of Golden Eagles competing on Friday at the Virginia Challenge, the group certainly left its mark. Raven Smith took second place with an outdoor-school-record triple jump, and heptathlete Khemani Roberts sits in second place after four events, keyed by a school record and victory in the high jump and another victory in the 200 meters. Smith soared 12.46 meters (40 feet, 10 1/2 inches) on the second of her six-jump series to reset her own outdoor program record and notch the runner-up finish. The mark was almost three inches better than her previous standard in the Tech record book, a 12.39-meter jump (40-7 1/2) from last year’s Ohio Valley Conference Championships.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Five Tennessee Tech track and field athletes will be back in action following a week off from competition, as Na’Scottisha Drummond, Khemani Roberts, Purity Sanga, Raven Smith and Ceirra Tate have all met the marks to be invited to this weekend’s Virginia Challenge. The two-day meet, which perennially hosts some of the nation’s top talent, will be held at the University of Virginia’s Lannigan Field on Friday and Saturday, April 19-20.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Tennessee Tech track and field got back to business in a big way on Saturday at the Western Kentucky Hilltopper Relays, led by a school-record performance and two runner-up finishes from jumper/sprinter Khemani Roberts, and several other Golden Eagle marks that have assumed high ranks on the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Performance List. “I was very pleased with our level of intensity today,” said 2018-19 OVC Indoor Coach of the Year Wayne Angel. “We competed like we meant business, and we produced a school record, personal bests and conference-leading performances.”
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – After dividing its forces for a pair of Power 5 conference meets last weekend, and seeing another program record fall courtesy of Purity Sanga, the Tennessee Tech track and field team will reunite for a single-day competition at Western Kentucky on Saturday, as they take part in the Hilltopper Relays from WKU’s Charles M. Reuter Track and Field Complex. Tech’s day will begin at 9 a.m. CT on Saturday morning when Abby Mink looks to record her first collegiate mark in the discus throw.
RALEIGH, N.C. and GAINESVILLE, Fla. – For the first time this season, Tennessee Tech track and field will separate its personnel to tackle two meets in the same weekend, each hosted by a Power 5-conference institution. One Golden Eagle delegation will compete Friday at the N.C. State Raleigh Relays, while the other will be bound for action on Friday and Saturday at the Pepsi Florida Relays.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Khemani Roberts was the top performer on Saturday for Tennessee Tech track and field, notching a third-place high jump finish, as the Golden Eagles wrapped up their first meet of the 2019 outdoor season at the Vanderbilt Black and Gold Invitational. Roberts elevated over the bar at 1.71 meters (5 feet, 7 1/4 inches) to place third out of 19 athletes, finishing behind only Carly Hinkle and Ellen Ekholm of Kentucky, the No. 7-ranked team in the country according to the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association. Hinkle won the event, passing over 1.81 meters on her second attempt. The effort was Roberts’ fourth best in her outdoor career at Tech, and was just two and a half inches shy of her personal record. It also marked her fourth career top-five finish in the event while out in the elements.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ohio Valley Conference Female Indoor Track Athlete of the Year Purity Sanga got off to an excellent start to her outdoor season Friday evening, running the 1,500 meters in 4-minutes, 26.32-seconds for second place at the Vanderbilt Black and Gold Invitational. Sanga missed the overall victory by the slimmest of margins, coming in just two hundredths of a second behind Grace Jensen of Vanderbilt (4:26.30). Sanga’s mark stood out among the field of 76 runners, and was an encouraging improvement on her previous best of 4:37.93. She must cut off roughly five and a half seconds to catch Micayla Rennick’s program standard of 4:20.92.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – For the Tennessee Tech track and field team, it's on to the next one. Just over a month removed from their second straight Ohio Valley Conference indoor championship, the Golden Eagles will try to accomplish the same feat with back-to-back outdoor titles, as they begin their six-meet regular season schedule with the Vanderbilt Black and Gold Invitational on Friday and Saturday, March 22-23. The events will get started at 4 p.m. CT on Day 1, and 10 a.m. on Saturday morning from the Vanderbilt Track in Nashville.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Trailing upset-minded Murray State with three events remaining, the Tennessee Tech track and field team needed a crucial lift in crunch time to keep its hopes of a second straight Ohio Valley Conference indoor championship alive.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After the first day of action at the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, it would appear that the defending champion Tennessee Tech track and field team arrived at the Birmingham CrossPlex on a mission: to add another piece of hardware to the trophy case. Through just five scored events on Wednesday, the Golden Eagles have totaled 41 points, and hold a 10-point lead on Southeast Missouri, who currently occupies the No. 2 spot. Again, with just five events completed, Tech has already racked up three gold medals and one silver medal.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The time has finally come for the Tennessee Tech track and field team. The most important two days of the season are here. After winning its first ever Ohio Valley Conference indoor championship last season, which included seven individual event winners, Tech has worn the bull’s-eye on its back through the six regular-season meets of the 2018-19 campaign. Now, the time to once again prove league supremacy has arrived. On Wednesday and Thursday, inside the state-of-the-art Birmingham CrossPlex, head coach Wayne Angel’s Golden Eagles have the opportunity to become the OVC’s first repeat indoor champions since 2012.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – For the second time this season, Lisa Wickham has been recognized as the Ohio Valley Conference Co-Female Track Athlete of the Week, as she continued her outstanding indoor season at last week’s Samford Bulldog Open. Wickham’s honor marks the fifth week in a row – Tech’s entire indoor campaign – that a Golden Eagle has won or shared an Athlete of the Week honor from the conference.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Just 11 days away from attempting to repeat as Ohio Valley Conference indoor champions, the Tennesssee Tech track and field team made the most of its final opportunity to get ready, posting high marks across the board at the Samford Bulldog Open. “We performed well this weekend,” said head coach Wayne Angel. “Overall, I thought we competed at a high level.”
