Pauline Meyer
Arkansas State cross country, 2017-2021
Arkansas State track & field, 2018-2023
It’s no secret that the Arkansas State women’s track & field has been on an absolute roll lately. Across cross country, indoor, and outdoor competition, the Red Wolves won nine straight Sun Belt titles from 2019-2022, and 13 the last 15 overall. A big reason for that is standout student athletes like distance runner Pauline Meyer.
Meyer arrived in Jonesboro in 2017 from Gronau-Epe, Germany. From her first fall she made an impression in the Sun Belt, earning third-team all-league honors in her debut cross country season. She repeated the feat in ’18, but landed on the second-team.
Meyer really found her stride after that. She had her first runner-up finish in 2019 and the Red Wolves won just their second XC title in program history. The 2020 finish was the same, but 2021 was a different level. Meyer absolutely smoked the competition, setting a new top time in XC championship history and winning individual medalist honors.
Following the cross country seasons, Meyer stayed busy in indoor & outdoor competition. Her best season was in 2023, when she won five Sun Belt golds in ITF & OTF championship meets. She was the 2023 OTF top scoring performer, outscoring four total teams by herself.
Meyer had a stellar year in the 3K steeplechase as a senior, becoming the first women’s distance runner from A-State to qualify for the NCAA outdoor championships. She earned first-team All-America honors with her performance.
All-in-all, Meyer finished her career with 8 SBC Championship golds, 15 podium finishes, 10 all-conference honors, and USTFCCCA All-Academic recognition in 2021.
She has continued running after graduation, competing in the World University Games in 2023. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Kendra Meichsner
Arkansas State tennis, 1995-98
Hall of Honor, 2005
Former Arkansas State tennis standout Kendra Meichsner traveled a long, long way to be a part of the Tribe. All those miles were more than worth it.
With no opportunity to play collegiate tennis in her native Australia, Meichsner arrived on the scene in Jonesboro ahead of the 1995 season. She needed zero time to get acclimated on the court, going 14-2 her first fall and ranking as high as 17th in singles in the Southwest Region. The Indians also posted an incredible 16-1 record.
More success continued to follow. Another strong fall saw her ranked as high as 43rd in the Division I Rolex Collegiate Rankings. In doubles action, Meichsner along with partner Cornelia Botha continued to tally wins, ending up with 17 combined in the 1995 & 1996 seasons.
More national acclaim would follow in 1997. She and teammate Kylie Kemsley were ranked 28th nationally in doubles play. Additionally, Meichsner also played some doubles matches with Melanie Tate, and the two were undefeated that season.
Meichsner is the only player in program history to earn all-conference honors all four seasons of her career (singles). She was also a three-time all-Sun Belt honoree in doubles, too. In the record book, Meichsner still ranks in the top-10 in career singles wins & win percentage, career doubles wins & win percentage, and single-season doubles win percentage. The lefty went 63-39 in singles competition and 38-11 in doubles.
After her successful career, Meichsner returned to Jonesboro to be an assistant during the 2000 season. She was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2005. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Carlisa May
Arkansas State volleyball, 2015-2018
It’s truly wild to think that technically Carlisa May was considered undersized at the outside hitter position for Arkansas State volleyball. You’d never know it from the stats.
May made her way to Jonesboro in 2015 following a phenomenal prep career at Lee’s Summit, Mo. From the start, she did nothing but impress.
May earned her first Sun Belt Freshman of the Week honor following her very first tournament at the Redhawks Invitational. Six more of those would follow that season, making it a no-brainer that May would be the league’s Freshman of the Year. Additionally, she was recognized as an honorable mention AVCA All-American.
That 2015 season was also an epic one for the program. The Red Wolves went 28-2 and 16-0 in the Sun Belt. The regular season finale was a sweep of Appalachian State in front of an electric First National Bank Arena crowd, and the year ended with a trip to the NCAA Tournament. It was the program’s first of the 2000s.
You would think it might be hard to top such a stellar debut, but every single year May improved. In 2016 she led the league in hitting percentage and earned her first league Offensive Player of the Year honor. Two additional OPOTY honors followed as a junior and senior, meaning May earned significant all-league honors all four years of her career.
Stats-wise, May stands atop the A-State record books in kills and kills per set. Of the top four seasons in program history in kills, three belong to May. All four of her seasons rank in the top-10 in kills per set. She’s 7th all-time in Sun Belt history in kills, and 5th in attacks.
Following her outstanding playing career, May began coaching. She served as an assistant at her alma mater during the 2023 season. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Rachel Stewart
Arkansas State women’s golf, 1993-1997
Hall of Honor, 2019
A familiar name for anyone who supports Red Wolves golf, Rachel Stewart was a key reason for the success of the young women’s golf program at Arkansas State.
Stewart had a fascinating path to northeast Arkansas. She was a native of Glasgow, Scotland but raised in Botswana. She moved to Chilliwack, British Columbia at the age of 14 before landing in Jonesboro ahead of the 1993-94 golf season.
