Coming in at number three on our list of the top OFSAA XC performers in Club history is Bell High School’s Mary Jane Richards. The Bruin runner was a dominant force on the high school running scene in the early 90’s, highlighted by three consecutive OFSAA gold medals.
With little competitive running under her belt before high school, Richards success was not immediate. In fact, the future national team member didn’t even run cross country in grade nine. However, by the time grade ten had rolled around she had become a force to be reckoned with. She would claim her first OFSAA gold medal in the midget girls race by a comfortable 50 metre margin over Laura Martin of Waterloo.
Over the next two years, Richards would dominate the high school cross country scene, winning back to back junior girls titles. As an example of her strength over the field, the Bell High School student defeated training partner Imogen Murphy by a minute at the National Capital meet on the way to her third straight gold and a week later, Murphy would finish two spots behind Richards with a bronze medal at OFSAA.
By the time Richards had entered the senior girls rank, she was not just known as a strong runner in the province, but had had considerable success at the national level (two time defending junior cross country champion) and even the international level, coming off a 17th place finish the spring prior. All was primed for a fourth successive OFSAA title when an inflamed Achilles tendon slowed things down.
There was no running for Richards for 10 weeks, but she tried to keep fit with water training and lifting weights. She returned just in time for the high school season but went easy on the training. Despite the lower volume of work, Richards posted an impressive fourth place finish behind winner Julie Froud. After a further three weeks of training, the perpetual motion machine, as she was known by the Ottawa Citizen, enacted a little bit of revenge by winning her third straight Canadian junior title with Froud following behind in second.
After another fourth place finish in her final year of high school, Richards accepted a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin where she was second team All-Big 10 in her freshman year and helped the Bagders to an eighth place finish at the NCAA Championships. She would transfer to the University of Victoria the following year where she would earn a degree in psychology and go on to graduate from law school. She currently works as associate general counsel at Shopify’s head office here in Ottawa.