By John Raffel

Frankenmuth coach Mike Snyder has reason to be excited over the prospects of sophomore Mary Richmond, who is on the varsity for her second year.

“This is Mary’s second year on the high school cross country team,” Snyder said. “In her first year as a freshman, Mary has accomplished a great deal as she earned the top spot on our FHS all-time record board that has been around for over 30 years. Mary’s top time last season was 18:05.25. She also placed fourth in the Division 2 MHSAA state finals.

“Mary is a very polite, humble, hard working, great teammate type of student/athlete. Her best time last year was 18:05.25. Her time this year after only the second meet was 18:33.9. She is the No. 1 runner on our Frankenmuth girls team. Her initial goal this season is 17:50 and I believe she will do better than this.”

The keys to Richmond’s success, Snyder said, is she is a “dedicated student/athlete, has great work ethic, is coachable, is a great teammate, very supportive, is humble and very competitive. Her best time is 18:05 set last year (2020). I can see her around 17:30 this season which will be asking a lot, but I believe she can get there.
“She is working on cadence and foot strike and is much stronger than last season with weight room and running. It’s a culmination of many things as she continues to work hard and support her teammates on the way to being a top runner. The everyday supporting nature of Mary is something that sticks with me.”

Richmond’s fourth-place appearance at the state meet last season was very memorable.

“I expect her to “simply to continue to do what she has been doing,” Snyder said. “Mary was our top mileage athlete over the summer and has always been very dedicated to her training plan. Mary is dual sporting in varsity volleyball this season. Cross country is her primary sport, but volleyball is very important to her as well. She is balancing both and will add academics to this mix as soon as school begins.”