The WNBA's Charlotte Sting, who will have the third and 10th picks in April's WNBA draft, recently listed outstanding U of U basketball player Kim Smith (in action at left) as one of the college basketball players to watch. Smith entered this season, her last, ranked fifth all-time on Utah's career scoring list. She also has been recognized for three consecutive years as a Kodak Honorable Mention All-America, and WNBA.com analyst Ann Meyers also mentioned Smith in her “Preseason College Seniors to Watch” article. Another WNBA.com analyst, Matt Wurst, also named Shona Thorburn in a list of potential top picks for April's draft. Both Smith and Thorburn have started every game in every season and capped off their junior season last year as Co-Mountain West Players of the Year.

Ted Stanley, chairman and founder of Zars Inc., is the MountainWest Capital Network's choice for the 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Stanley, a longtime professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah, joins such previous luminaries as NPS Pharmaceuticals' Hunter Jackson, David Evans of Evans & Sutherland, Novell's Ray Noorda, Dale Ballard of Ballard Medical Products, and TheraTech's Dinesh Patel in winning the honor. Stanley's Zars Inc. develops products designed to administer pain-killing drugs through the skin, rather than by pills, injections or intravenous feeds. At the U, Stanley has been director of research for more than 20 years. He is internationally renowned for his developmental work on opioids, other intravenous anesthetics and novel drug delivery techniques. In 1985, he also co-founded Anesta, a drug delivery company with two government-approved products: fentanyl Oralet and Actiq.

The University of Utah's gymnastics team remained No. 2 in the NCAA coaches' poll Jan. 30 after moving into the second spot from third in the previous week’s poll. The poll is determined at this point by total season average; Georgia comes in at No. 1 with 196.169 to Utah's 195.862. In events, Utah ranks second on floor and beam, third on vault and fifth on bars. Individually, Ute junior Nicolle Ford is fourth in all-around (39.342) with sophomore Ashley Postell eighth (39.158) and freshman Kristina Baskett 10th (39.137). Ford ranks third on bars (9.912) and is tied for sixth on beam (9.844) with Postell sixth on floor (9.867). The Utes posted the nation’s season-high— 197.200 — in their second home meet of the year on Jan. 27 at the Huntsman Center. Ford and Ashley Postell — both of whom have overcome injuries — tied for the all-around high score with 39.550 apiece.

Above, Postell competes in the floor routine in the Red Rocks' tri-meet at the Huntsman Center Jan. 27. Postell shared the all-around title with teammate Nicolle Ford with a score of 39.55, and the Utes posted a season-high 197.200 in their second home meet of the year. Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski

Parker Vance, a freshman at the University of Utah and a member of U.S. Speedskating, earned qualifying time to skate in the U.S. time trials in late December, competing to make the U.S. Olympic team going to the 2006 Games Torino, Italy.

Vance, a junior in the USS long track division, didn’t make the roster for this year’s Games, but he still has plenty of time to prepare for 2010—and, he lives in Kearns just four doors away from the Utah Olympic Oval, the premier speed skating facility in the world.

Ronald L. Weiss, M.D., M.B.A., professor of pathology and president and chief operating officer of ARUP Laboratories, has been named chairman of the board of directors for the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) in Washington, D.C. Weiss will serve in this voluntary capacity for two years (2006-2008). ACLA is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 that offers its member companies the benefits of representation, advocacy, education, information and research. ARUP Laboratories is a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and an enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology.