By Chris Cox

Maize South senior Regan Richardson only started swimming competitively the summer before his freshman year. In fact, he was so behind that, at the club level, Richardson was swimming with elementary students.

“My first practice was with a bunch of eight year old’s,” he admits. “It was the lowest squad I could be on. It was kind of weird being the tallest one because I was pretty short at the time. But then I just kept moving up squads and eventually was able to catch up to my peers.”

With that fast of a rise through the club ranks, it’s pretty clear that swimming is in Regan’s blood. Not only did his older brother, Reid, swim but so did his mother, Heather.

“My mom was a swimmer for KU,” he says. “That was a gift that she gave me. She’s been pushing for us to swim since we were young. We played all the sports under the sun when we were kids but never did swimming. She was ecstatic when she heard we wanted to swim.”

In such a short time Richardson has found a nice rhythm in the pool. With that rhythm and natural feel in the water, Regan has set some pretty big goals for this season.

“I want to set the state record in the 50 and 100 freestyle,” he says. “The 50 free is going to be hard but I think I can do it. In the 100 free, I’m like 0.4 seconds away from it, so I think I can get that.” 

To set a state record, and subsequently win a state championship, Richardson knows he can’t take any days off. 

“I have to work extra hard and do more than what anyone else is doing,” he says. “Last year, the most I did was a double practice. But over the summer, I was lifting and going to practice every day. Basically, I need to destroy my body every day to make sure I’m better than I was the day before.”

That hard work has already paid off. Richardson has a few offers to swim in college on the table. He just now needs to decide where he wants to go.

“I’d like to go to a top 50 school in swimming but that’s not a necessity,” Regan says.