Oct. 31, 2007

www.siusalukis.com

DUBLIN, Ohio - Southern Illinois track and field head coach Connie Price-Smith and Saluki thrower Brittany Riley will be honored by the National Throwing Coaches Association at the Sixth Annual NTCA Conference and Clinic in Dublin, Ohio, Nov. 16-18. Price-Smith will be inducted into the association's Hall of Fame, while Riley will receive 2007 Female Thrower of the Year honors.

In 2007, Riley was a two-time All-American, winning a national championship in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoor National Track and Field Championships in March, setting a new world record at 25.56 meters (83 feet, 10 inches). She went on to finish second in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor National Track and Field Championships in June, earning her fourth-career All-American honor.

Connie Price-Smith enters her seventh year as the head coach for Salukis and her fourth season as the director of track and field / cross country and head coach for both the men's and women's combined track and field programs. She spent her first three years as head coach for the Saluki women's team.

Price-Smith became the first U.S. female athlete in 32 years to win both the shot put and discus at an Olympic Trials (1992). In the shot put alone, she finished first on four consecutive occasions at Olympic Trial Championship competitions between 1988 and 2000.

Although she did not medal at the Olympics, Price-Smith had the highest finish of a U.S. female shot putter since 1960 and narrowly missed the bronze medal by just four inches at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She is also the first U.S. female to have a top ten world-ranking in the shot put for five consecutive years (1995-1999). And, she was the first U.S. female to win a medal in that event at a World Championship competition (1995).

Throughout her career, Price-Smith has been on 34 international squads. She was a member of four teams at the Pan-American Games, where she won a bronze medal in the discus in 1987; a silver in the shot put in 1991, and a gold in the shot put in both 1995 and 1999; she was a silver medalist at the World Indoor Championship, in Barcelona, Spain; a silver medalist at the Goodwill Games in 1998; and a bronze medalist at the World Cup in 1998. A member of two World University Games teams, Price-Smith placed fifth in the discus in 1987. In addition, she was on three Goodwill Games teams, participated in seven IAAF Grand Prix Finals and is a 25-time national champion in the shot put and discus. Price-Smith ended her athletic career with personal best in the shot put of 64' 3" and 212' 8" in the discus.