Bio

Kristen Monahan Smith begins her sixth season as an assistant coach with the Michigan Tech Nordic ski teams.

The 2021-22 season proved to be one of the best season as 14 Huskies earned USCSCA Academic All-America with a team GPA of 3.7 On the big stage, MTU had three All-America finishes in Anabel Needham (4th CL 5km), Nea Katajala (7th CL 5km) and Skylar Patten (10th SK 20km). The women earned their highest finish at the NCAA Skiing Championships in program history placing fourth. The Huskies were also combined overall team champions at the NCAA Central Regional Skiing Championships, racking up 15 All-Region honorees with Nea Katajala and Henriette Semb winning individual titles at Regionals. The women’s team also claimed the team win at the NCAA Central Regional Skiing Championships. The Black & Gold also were combined overall team champions at the CCSA Conference Championships with nine student-athletes earning All-CCSA honors.

The Michigan Tech men's and women's teams both finished second at the CCSA Championships and Central Region Championships during the 2019-20 campaign. Senior Sarah Goble earned NCAA All-American honors in the 5-kilometer skate after finishing seventh with a time of 14:11.7 at the NCAA National Championships. Six athletes qualified for the national championships and 10 athletes earned all-region honors.

The Michigan Tech women's ski team finished the 2018-19 season in the Top 10 at the NCAA National Championships, with two skiers placing in the Top 15. Two skiers won individual NCAA Central Region Skiing Championship titles, and 10 Huskies earned All-Region honors. In the classroom, 15 Michigan Tech skiers earned USCSCA All-Academic recognition, the most of any Nordic program in the country.

In the 2017-18 season, Monahan coached five Michigan Tech skiers to NCAA Championship qualification, and saw 14 student-athletes make USCSCA All-Academic. As a team, the Huskies finished second at the NCAA Central Region Skiing Championships, with nine skiers earning All-Region honors.

Monahan Smith, a native of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, came to Houghton after serving as the Assistant Competition Team Coach of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation in Ketchum, Idaho. Monahan Smith helped guide Sun Valley to a fourth place overall finish in the club standings at the 2017 XC Junior National Championships.

Throughout her coaching career, Monahan Smith has coached multiple Junior All-Americans and Junior National Champions, a paralympian, and U18 Scandanavian Championship qualifiers. Her skiers have earned collegiate Nordic skiing scholarships at Universities across the country. Monahan Smith owns USSA level 100 coaches certification and level 200 clinic.

In addition to coaching at Sun Valley, Monahan Smith served as a Track and Field Coach for Jyväskylän Kenttäurheilijat in Jyväskylä, Finland, a guide in training for a Finnish paralympic athlete, Cross Country Running Coach for the Sun Valley Ski Academy’s Cross Country Running team, and Head Coach of VAMPS, a Masters Nordic ski program in Sun Valley.  

Monahan Smith is a former All-Region skier for Tech, lettering from 2006-11. Her most notable finish was placing 11th in a SuperTour race in Houghton, Michigan in 2011. She also ran cross country and track and field during her time in Houghton. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from Michigan Tech she moved to Jyväskylä, Finland to ski for Huhtasuon Hiihto, a Finnish Nordic ski club, and received her Master’s in Exercise Physiology from the University of Jyväskylä where she worked in KIHU, the Research Center for Olympic sports. Her master’s research assessed aerobic and anaerobic thresholds using rollerski treadmill tests with national level and elite Finnish Nordic skiers. In addition to her athletic career at Tech, she has placed top 12 in Finland’s World Loppet Finlandia Marathon, along with multiple top 10’s in the Boulder Mountain Tour and taken 3rd and 4th place in the Standhope Ultra 60 and 30-kilometer marathons.