Justin Richardson has meant more to the St. Dom’s cross country program than just being the school’s top runner.
If it wasn’t for him, there might not be a program.
As Richardson was planning to enroll as a freshman, the school had no cross country team.
“I had been running since I was young,” says the senior, who finished second overall in last week’s Western Class C regional race. “I realized St. Dom’s didn’t have a program. My mom, my brother Jeremy (who was attending St. Dom’s at the time) and I went to (athletic director Bob) Boucher with the idea.”
Richardson’s mother Daphne was a volunteer coach in his freshman year. After two years of being a club sport, the team gained varsity status last year.
Richardson’s freshman year proved to be an up-and-down one. While he did well during the regular season, his regional race wasn’t so successful.
“Nerves got the best of me and I didn’t qualify for states,” says Richardson.
By his junior year, Richardson was ready for better things.
After a solid regular season, he placed fourth in regionals with a time of 17 minutes, 55 seconds, and finished ahead of Lisbon’s Tyler Clark. Things didn’t go so well the following weekend at the state championship meet in Belfast.
“Throughout my junior season I was getting a funny cramp,” says Richardson. “The actual cramp would come around the second mile, and I’d get a sharp pain on my right side. In the regionals it didn’t affect me.”
The cramp flared up again in Belfast, and it was too much to overcome. He fell to 36th place and failed to break 19 minutes.
In the following months, he learned something about himself.
“I found out I was having bad eating habits the day of the race,” says Richardson. “I wasn’t eating enough.”
With his eating habits adjusted, Richardson has performed well during his senior campaign. The cramps are now behind him and his offseason weight training has added much-needed muscle to his frame.
In last week’s regionals, he stayed close to Clark for the first mile-and-a-half before the Lisbon runner gradually pulled away. Richardson is now poised for his one final shot in the state meet this weekend in his hometown of Turner.
“I’m really happy for Justin,” says second-year coach Ryan Gleason. “He’s accomplished everything he’s hoped for up to this point, and he’s peaking at the right time. He says his best race is still in him.”
Richardson isn’t going to the state meet alone. For the first time, the St. Dom’s boys qualified as a group. The team’s improvement has coincided with Richardson’s success on the trails.
“It’s good because we have a really strong team,” says Richardson. “It helps to have a strong team with someone to push you.”
Just like Richardson pushed for a cross country team at St. Dom’s.
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