Following cancellation of 2020 indoor final and Achilles' injury, Australian standout has rebounded to develop into top contender for pentathlon crown, looking to become second female athlete to secure indoor title in program history

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

The Albuquerque Convention Center in New Mexico is a setting all too familiar for Arkansas State’s Camryn Newton-Smith.

As a sophomore in March of 2020, Newton-Smith was the last qualifier in the women’s pentathlon for the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Newton-Smith was inside the Convention Center preparing for her first national championship experience when the call came – the meet was canceled due to the surging world-wide pandemic.

“Being there when it got canceled, it was so heartbreaking,” Newton-Smith recalled.

Three years later, in her final indoor season for the Red Wolves, Newton-Smith has qualified for the Division 1 Indoor Championships for the second time in her collegiate career.

And ironically, the journey will take her back to Albuquerque.

“We’re looking for some vindication. We’re looking for some payback,” Arkansas State multis coach Matt Vining said.

It’s been a long, but worthwhile experience for Newton-Smith to get herself back to the big stage in Albuquerque, looking to become only the second female athlete in program history to secure a Division 1 indoor title, joining Sharika Nelvis in the 60-meter hurdles in 2014, also in New Mexico.

Battling through COVID-19, an Achilles’ injury, and the highs and lows that come with moving to a new country, the senior from Greenbank, Queensland, Australia is now one of the favorites March 10 to win the women’s heptathlon crown.

Newton-Smith is ranked No. 2 with 4,356 points, right behind Notre Dame’s Jadin O’Brien at 4,377 points, two of the five athletes to surpass the 4,300-point mark this season in qualifying for the Division 1 Indoor Championships.

“I’m so excited I finally get to compete at nationals five years into things,” she said. “Obviously, I just want to compete and do well.”

Love of Track

Track and field is something Newton-Smith has grown up with. Living in Greenbank – a suburb of Queensland – she joined Little Athletics, a local track program, at age 5.

With her dad, Ralph Newton, as her coach, she developed a love for the sport – running, jumping and throwing – and began training with her older brother Kendal, who specialized in the decathlon.

Newton-Smith said Kendal enjoyed the variety of events, but favored the javelin, and still does; her grandfather was a Commonwealth Games champion in the event.

“I like that there’s so many different events (in the heptathlon),” she said. “It’s so much more diverse.”

As a prep athlete, Newton-Smith was a multi-state champion at Park Ridge State High, and competed in the heptathlon at the 2018 World U20 Championships.

She was also an Australian national gold medalist in the heptathlon in 2015 (U16), 2016 (U17), 2017 (U18) and 2018 (U20). She explained competing collegiately and moving to the U.S. wasn’t on her radar until the end of her high school career. She jokes with Coach Vining about their first interaction and learning about Arkansas State.

“She loves to point out that I sent her a message on Facebook,” Vining said with a laugh. “But that was the easiest way to find her.”

More seriously, Vining explained he typically casts a net to potential student-athletes he thinks could be really good in the multi-events, and then waits and sees who gets back to him. Newton-Smith was one who immediately responded.

“I’m going, ‘OK, well, I’m probably fighting with every big school in the country, this is going to be a tough recruiting process,’” Vining said. “And really I don’t know if she enjoyed our first conversation, but it was really easy on me. She came on her visit and committed pretty early on.”

Arrival in Arkansas

Newton-Smith admits her first year in 2018-19 in Jonesboro, Ark., was difficult.

Adjusting to a new coach, system, a new country and being away from her family took its toll. She posted decent marks competing in the multi-events her first year with the Red Wolves, but it wasn't until her indoor sophomore season where she experienced a breakthrough.

That winter, she shattered the indoor pentathlon school record at the Sun Belt Conference Championships scoring 4,071 points, including matching her high jump personal best mark of 5-8.50 (1.74m).

Like so many others across the country, she was set for the NCAA Championships, but experienced the landslide of emotion as the event was called off, followed by the news that the outdoor season was canceled as well. During the summer of 2020, Newton-Smith didn’t make the trek home to Australia.

“I stayed and trained,” she said. “I had nothing really going on other than training, so really I got to keep my head down and just work.”

With the 2020-21 track season modified, but given a green light, Newton-Smith continued to develop and was on track to qualify once again for nationals, but ruptured her Achilles’ tendon during the conference meet competing in the high jump.

More left to accomplish

“I did think for a while I wasn't going to continue,” Newton-Smith said with a slight crack in her voice, reflecting on two hard years of living through a pandemic, an injury and missing the 2021 outdoor season. “But … I just knew I had more in me.”

She credits her competitive drive and desire for wanting to continue. Also her love of the sport. Vining describes her as fun and fierce.

“She’s a combination of those,” he said. “Almost like Jekyll and Hyde.”

Thirty-two days post operation, Newton-Smith was walking again. It wasn’t long after, she was eager to take to the track again.

In her first season post-injury, Newton-Smith finished runner-up in the pentathlon at the Sun Belt Conference Championships. The 2022 spring season, Newton-Smith continued to progress, setting a then-PR and school record 5,482 points in the heptathlon at a stacked Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University in California.

She won the conference title in the javelin with a school-record throw of 156-9 (47.79m) and advanced to the NCAA Division 1 West Regionals in the high jump and javelin at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

“She and I have pretty strong personalities and we have our moments, but one of my favorite athletes to be able to coach because she has such a high expectation of herself,” Vining said. “I never have to motivate her. It’s more trying to get her to rest, to tone things back.”

Vining said her overall improvement in the indoor pentathlon – 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800 – have been steady each season with the most significant improvement coming in the high jump with consistent marks around 5-9 (1.75) or 5-9.25 (1.76m).

“We had that injury setback, but for the most part she’s been able to see steady improvements,” Vining said. “I couldn’t be more proud that she’s gotten to this point.”  

Worth the wait

This indoor season has been the best yet for Newton-Smith. She kicked things off in December with a hard effort of a full heptathlon in December in Brisbane, Australia, where she tallied a lifetime-best 5,821 points. It was fitting this was her final heptathlon of her “2022 comeback season.”

“I wasn’t overly surprised,” Vining said of her performance. “She is modest and would not say this, but she wanted to score 6,000 points, and she came up a little short, and that kept her hungry. And now she’s still got that goal in her mind, she wants to score 6,000 points this outdoor (season). Ever since I’ve known Camryn, she expected more.”

Newton-Smith punched her ticket to the NCAA meet in January with a statement victory at the Texas Tech Open as she won the pentathlon with a school-record 4,356 points, also becoming the Sun Belt Conference record holder in the process.

“She has this quality you see in someone, this confidence in themselves, she has that confidence, she knows she can do it,” Vining said.

While helping Arkansas State to its fourth straight conference title in February, she has her sights on a return to Albuquerque and her first official national experience.

“I’ve never been around someone that could take themselves as far as she can,” Vining said. “I think 100 percent she deserves 100 percent of the credit and how much she’s pushed herself and how she’s been able to come back. She’s definitely ready to go.”