Richard Smith

Ranking the top overall Boys 800m athletes in Arkansas for Middle School competition during the 2026 Outdoor Season.

Ranking the top overall Boys 800m athletes in Arkansas for Middle School competition during the 2026 Outdoor Season.

Ranking the top overall Boys 800m athletes in Arkansas for Middle School competition during the 2026 Outdoor Season.

Ranking the top overall Boys 800m athletes in Arkansas for Middle School competition during the 2026 Outdoor Season.

Ranking the top overall Boys 800m athletes in Arkansas for Middle School competition during the 2026 Outdoor Season.

Ranking the top overall Boys 800m athletes in Arkansas for Middle School competition during the 2026 Outdoor Season.

Ranking the top overall Boys 800m athletes in Arkansas for Middle School competition during the 2026 Outdoor Season.

As a junior, Richard Smith was primarily running in the shadows of South Lakes teammate Alan Webb with Webb setting national records at the mile and 1000 meter distance in 2001. However, Smith took over the spotlight as a senior in 2002 to exhibit dominance at the half mile distance which arguably has not been seen since in Virginia. Smith won 3 national titles as a high school senior at the Nike Indoor Classic, Adidas Outdoor Championships, and USATF Junior Nationals all at 800 meters. His high school best came at the USATF Junior Nationals in a time of 1:48.94, which ranks only behind state record holder Webb (1:47.74). He had some solid range as well to be an All-State cross country runner and also drop down to run a 48.22 in the 400 and 1:03.88 in the 500. He was a 1000 meter state champion indoors with a 2:28 best and ran some incredible relay legs for South Lakes in the DMR and 4x800 as a junior and senior as a setup man for Webb and closing anchor leg as a senior.   Instead of competing collegiately, Smith ended up competing professionally for several years for Nike while getting a degree from Portland State University. Read more for interview with Richard Smith...

There were plenty of great performances this weekend as the best junior athletes in the nation showed up for the USATF Jr Nationals. Among them were those of sprinter Sanya Richards and racewalker Ben Shorey, who were named Athletes of the Meet and set Am

The competition was there as well as were the doubters, but after it was all said and done it was Bobby Lockhart and Richard Smith on top as the national champions in their distance specialties. Both were indoor national champions, yet still had many doub

Athletes of the week for the week ending on April 27, 2002, are Richard Smith of South Lakes and Jennifer Boyd of Hickory. While Smith ran some smoking splits at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Boyd put forth one incredible distance double back in Virgin

The Third Annual Seahawk Invitational to be held at South Lakes High School this Saturday promises to be the biggest and best ever with over 1,200 athletes representing more than 30 schools scheduled to participate.

A large group of Virginians competed in the third annual Nike Indoor Classic, held at the Prince George County' Sports and Learnin Center. Out of this group came four national champions and a handful of All-Americans. In particular, Virginia looked very i

Picture gallery of Richard Smith and Alex Tatu's epic 1000m battle at Virginia Tech.

Pictures of Richard Smith's return to racing as he ran a nation's best on the year with his time of 2:30.37 in the 1000 meter race at the CNU Showcase.

Pictures of the epic duel at the 2001 Seahawk Invitational between two of Virginia's best 800m runners: Phil Gaeta and Richard Smith