Athlete of the Week Runners-Up: Smith, Brown, Bain Shine in Key Ivy Contests

While freshman Bente van Vlijmen took home Athlete of the Week honors after leading the field hockey team to an Ivy League-clinching victory over the weekend, three other Crimson student-athletes had especially notable performances, earning this week’s Athlete of the Week runners-up honors.

Courtney Smith (Women’s Cross Country)

This past Saturday, the women’s cross country team enjoyed a first place finish in the Heptagonal 2016 Championships thanks in part to junior Courtney Smith, who won the individual competition. Smith, completing the six-kilometer race in 20:19.6, found herself in a familiar position, as she has reliably finished first among her Crimson teammates since the start of last season. The West Chester, Pa. native improved upon her previous Heps times—20:55.9 in 2015 and 22:05.3 the season before that—to help clinch Harvard’s first individual title since 1989 and just the seventh Heps title in program history. Smith’s fleet-footedness set the tone for her entire squad, as four Harvard runners placed in the top 10 on the way to a decisive margin of victory over runner-up Yale and third-place Penn.

Sam Brown (Men’s Soccer)

The Harvard and Dartmouth men’s soccer teams entered Saturday tied for the Ancient Eight lead, with conference records of 3-0-1. Needless to say, their clash this past weekend was pivotal in determining the outcome of the Ivy League campaign. So, when Crimson junior Sam Brown buried his 80th minute goal—the only score of the contest—from the top of the box, he just might have altered the course of Harvard’s season. Brown was active all match, leading the Crimson with two shots on goal. With two conference games remaining in 2016, Harvard has the ability to dethrone the two-time reigning league champion Big Green and clinch the Ivy title for itself with a win against Columbia next weekend.

Corie Bain (Women’s Volleyball)

The Harvard women’s volleyball team battled through a five-set thriller against Princeton, which remained a flawless 10-0 in the Ivy League by ultimately winning the match. Crimson captain Corie Bain put forth a stat sheet-stuffing performance on Saturday, however, and was a major reason why her team was able to challenge the Tigers’ 13-game win streak. Bain recorded her fifth triple-double of the season, tallying 20 kills, 24 assists, and a dozen digs while also ripping two serving aces. The senior surpassed her average of just under three kills per set and commanded the offense with veteran poise. Bain, who notched her second highest kill total of her career this past weekend, was involved in all areas of the match—distributing, attacking, defending, serving—and proved why she is the Harvard record holder for career triple-doubles, double-doubles, and single-season aces.