Wake Forest Inks Cassandra Richards
11/9/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
Nov. 9, 2000
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Wake Forest women's track & field coach Annie Schweitzer Bennett announced today the signing of Cassandra Richards to a national letter of intent to compete for the Demon Deacons next year. A senior at Winchester-Thurston High in Pittsburgh, Pa., Richards is considered one of the top women's track & field recruits in the nation.
"Cassy is a blue chip recruit and will have an immediate impact on our track team," said Wake Forest head coach Annie Schweitzer Bennett. "In her primary event, the long jump, she is one of the best in the nation. She is multi talented, she will compete in the 200m and hurdles also. She chose Wake Forest due to its academic reputation along with her confidence in the new staff on the women's track & field team."
The Pennsylvania and Region II long jump record holder, Richards is a two-time Track and Field News All-American, two-time USATF Jr. National All-American, and was named the 2000 Gatorade Track & Field Athlete of the Year. She has won the last two state championships in the long jump as well as the 100m hurdles. A silver medallist in the long jump at the 2000 USATF Junior Olympics, Richards finished fourth in the long jump at Junior Nationals. At the Region II Championships earlier that summer, Richards was the long jump champion and earned the bronze in the 100m hurdles.
The class treasurer at Winchester-Thurston High, Richards is also the President of Students of Color, a participant of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and a member of Medical Explorers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. An accomplished poet, Richards published a poem, The Sidewalk, in Captured Moments.