Christi Smith (2016)
About Christi Smith
In her four years at Bexley High School, Christi competed in six different events as a State Meet qualifier, reached the podium in all six events, helped the Lions’ 1996 4x100M relay to a State Championship title (:49.48), and doubled as an individual State Champion in the long jump with a PR of 19’ 3.” - the Division II State Record at that time. Christi’s all-around athleticism made her the perfect candidate to pursue the multi-event competitions and it was at the University of Akron where she chose to make her national mark. In her four years of competition, Christi won eleven MAC indoor and outdoor titles and earned All-MAC honors seven times. Christi was also Akron’s first multiple All-American re-ceiving this recognition on four different occasions. She smashed women’s records at Akron in every event in which she competed including a school and MAC record (5797 points) in the hep-tathlon in 2000. Christi was the NCAA Runner-up heptathlete in 1999 and in 2000 became Ak-ron’s first NCAA Champion in the same event. Later that summer, she competed as Akron’s first female athlete to qualify to the US Olympic Trials and was a finalist for the James E. Sullivan Leadership Award in addition to being named the Caroline Pardee Female Athlete of the Year (University of Akron) for the third consecutive year. Christi has been inducted into the Bexley HS Hall of Fame (2007), the U of A HoF (2011), and the MAC HoF (2013). In 2012, Akron recognized her as Akron’s Number One Athlete of All Time. Christi Smith-Ryan is currently an assistant coach with Central Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon.
