ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Senior High School cross country team is featured in The Richmond Observer’s weekly feature series for the first time during the 2024–25 school year by a runner who has been on the team for four years.
The official Richmond County Female Student-Athlete of the Week is Mariana Mendez, a senior captain for the Lady Raiders. She was chosen by Rockingham NC Self Storage.
Last Tuesday at Hinson Lake, Richmond ran in the first of its two home meets. Mendez led the girls’ race and was the first person to cross the finish line.
Mendez got her fourth award in her career this week. All of them came while she was on the cross country team.
Athletic Profile: Mariana Mendez
Year: Senior
Fall sport: Cross Country
Position: No. 1 Runner
Varsity Experience: 4 seasons
Other Sports: Track and Field
“CLASSROOM CREDITS” WITH MARIANA MENDEZ
Mendez is in the middle of her last year of high school and also goes to Richmond Early College. She said that one good thing about REaCH is that she will get an associate’s degree next spring.
The classes Mendez is taking this fall are very hard. They are full of math and science. Biology 111, Chemistry 251, Math 171, and Senior Seminar are the classes she has signed up for.
Mendez has a weighted grade point average of 4.63 and wants to go to a top university and become a doctor. She said she is putting in a lot of effort in school to try to get a grant.
“RUNNING WITH SUCCESS” WITH MARIANA MENDEZ
Hoke County and Southern Lee high schools came to Richmond for the second of seven normal Sandhills Athletic Conference meets for the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams.
Both the boys’ and girls’ 2.3-mile runs took place at the same time at Hinson Lake. Mendez won the girls’ race outright and crossed the finish line in 23:06. That was eight seconds faster than the person in second place.
Mendez said that the longer and tougher track at Hinson Lake helped her time go up, even though it was slower than her first race time. She also said she could have done better because she felt too good.
We couldn’t get official team points from last week’s SAC meet at the time this article was written.