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Destini Smith has broken records, won championships and the sky is the limit for one of the most decorated athletes in Pennsylvania High School Track and Field.
This 2025 Souderton Area High School graduate picked up her diploma last month with her gold medals proudly displayed around her neck, a testament of how far she’s come, how high she’s jumped and how fast she’s ready to make her mark as collegiate athlete.
Smith has had a remarkable high school career for long jump, triple jump, and high jump. As a 5-time state champion, 11-time state medalist, 3-time All American and National Champion, she is recognized as a top athlete in the nation and is gearing to take her winning ways to Kansas State University this fall.
But she’s no overnight success. Smith’s storied dominance in track and field started at a very young age, when her family lived in Florida and Georgia. Her family moved to Pennsylvania before her 10th grade year, landing her in suburban Philadelphia.
“I was in first grade. I was running up a grade because I was taller than all the other first graders, so I had to run with the second graders. I was still cooking them in the 100 [meter] and stuff like that. So it was pretty fun. Even though they were older than me, it still felt better than if I was running against my own age,” said Smith, who now stands at 5 feet 9 inches tall.
Smith started her track career as a sprinter, then gradually moved to the jumping events as she got older. By the time of her junior year in high school, Smith locked in on the jumping events.
“I was a sprinter at first, I have long legs, that’s what I was really into. And then ninth grade is when I started high jump, and I kind of hated it, because I was like, ‘they just took me right out of the sprinting as soon as I started high jump,’” Smith said.
Junior year consisted of sprints and jumping, while senior year she pulled back on sprints to focus on her jumping events, dominating in the high, long and triple jumps.
Smith credits her success to technique, her consistent work ethic, and natural ability.
“It was a whole lot of everything. High jump, I’m tall in general, it just kind of felt natural — not going backwards, like over a bar. It didn’t feel natural at all. Actually, I was scared to do it at first, but it just came like, it became second nature to just do high jump,” Smith said.
Smith has only been long jumping and triple jumping for about a year and a half. She won the national championship at Nike Nationals U20 in the Triple Jump at Oregon with a jump of 42 feet 7.5 inches.
To win the Girls 3A PIAAA championship, she cleared 5 feet 7 inches in the high jump and the long jump with a fifth attempt at 19 feet, 11.50 inches.
“When it came to triple and long, honestly, it was a hard transition from going to vertical jumps to horizontal jumps. It was pretty tedious, the training and all that, and the weight training was way different. I was used to plyometrics and all that. So like, just increase my vertical to weight training and trying to lift as heavy as possible,” Smith said.
When jumping during track meets, Smith credits her mental toughness and focus over her reliance on physical abilities.
“It’s a lot of mental, you got to know what you can do, going into long and triple. I know what I can do. And I just know that nobody’s topping me. But when it comes to high jump, you truly don’t know. So you get in your head so much to, like, second guess yourself, and it eventually can affect, what you actually put out on the field that day,” Smith said.
It’s al working for Smith, who broke the state record in triple jump this season.
She also was the Gatorade Player of the Year for Girls Track and Field in Pennsylvania in the 2024-2025 season, and broke every single Souderton school record for all three jumps — records that have been standing for over 40 years.
She did it all while having a 3.97 GPA in the classroom. Her athletic and academic success made her a top recruit for colleges. Smith’s recruitment started to pick up and gain traction at the end of her junior year.
With schools like Indiana, Texas Christian University (TCU), and many more knocking at her door, Smith found a home at Kansas State and will begin her collegiate career as a Wildcat.
“I’m really firm in K-State. Out of all the coaches that reached out to me, I feel like that connection was just that, like an unbeatable connection,” Smith said
With college on the horizon, the training doesn’t stop and Smith’s work ethic is carrying her as she practices with her track team along with training with her designated jumping coach, and does even more training out of the state.
“I know what I want, from myself, and I know what I can do. So it’s like, I might as well put in that same work to show everybody else what I can do … I want to go out there every time and show people that I know what I’m doing,” Smith said.
There to help Smith in her journey is Souderton Area High School Coach Anthony Pace.
Pace has been at the helm for three years, leading the team to their first-ever title win in the 2025 PIAA Class 3A state championship. He understands what type of player and talent he has on his team and is incredibly grateful for the opportunities Smith brings Souderton.
“She’s given so many more opportunities I would have never expected, her putting us on the map. It’s like, OK, we’re traveling to Oregon, we’re traveling to Virginia, we’re traveling to Boston. All these extra things that probably would not happen without an athlete like her,” Pace said.
“She won every single event throughout the entire season, whether it’s dual meets, invites, leagues, districts, states. She finally finished second in the Triple Jump at New Balance nationals, but that was a day and a half after winning the Nike U20 Nationals,” Pace said.
Smith had a veteran presence for the rest of the girls on Souderton’s track team.
“She’s selfless. She cares about everyone else. She’s making other people involved. She’s taken freshmen and sophomores underneath her wing. She’s never shying away from them training with her. Even though, like a lot of her stuff, would be isolated, just with the dedicated training that she would need,” he said.
Through it all, Smith stays humble as she defines greatness.
“It really just depends on, not only the person that’s doing it, but how they act when they’re doing something great,” she said. “I feel like a lot of people just look at it as doing something that nobody else is doing. I feel like it really depends on the attitude they have with that.”
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