Janice Smythe is entering her ninth season as an Assistant Coach with the Morgan State University cross country and track & field men’s and women’s program. The 2006 NCAA all academic scholar and NCAA 400m hurdles qualifier covers all administrative areas of the program. Ms. Smythe is in charge of Operations and handles all team travel and equipment, and supervises the Athletic Grant-In-Aid (AGIA) budget for both programs. She also monitors student athletes academic progress, assist with the development of all short and long hurdlers, sprinters, quarter milers, relays, and assist with all phases of recruiting. Ms. Smythe also supervises the strength and conditioning aspect of both programs and assists the sports information department with media coverage for the cross country and track & field programs.
Ms. Smythe is no stranger to Morgan State, as she brings first-hand experience to the program. While competing at Morgan State, Smythe was a regional finalist in the 400m hurdles in 2006, and an NCAA qualifier in the 400m hurdles where she was named an NCAA and USTFCCCA All-Academic Scholar. Smythe was a three-time NCAA Regional Qualifier in the 400m, 400m hurdles, 4x100m and 4x400m. She was also a MEAC and ECAC finalist in the 400m, 200m and 400m hurdles. She earned several MEAC and ECAC honors and awards as a student-athlete and was a member of the 2005 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championship team. During the 2006 season Smythe made history as the only female athlete to make the finals of the 400m and 400m hurdles at the ECAC championships with one of the fastest times in school history. One year later, in 2007 she was named as the team’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) for outdoor track. As a student-athlete she worked as a tutor for the Office of Resident Life (ORL) while maintaining a high level of competitiveness on the track.
During her tenure, Coach Smythe assisted in developing:
- 7 NCAA qualifiers
- 34 Men’s and Women’s NCAA East Regional qualifiers
- 5 School records
- 1 MEAC Record
- 56 Individual Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Champions
- 15 ECAC qualifiers Indoor and Outdoor
- 4 ECAC Individual Champions Indoor and Outdoor
- 4 ECAC Relay Champions
- 23 Penn Relays Champions
- 15 IC4A Indoor and Outdoor Individual qualifiers
- 2 IC4A Indoor and Outdoor Individual Champions
- 2 USATF Junior National qualifier
Smythe earned her B.S. in Accounting from Morgan State University in 2007 and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in 2009. She is a USATF Level I & II Certified Track & Field Coach and is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Baltimore Chapter.
