Audra Smith, who started out as a sprinter, became a heptathlete, and now has competed in four marathons, is in her seventh year on the Falcons coaching staff, coming aboard in August 2013. In addition to her track & field assistant coaching role, she is also the athletic department's head strength & conditioning coach.
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.
On the track, she works 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 Championsips,  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 been in the Seattle area since 2008. She is married to Raul Sheen, who is a volunteer assistant with the Falcons. They and son Griffin live in the South Seattle suburb of White Center.
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