With a large contingency of schools chasing him for his talents, Catawba Ridge’s Sam Rich did what he always does. He outran them all – except one.
Rich will be taking his talents to South Bend, Ind. and has committed to running cross-country and track at the University of Notre Dame. Rich said he enjoyed the recruiting aspect.
“It has been a cool process,” he said. “I am super excited about Notre Dame.”
A three-time state champion, the recruiting process for Rich started last summer as a junior. It didn’t hurt that he was setting records and dominating the field in indoor track events across the country. Rich won the two-mile event at the adidas Nationals in Virginia Beach Feb. 27 in a personal record time of 8:58, giving him the top two-mile time in the entire country. Rich improved on his No. 1 time in the country dropping it from 9:05 by seven seconds at the event.
Notre Dame made his final four along with Stanford University, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Virginia. Notre Dame has come on strong in the cross-country scene in recent years finishing second nationally last year.
“They are a really good team wise,” he said. “I bonded pretty well with the guys. It was a tough choice to narrow it down. Notre Dame really stood out.”
Rich said the prestigious academic standing that Notre Dame has as well made his selection, “the best of both worlds.” He is thinking about majoring in political science.
A distance runner, Rich won’t be changing that in college and will probably run the longer distance races when it comes to track events. He will be running the 1,600 and 3,200-meters again this year for the Copperheads in track. He won state championships in both events in the spring.
Right now, he is focused on repeating as a 4A state champion in cross-country this season.
“I am really excited,” he said. “One of my goals is to win states and repeat. I think our team can do well.”
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
