Inductees
Christine Ridenour Boothby

Christine Ridenour Boothby was so rambunctious as a child, she would often come home from elementary school with blisters on her hands from playing on the jungle gym.
“I was always trying to achieve some feat,” she said. “I would also see how far I could jump out of the swings. I always tried to meet and exceed whatever anyone else could do.”
When she was tired of dominating school playground equipment, Ridenour Boothby would run.
“My first memory of running was during elementary school, when I begged a teacher to run with me during recess around the black top,” Ridenour Boothby said.
Fortunately for her teachers, Ridenour Boothby’s father signed his 9-year old daughter up for a Junior Olympic qualifying race, introducing her to the world of competitive running.
That decision changed the course of Ridenour Boothby’s life, and set her on a path to greatness, one that saw her become the first cross country girls champion in Missouri history, a collegiate national champion, and a five-time All-American in college. All of that is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Ridenour Boothby as a member of the Class of 2024.
Her love for distance running came early, but also included a brief foray into sprints that didn’t go particularly well.
“My dad signed me up for the Junior Olympic event and I qualified in several sprint events,” Ridenour Boothby said.
The meet, however, didn’t go so well. In her words, she was “smoked” by other runners in the sprints. Noticing most of those runners were from the Kirkwood Women’s Track Club, her father spoke to the coach. Not long after, Boothby received an opportunity to try out for the club. She made quite the first impression.
“I showed up to practice a few months later during cross country season and the team had a time trial on day one in Kirkwood Park,” she said. “I took off running and no one caught me. From that point forward, I realized I was a distance runner not a sprinter.”
Ridenour Boothby spent the next five years running with Kirkwood, helping them achieve national-level status. She was more than prepared to make an impact at Kirkwood High School as a freshman.
“I was excited to compete at the high school level with the expectation that I would keep doing what I had been doing for years,” she said. “But I also recall being very irritated that I was only third in the mile at my first state meet in ninth grade.”
She allowed that disappointment to fuel her the next year when she made history, becoming the first girl to win a state championship in cross country as a sophomore in 1979.
Ridenour Boothby won a total of eight state championships during her high school career. That success led her to Southeast Missouri State where her career took a major turn upward with head coach Fred Bingelli.
“His personality and coaching style were exactly what I needed at that time in my life,” Ridenour Boothby said.
At SEMO, Ridenour Boothby was a three-time All-American in cross country and track & field. In 1984, she enjoyed the top moment of her career, capturing the Division II cross country individual national championship.
“Most of the season leading up to nationals was subpar for me,” she said. “The morning of the meet, one of my teammates’ moms said to all of us, ‘it’s a perfect day to race’ and I remember thinking that I better have a really good plan.”
Her plan played out perfectly.
“When I got to the bottom of the final hill, I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was so nervous someone was going to catch me. Luckily no one did.”
After three exceptional seasons at SEMO, Ridenour Boothby finished her career at Kansas State. She placed second at the Big 8 championships in 1986. That same year, she also recorded a school-record time of 16:51.0 in the 5K in cross country, a mark which still stands today. Overall, she earned a pair of All-America honors for the Wildcats, proving that her success at Division II was no fluke.
Many people contributed to Ridenour Boothby’s success, especially Bingelli, Kansas State head coach Steve Miller, and her father, Jim.
“My dad had the biggest impact on my running, as he was the one who officially got me started,” she said. “Coach Bingelli gave me the opportunity to develop in an environment that fostered excellence.
“Coach Miller made me understand how to believe beyond any limitations I might have had in my mind. He told me that, what I thought was hard, I would achieve today and what I thought impossible was attainable as well.”