‘Couldn’t stop smiling’: Story behind Maize South record-breaking swim for Kansas title
For more than a decade, Tedd Gibson has always joked with his high school swimmers in Maize that he’s never going to coach an Olympian. It’s his way of encouraging kids to just focus on doing their best.
But in the minutes leading up to the final race in the illustrious career of Maize South senior Regan Richardson, the coach pulled his star pupil aside to recant the statement.
“I owe you an apology,” Gibson said, as Richardson shot him a puzzled look. “You know how I always say, ‘I’m never going to coach an Olympian?’ Well, I better quit saying that because you might be the one.”
Richardson followed with the best race of his high school career, breaking the Class 5-1A state meet record this past Saturday with his time of 45.06 seconds to win his second straight state title in the 100-yard freestyle at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center with the fastest time in Kansas this season.
Combined with his performance in the 50-yard freestyle, where he also collected his second straight state title with a best-in-Kansas time of 20.56 seconds, Richardson earned Athlete of the Year honors to conclude a career that included five gold medals. Both of his times qualify him for All-American consideration, which if they hold would make him the first All-American swimmer from Maize South.
Gibson’s pep talk could have heaped more pressure on Richardson’s shoulders. Instead, he said they set him free.
“That was definitely uplifting to hear right before the race,” Richardson said. “You don’t hear that very often, especially from someone who has seen it all around here. That was a huge compliment.”
Gibson was so confident that Richardson, who is attracting major Division 1 interest, would deliver that he made his rounds before the race telling other coaches to watch the 100 race before they voted for Athlete of the Year.
His coach wasn’t the only one who could tell something special was about to happen. Richardson’s mother, Heather, who is the diving coach in Maize and a former Division 1 swimmer herself, also had a hunch before her son ever touched the water.
“When other kids were jumping around, he just had this calmness about him,” Heather Richardson said. “You can tell he is visualizing the race and seeing himself already doing it and blocking out all of the noise. There’s this look that he gets on his face and it’s really cool because you can tell he is fully in the moment and he’s ready to compete. And I saw that look on his face.”
Richardson’s ability in the pool defies his experience. Truthfully, he’s relatively new to the sport — he started swimming his eighth-grade year and only because his older brother, Reid, started.
His natural talent for the sport gave him a head start, but Richardson’s obsessive dedication to the sport propelled him to stardom in such a short amount of time. He estimates he trains close to 30 hours a week and becomes a vegetarian (no fish, meat or chicken) to prepare for big races.
“It’s not very fun because I lose a lot of flavor in my dishes,” Richardson said. “But anything to boost my performance.”
Richardson is constantly searching for any kind of edge he can find, even if it means only a tenth of a second will come off his time. Not that he needs much of an edge with how good his instincts off the starting block and underwaters are, a combination that almost always equips him with the lead early in a race.
He knew he was chasing the state record time of 45.12 set by Bishop Miege’s Lex Hernandez-Nietling in 2019, so Richardson was especially dialed in to his race on Saturday.
“From the get-go, you have to blast every single part and you can’t hold anything back at all,” Richardson said. “I used to pace myself a little bit because I always thought I was going to die, but I’ve learned as I’ve continued to swim that you have to remember what it felt like last time and then you have to make it feel even worse this time. I knew I had to make it hurt worse than last time. It’s terrible, but I absolutely love it.”
It didn’t take long for Richardson to pull away from the competition. Some athletes require the adrenaline rush of being pushed to bring out their best; Richardson needed no such boost.
“Regan is one of those kids that doesn’t need to be pushed by someone else to give 100%,” Gibson said.
When fatigue began to set in during the back-half of the race, Richardson said what helped him continue was the advice and training tweak to his stroke he received from Caroline (Bruce) McAndrew, a Wichita native and 2004 Olympian who now coaches at Wichita Swim Club.
The final turn and 25 yards were as hard as they’ve ever been — exactly what Richardson wanted.
“I just kept thinking that this was the last individual race of my high school career,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever grimaced harder than when I flipped. And then the last 25 is like you’re swimming through sludge. Every movement you make is extremely labored and you can feel your body shutting down. It’s just about absolute death, but you have to finish.”
When Richardson touched the wall, he had no energy left to celebrate much when his record-setting time flashed on the scoreboard. But that was alright because his performance sent a buzz through the crowd, which included an eruption from the two dozen or so family members who had come from as far as Oregon and Kentucky to witness greatness.
Down by the pool, Gibson was beside himself.
“Regan laid down one of the best swims that many of us have ever seen,” Gibson said. “Records are records for a reason; they don’t just fall every day. I was just ecstatic and I felt relief personally. And then, I’ll be honest, there was a little bit of I-told-you-so.”
Richardson also helped two of Maize South’s relays notch top-4 finishes, as he teamed up with freshman Riggs Patterson, freshman Blaine McVay and sophomore Lawson McKibbin to finish second in the 200 free relay and fourth in the 400 free relay.
The Maize district also produced other individual medalists in Patterson, who took seventh in the breaststroke and eighth in the 200 IM, while Maize freshman Zachary Rife took third in both the 100 and 200 free, sophomore Kooper Johnson took third in the 500 free and sixth in the 200 IM and junior Parker Peterman was seventh in diving.
The seemingly perfect weekend for Richardson didn’t reach its peak with the record-breaking race. The best moment actually came at the podium ceremony, where his mother was given the opportunity to wrap one last gold medal around her son’s neck.
“I couldn’t stop smiling,” Regan said. “I was just grinning ear-to-ear the whole time.”
“We’ll remember that forever,” Heather added. “That was just an incredible moment.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
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