DOROTHEA SMITH
- Apr 30
- 2 min read
Trenton Central High School -- Sprinter
Some things in athletics we take for granted.
Over the last several decades, Trenton High has had so much track and field success on the state level that one can easily believe that it has gone on forever, despite the fact that the first girls’ state group meet wasn’t held until 1973. Trenton High boys’ track success goes back over a century but this time period was the turning point for the ladies, the overdue moment when Trenton High girls finally got their chance on the track. In Year 5, Trenton got its first two Group IV state champions: Dorothea Smith(220 Yards) and her Tornado teammate Gina Nelson (100 Yards).
Smith was Trenton High's first great female sprinter. She first won the 220 Yard Mercer County Championship as a sophomore in 1975. That same meet she anchored the winning 440 Yard Relay to take another gold medal.
By spring of 1977 Smith had developed into one of the top-ranked high school sprinters in NJ. Her 25.8 second victory in the State Group IV 220-yard dash was close--edging out runner-up Paulette Hackett of Bridgeton (25.9) and third-place finisher Donna Auletti of Middletown South (25.9). Her clutch victory thus stood as the beginning of an era of Trenton High girls’ excellence would last for decades to come.
Smith followed up this performance with a second-place finish at the Meet of Champions the following week, putting a bookend on a magical season.
A 4-time Mercer County champion in her career (she not won the previously mentioned 220 & 440 Relay double in 1975, she repeated in the same two events in '77), Smith can appropriately be dubbed one of the pioneers of Trenton High girls’ track. She held the Trenton school record in the 220 until 1982 when the mark was broken by future Olympian Wenda Vereen.
MAJOR TITLES
NJ STATE CHAMPION GROUP IV, 220 YARDS (1977)
2x MERCER COUNTY 220 YARDS CHAMPION (1975 & '77)
2x MERCER COUNTY 440 RELAY CHAMPION (1975 & '77)
