PORTLAND, Ore. – For the second time in her freshman season, Montana State University Billings women's track & field athlete Rae Smart was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's Field Athlete of the Week, as announced by the conference on Monday afternoon.
 
The honor comes after a record-breaking weekend for Smart, who broke a pair of school records for the Yellowjackets in the shot put and the javelin at the NNU Open last weekend. The Billings native would climb the national rankings in both events, while also entering the top ten in GNAC history in the shot put.
 
"Rae had a phenomenal meet," praised MSUB track & field head coach Jonathan Woehl. "She has been putting in a lot of work in all four of her events and really clicked in the shot and javelin last weekend."
 
Smart would earn her best mark of the meet with a first-place finish in the shot put, smashing the program record that has stood since 2012 with a throw of 14.59m (47' 10.5"). The throw, which would improve upon her provisional mark set earlier this season, would rank second in the GNAC this season, and eighth in conference history all-time, while currently standing 16^th nationally in the event. Smart would then break the school record in the javelin with a throw of 41.84m (137' 3"), finishing third at both the meet and in the conference this season, closing in on a provisional mark and ranking 38^th in the entirety of Division II.
 
Smart would additionally finish fourth in the discus to lead MSUB throwers in the event, finishing with a mark of 40.17m (131' 9"), along with placing 12^th in the hammer throw at the meet with a mark of 36.30m (119' 1"). Both marks also rank highly in the conference, with Smart ranking eighth in discus and 11^th in hammer throw.