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – One meet stands between the Tennessee Tech track and field team and its defense as Ohio Valley Conference indoor champions. That meet, which will feature four league opponents and be held in the same venue as the OVC showdown, is the Samford Bulldog Open. The state-of-the-art Birmingham Metro CrossPlex will be the site, offering a sneak peek of the setting for the league’s biggest battle on Feb. 20-21.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A day after Khemani Roberts shined in the pentathlon, the Tennessee Tech track and field team recorded a quartet of top-five finishes on Saturday at the Purdue Fred Wilt Open, including a 4x400-meter relay victory, and another from Na’Scottisha Drummond in the high jump. “I was very pleased from top to bottom with our performances today,” said head coach Wayne Angel. “We came here to compete and that’s exactly what we did.” “For the most part, we had a strong presence in all the events that we competed in,” Angel said. “That, coupled with some strong individual performances, made for a great day.”
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – With just three weeks remaining before the Ohio Valley Conference Championships, the Tennessee Tech track and field team will spend its second straight weekend in the state of Indiana, this time for Purdue’s Fred Wilt Open. The meet will be held Friday and Saturday inside Purdue’s Lambert Fieldhouse, with Friday’s multi-events starting at 2:30 p.m. CT, and the majority of the action getting underway on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. CT.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – For the third week in a row, the Tennessee Tech track and field team has been represented in the Ohio Valley Conference’s Athlete of the Week awards, as Purity Sanga and Raven Smith each received their second league honor of the indoor season on Wednesday afternoon. Sanga earned Co-Female Track Athlete recognition after breaking her own program record in the 5,000 meters on Friday night at the Indiana Relays. She became the first Golden Eagle to complete the race in less than 17 minutes with a time of 16-minutes, 46.31-seconds.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Lisa Wickham reigned supreme in the 60 meters, Raven Smith broke the Tennessee Tech indoor triple jump record, and other Golden Eagles recorded new personal bests, as the TTU track and field team took another step forward on Saturday at the Indiana Relays. “The ladies were exceptional today,” said coach Wayne Angel. “They represented Tennessee Tech in grand style, and I am so proud of everyone. They all competed with a high level of intensity.” Wickham matched her performance from Friday, running the 60 in 7.50 seconds to claim the title. In a finals section that featured four Power 5 athletes, Wickham was head-and-shoulders above the rest, crossing the line nearly one tenth of a second before anyone else (runner-up was 7.59).
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A trip across the Ohio River is next up for the Tennessee Tech track and field team, as their indoor season rolls on with another prestigious meet, the Indiana Relays, on Friday and Saturday. Indiana’s Gladstein Fieldhouse will be the site for the two-day competition, with the events starting at 4 p.m. CT on Friday, and 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Lisa Wickham received Co-Female Track Athlete of the Week from the Ohio Valley Conference on Wednesday after breaking her own 60-meter school record at last weekend’s Vanderbilt Invitational. Wickham, who originally set the program mark with a time of 7.41 seconds at last year’s OVC Indoor Track and Field Championships, improved on that performance by one-hundredth of a second, clocking a 7.40 for second place at Vanderbilt.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech track and field team has already been to Vanderbilt once this season, but their second trip will likely have a different, more intense feel. Tech will have to bring its best this time around, as it will line up against several of the nation’s top programs during the Commodore Invitational this Friday and Saturday.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech track and field team has generated some early momentum in its quest to defend as indoor champions of the Ohio Valley Conference, as two athletes were recognized by the league office on Wednesday morning for their performances at the Kentucky Jim Green Invitational last weekend. Purity Sanga and Raven Smith were named Female Track Athlete of the Week and Co-Female Field Athlete of the Week, respectively.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Just like the other teams across the country competing for the first time since early December, Tennessee Tech track and field went into this weekend’s Jim Green Invitational looking to see how its athletes handled the long layoff, and where they measured up from a competitive standpoint. “I was really pleased with the meet today,” said TTU head coach Wayne Angel. “I think at this point, we're not looking at specific times or marks as much as how competitive we were in every event. We were in the mix of things for all of our events, whether it was the jumps or whatever we were doing on the track.” Purity Sanga produced one of the top highlights, coming in third place in the 3,000 meters with a career-best time of 9-minutes, 44.39 seconds. It beat her old mark of 9:54.43.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Tennessee Tech track and field team has been away from competition for six weeks after kicking off its season at the Vanderbilt Indoor Opener, but will return to action this weekend at Kentucky’s Nutter Field House for the Jim Green Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The defending Ohio Valley Conference champion Tennessee Tech women’s track and field team approached the Vanderbilt Indoor Opener the same way that many programs go into their first meet of the season: to see the gains they have made in the offseason. “We did well today for it being the first meet of the year,” said coach Wayne Angel. “We had a lot of our athletes competing in their ‘off-events’, just to see how they are progressing in their growth and training. Overall, I thought it was very positive from that standpoint.” Aside from the fact that winning was not at the top of the Golden Eagles list of priorities on Saturday, they still managed to produce a slew of top finishes, and saw many of their freshman members turn in impressive debuts.