College Athletics News – Guilford Trio Lands Weekly Honors

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College’s Lily Colley (Wells, Maine/Wells), Tyler Mercier (Bennington, Neb./Westside) and Johnathan Smith (Conyers, Ga./Salem) collected Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Player of the Week Awards Monday. The awards are selected and presented by the ODAC office. Smith also received the Guilford Student-Athlete of the Week Award, presented by the school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

Colley, a sophomore attacker, led Guilford in a 2-1 week with 14 points on 10 goals and four assists, all team highs. She caused a team-high seven turnovers and picked up seven ground balls, plus four draws. Colley had four goals, three assists, seven points and four caused turnovers, all game highs, in the Quakers’ 15-11 win over league-rival Sweet Briar College Mar. 21. Three days later, she helped Guilford to a 13-6 decision over league-foe Virginia Wesleyan College with four points on three goals and an assist. The win marked Guilford’s fist over the Marlins since 1999 and ended a string of 11 straight losses to Virginia Wesleyan. Colley also had two draws and forced three turnovers in the triumph. She closed out the week with three goals in a Mar. 25 loss to Christopher Newport University, her seventh multiple-goal game of the season.

Colley ranks 32nd among NCAA Division III scorers with 42 points and 37th nationally with 14 assists. She is sixth in the ODAC and second on the team in points. Her 28 goals rank fourth in the league.

Coach Matthew Grosso’s Quakers are off to a 6-3 start and sit atop the league standings with a 3-0 record. Guilford visits ODAC-rival Roanoke College Saturday (3/31) at 2:00 p.m.

Mercier captured his second weekly ODAC honor of the season after winning twice in the Quakers’ 7-2 setback at Averett University Mar. 23. The sophomore earned his sixth straight win at first singles with a 6-2, 6-1 decision over Averett’s David Lembke. Mercier teamed with Clayton Hamilton for an 8-6 first-doubles win, the tandem’s seventh in a row.

After Monday afternoon’s three-set win over Hampden-Sydney College’s Kevin Calhoun, Mercier leads the Quakers with a 10-2 singles record. He is 9-4 in doubles matches, 9-2 when paired with Hamilton.

Coach Dave McCain’s Quakers have won six of their last eight matches, including Monday’s 7-2 win over Hampden-Sydney. Guilford visits league-rival Randolph-Macon College Friday afternoon.

Smith, a sophomore sprinter, has won the ODAC’s weekly prize four times in his career, twice this season. He recorded a record-setting victory in the 100-meter dash and placed second in the 200 at the VertKlasse Meeting Mar. 24 at High Point University. Smith set school and ODAC records in both events and his times are fastest in NCAA Division III this season. He defeated 15 sprinters, mostly from higher NCAA divisions, to win the 100 in 10.51, which broke his own ODAC standard (10.53) set March 16. Smith broke the school record in the 200 with a time of 21.10 seconds that placed second in the 19-man field, tops among Division III contestants. He also anchored the Quakers’ 4×100 relay that set the school mark with a sixth-place time of 44.39 seconds.

The defending Division III national runner-up in the 200, Smith owns the top Division III outdoor times this season in the 100 and 200. He placed second in the 60-meter dash at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship Mar. 10. Interim coach Danny Cash’s Quakers run this weekend at the Raleigh Relays.

The Student-Athlete of the Week Award is presented by Guilford’s SAAC, which is comprised of representatives from each of the school’s 20 varsity teams. The group meets regularly to discuss the state of Guilford Athletics and seeks to build community among Guilford’s student-athletes and non-student-athletes. Recent Guilford SAAC activities include cancer awareness promotions, canned-food drives, volunteer assistance with the North Carolina Special Olympics and tutoring at the New Garden Friends School.