Fresno State Athletics
Track & Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach (Jumps, Multis)
- Email:
- audras@mail.fresnostate.edu
- Phone:
- 559-278-0045
 THE SMITH FILE
Hometown: Pima, Ariz.
Spouse:Â Raul
Children:Â Griffin
COACHING HISTORY
Fresno State
2019-present: Assistant Coach
Seattle Pacific
2013-19: Assistant Coach
WashingtonÂ
2010-13: Strength & Conditioning Coach
2009-10: Assistant Coach
ATHLETIC EXPERIENCE
Idaho State
2006-07
Central Arizona College
2005-06
EDUCATION
Idaho State (2007)
Master's in Health Education
Idaho State (2006)
Bachelor's in Public Health Education and Promotion
Last Updated: June 17, 2024
Audra Smith, who started out as a sprinter, and became a heptathlete, enters her sixth season as Fresno State's assistant coach for jumps and multis. She joined the Bulldogs from Seattle Pacific where she was an assistant track and field and cross country coach and served as the department's head strength coach for the previous six seasons.
While Smith's first year at Fresno State was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic which canceled all athletic competition in mid-March, her second-year was a sign of things to come. Smith aided in the development of a triple jump group that finished 2-5-7 at the Mountain West Championships. Fresno State earned 14 points in the event, its most ever in the triple jump at the MW championship meet. In total, Smith's horizontal jumpers scored 17 points, the most for the Bulldogs at the MW meet. At the conference championships, Breanna Covington became the Bulldogs' highest-ever finisher in the triple jump, earning silver in the event. The senior ranked No. 2 in the conference entering the meet following a career-long jump of 12.86m/42-2.25 during the season. The mark ranked No. 2 program history and earned Covington a spot at the NCAA West Regional.
2024 was a breakout year for Smith's groups. Madison Hutton, Kaja Bins and Kaitlynn Perez went 1-3-4 in the pentathlon at the MW Indoor Championships while Bins, Hutton, Ella Spaulding and Perez went 2-4-5-8 in the heptathlon at the MW Outdoor Championships. It was just the third time in Mountain West history that a team had four heptathletes score in the same championship, joining Colorado State (2005) and San Diego State (2003). The 21 points indoors and 18 points outdoors were the third-most points scored a MW championship meet.
In the field, Rachela Pace broke the both the indoor (13.40m/43-11.75) and outdoor (6.30m/20-8) school records in the triple jump and claimed second in both the long jumps. She took runner-up in the triple at the outdoor championship and was third in both events indoors. Liz Tarczy became the first freshman to win the high jump at a MW Outdoor Championship since 2009, and first Bulldog to win a conference title since 1990. Both athletes went on to compete at the NCAA West First Round.
At SPU, Smith was responsible for coaching and recruiting athletes in the sprints, hurdles and jumps. Her guidance was instrumental in the sprints where her group won multiple individual titles that led to the Falcons women's team winning eight conference titles from 2015-2019. Two years after heading to SPU, Smith's women's 4x400 relay team finished third at the NCAA Division II indoor meet while two women from the team also qualified for nationals in the 400 meters. Following the season, she was named West Region Women's Indoor Track Assistant Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA.
The graduate of Idaho State University spent the previous four years before joining the Falcons as a coach at the University of Washington – one year as a multi-events assistant for track, and then three as a strength and conditioning coach. She also served as the Huskies' Director of Operations.
On the track, she worked primarily with SPU's sprinters -- and those sprinters came up big during the 2019 track seasons.
During the winter indoor campaign, Grace Bley won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference 200-meter dash title, teaming with freshmen Jenna Bouyer and Peace Igbonagwam for a 1-2-3 finish in that race, with sophomore Renick Meyer 5th. Igbonagwam, Meyer, Bouyer, and Stepper went 2-3-5-7 in the 60-meter dash, and Bley was 6th in the 400. Altogether, the Falcon sprinters racked up 55 of SPU's 154 points, a big factor in edging Central Washington by four points for the program's 13th indoor conference crown.
The spring was every bit as productive for Smith's speedsters. The 4-by-100 relay team of Igbonagwam, Bouyer, Bley, and Stepper set a school record and posted an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 46.23 seconds at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego. In the GNAC Championships on May 11 at Western Oregon in Monmouth, that same foursome set a conference meet record of 46.32. It was the second year in a row a 4-by-1 had set rewritten the school and conference meet standards. Bley won her second straight outdoor 200 championship, and led a 2-3-4-5-7 finish in the 100-meter dash.
As was the case indoor, it came down to a battle between SPU and Central for the team title, and the Falcons again prevailed by four, 166-162. Of those, 62 came from the sprinters.
During the 2018 indoor season, Smith's sprinters accounted for 47 of SPU's 136 points at the GNAC Indoor Championships,  including 10 for a victory in the 60-meter dash by Meyer to help the Falcons earn a share of the team title.
Outdoors in the spring of '18, that sprint group racked up three GNAC titles – Meyer in the 100, Grace Bley in the 200, and the 4x100 relay of Meyer, Julia Stepper, Becca Houk, and Bley – to help account for 62 of the 155 points SPU scored to take the team championship going away. Just a week prior to the conference meet, that same 4x100 group set a school record with a time of 46.33 at the Ken Shannon Invitational.Â
During the 2015-16 school year, the Falcon women won a bronze medal and All-American honors in the 4x400 relay at the NCAA Division II indoor meet, sent two women to the open 400 at indoor nationals, then had one in the 400 and another in the 400 hurdles at outdoor nationals. New school records were set in the women's indoor and outdoor 400, the outdoor 400 hurdles, the indoor 200, and the indoor 4x400 relay.
In the winter of 2016, Smith was named the West Region Women's Indoor Track Assistant Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA.
Smith starred in the heptathlon at Idaho State, placing second at the Big Sky Conference meet in 2007 by tallying 5,085 points. She also was a member of the victorious 4x100 relay team, and scored in the 100, 200, 100 hurdles, and javelin as the Bengals won the team championship for the first time in school history.
She was All-Big Sky six times in two years at the school, and was a USTFCCCA All-Academic pick as a senior, finishing her master's degree in health education.
A native of Pima, Ariz., Smith has is married to Raul Sheen and they have one son, Griffin.