The well-traveled Stewart quickly settled in at A-State. She was part of a talented group of freshman, three of whom landed on the All-Sun Belt team (including Stewart). She had a top-10 finish at the league championship that spring, setting a high bar right out of the gate that she continued to top.
By her sophomore season, Stewart was a team leader. She led the team in stroke average for the first time in ’94-95, a feat she would repeat her final two seasons with the scores dropping each year. Additionally, in ’95 Stewart finished 3rd in the league championship, her best showing. She finished in the top-10 individually in all four years of her career. She was also an All-Sun Belt selection all four years of her career, one of just two A-State players to make that claim.
Following her graduation from A-State, Stewart remained in Jonesboro as the assistant golf pro at Sage Meadows and helped open the courses while it was still nine holes. Tragically, she was killed in a car accident in 2000, one day before she was set to go to PGA school. A-State’s annual golf fundraiser is named in her honor- the Rachel Stewart Memorial Tournament.
Stewart was named to the Sun Belt’s 30th anniversary golf team in 2006, and inducted into the A-State Hall of Honor in 2019. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Linda Allison
Arkansas State women’s basketball, 1981-1984
Hall of Honor, 1994
Change can be hard, especially for a young program- like when Arkansas State women’s basketball changed from competing in the Arkansas Women’s Intercollegiate Sports Association (AWISA) to the Southland Conference at the NCAA level. But having talented veteran leadership like Linda Holloway Allison helped ease the transition.
An honor graduate of Westside High School, Allison’s first season with the then-Tomahawks was in 1980-81. She was a go-to threat from the start and finished second on the team in scoring average that season at 10.4 points per game. She also led the team in rebounding, averaging almost 6 per contest. Improvement followed as a sophomore, with Allison increasing her scoring average to 15.1 points per game.
The 1982-83 season was a big year of change, for both Allison and the team. A-State joined the Southland and started competing in the NCAA, while Allison was on maternity leave. She and husband Tim welcomed their first child during the year.
Allison did not miss a step in her return as a senior. She once again led the team in scoring, and the Tommies were able to double their win total in their second year of NCAA competition. She also led the team in assists that season. Additionally, she was recognized as an All-Southland honoree at year’s end.
Allison was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 1994, the first women’s basketball player to be enshrined. She was also selected to an 11-member Silver Anniversary team for Arkansas State women’s basketball in 1999. (Photo: The Indian, 1984)
Stephanie Foreman
Arkansas State track & field, 2008-2013
What would it feel like to never lose? Arkansas State track & field alum Stephanie Foreman could weigh in on that question, with an unblemished run in Sun Belt Conference competition throughout her career.
After a record setting career at Lake Hamilton High School, Foreman took her pole vault talents to the northeast corner of the state and began competing with the Red Wolves in the 2008-2009 season. It was success from the start. She captured the Sun Belt title in indoor competition in her first league championship meet and was additionally rewarded with all-conference honors. She repeated the feat in the outdoor season.
Foreman only reached new heights- literally- from there. She again won the Sun Belt pole vault indoor crown with a season best jump, and again claimed the indoor-outdoor sweep. Foreman also participated in the NCAA West Division prelims for the first time as a sophomore.
By the time Foreman was a junior, the conference pole vault sweep was just a matter of habit. However, she added to that success with her first All-America honor in indoor competition. She also improved on her performance in the West Division prelims and earned her first trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championship.
Foreman closed out her career with two more Sun Belt titles in the pole vault, meaning she went an incredible 8-for-8 in indoor & outdoor league championship competition. She was an eight-time all-conference selection and a two-time All-American, one of very few women in A-State track & field history who can claim multiple national honors.
Foreman still holds the indoor & outdoor records in women’s pole vault at A-State and has a top-5 mark all-time in indoor Sun Belt competition. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Marissa Martinek
Arkansas State bowling, 2007-2010
Hall of Honor, 2022
Arkansas State bowling found success right out of the gate in its inaugural season in 2004-2005, but it took just a few years for the program to become a powerhouse. The arrival of Marissa Martinek helped spark that rise.
Martinek arrived on the scene in Jonesboro after a standout prep career at Colonie Central in Albany, NY and a year at Morehead State. She led A-State in average in her very first tournament, the Central Region Fall Jamboree in October of 2007. She wrapped up the ’07 fall slate by leading the overall field at the Capital City Classic in her third tournament at A-State.
The big headlines came at the end of the season, with the team punching its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the very first time. The program earned a runner up finish, completing a 70-30 slate with a top-5 finish in every event except one. Martinek earned All-America honors for the first time as well.
The bar was set from there. Martinek continued to help lead the Scarlet & Black to the NCAA Tournament in the final two seasons of her career, and the Red Wolves have not missed a postseason since. She also earned Honorable Mention All-America laurels after A-State’s third-place finish at the NCAA championship in 2010. Additionally, Martinek was a 2009 Academic All-NTCA selection and five-time all-tournament honoree. The program had a 225-97 record during her three seasons.
Martinek became the first Arkansas State bowler to be inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2022. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Juli Vacarri
Arkansas State volleyball, 1975-78
Arkansas State women’s basketball, 1974-75
Hall of Honor, 1990
Not just one of the first, but one of the best. Juli Vaccari was a standout for both women’s volleyball and basketball on the programs’ first rosters.
A California native, Vaccari was a starter on the U.S. Junior National Women’s Volleyball Team that won a Gold Medal in Canada in 1974 before moving to northeast Arkansas. Although individual statistics were not kept at the time, the team accomplishments for Arkansas State were impressive.
Even in the very first season of play in 1975, the Tomahawks were big winners going 25-6. The following year, A-State joined the Arkansas Women’s Intercollegiate Sports Association (AWISA) and won a whopping 53 straight games in conference play while Vaccari was with the team. She was recognized as an All-AWISA selection all four seasons of her career.
“Players wanted to play with Juli. She was a tremendous athlete and a great leader…She could just do it all,” said Coach Kay Woodiel, the first volleyball (and basketball, and tennis!) coach in program history. All in all, A-State had a 117-37 record during Vaccari’s tenure.
She also starred on the first Tomahawks women’s basketball team in the 1974-75 season, leading the team with 10.3 rebounds per game and also averaging 8.7 points.
Vaccari was the very first women’s athlete inducted into Arkansas State’s Hall of Honor (1990). (Photo: The Indian, 1978)
Camryn Newton-Smith
Arkansas State track & field, 2019-2023
A Jackie of all trades. Camryn Newton-Smith did it all for Arkansas State track and field, shattering records in the multi-events along the way.
After excelling in the multis as a teenager in her native Australia, Newton-Smith arrived in Jonesboro ahead of the 2018 season. Despite having to adjust to a new country and new coaches, she won the 55m hurdles and long jump at the Kickoff Klassic in her A-State debut and finished sixth in the Sun Belt Indoor Championships in the pentathlon. Everything really started to click soon afterwards.
As a sophomore, Newton-Smith broke the school record in the pentathlon, scoring 4,071 points to take gold at the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships. The road to success, unfortunately, also included a few bumps along the way.
After completing a phenomenal indoor season in 2020, her first appearance in the NCAA Championships was canceled due to the beginning of the COVID epidemic. It seemed inevitable that she would return to the Championships, but a ruptured Achilles in 2021 wiped out the outdoor season and delayed the comeback. Delayed, however, did not equal denied.
Newton-Smith took silver in ’22 in her return to the pentathlon in the Sun Belt Championships and followed that up with silver in the heptathlon in SBC Outdoors. She won the league championship in the javelin and punched her first ticket to the NCAA West Prelims. Her senior season in 2023 was the best of all, earning her NCAA All-America honorable mention accolades in Indoors and first-team All-America honors in outdoors.
After graduation, Newton-Smith continued to shine in the multis. In April of 2024, she won her first National senior title in the Australian Athletics Championships by scoring 6180 points – the highest score by an Aussie in 16 years. The performance landed her at 19th in the world rankings, good enough to secure a spot in the 2024 Olympics. She competed in the heptathlon Aug. 8-9 at Stade de France in Paris. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Adrianne Davie
Arkansas State women’s basketball, 2004-2007
Hall of Honor, 2017
A unicorn. Adrianne Davie had the size to clean up on the glass and dominate in the paint but the shooting ability to step back from deep, making her a matchup nightmare for Arkansas State’s opponents in the mid-2000s.
Davie began her time at A-State in 2003 after a fantastic prep career at Central Arkansas Christian. She showed what she was capable of from game one- a 14-point performance against Belmont. She led the team in rebounding as a freshman and earned honorable mention all-conference honors as the team won its first regular season Sun Belt crown. The team also made its first of three WNIT appearances in her career.
The numbers ticked up as a sophomore. Davie averaged a double-double and led the team in both scoring and rebounding in 2004-05 with the season ending in a quarterfinal run in the WNIT. Along the way, A-State topped Arkansas in front of the largest ever crowd in First National Bank Arena history with Davie contributing 17 points & 14 rebounds.
Always a solid shooter, by her senior year Davie was a big-time 3-point threat. While the rebounding numbers continued to stay strong, her scoring average increased to 20.8 points per game as she shot 37% from deep that season. She also set the A-State facility record for most points scored in a game that year, with a 38-pt performance against ULM.
Davie’s name can still be found all over the program record books, as she holds the top spot in rebounding and free throws made, plus top-3 marks in points scored and blocks. She is one of just two players to lead the team in scoring for three straight years, and the only player in program history to lead the team in rebounding all four years of her career.
Davie was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2017. (Photo: A-State Athletics)