A normal collegiate track athlete might compete in up to four events. When Lobo track and field athlete Richard York steps onto the curved slopes of an indoor track, he competes in seven.
York finished first among college athletes and second overall in the New Mexico Classic on Feb. 6, while setting a school record for the heptathlon with 5,294 points, which happens to be fewer than 100 points away from an NCAA qualifying mark.
More of note, York is a freshman from St. Clair, Mo., and the New Mexico Classic was his first college competition in multiple events.
Assistant coach Rodney Zuyderwyk said York has an edge on other competitors.
“Basically, he is an incredibly hard worker,” Zuyderwyk said. “He has a very high tolerance for pain. He pushes himself very hard when it comes to his running workouts, especially. He’s tough mentally and tough physically and has been able to get a lot of good hard running in, so he’s very fit right now. But that’s just his toughness that pushes him through the pain and allows him to get this fit.”
And the tireless work never ends. Now, York’s working on the vault — a skill he’s been harnessing for a few years.
In between launches, York talks to teammates, joking about something or helping them re-tape poles or deciding which pole they’d be best suited to use for vaulting.
And now it’s his turn.
He stands on his toes, miming the arm motions he’ll be going through when the pole connects with the ground, breathes deep and then sets his head forward.
He sprints straight, pole in hand, but nonetheless moving with a fluid ease. In less than two seconds, he’s flying through the air, his body curving over the mark as the pole falls in the opposite direction.
This event inspired York to get into track.
“Pole vault is the original reason I got started doing track in the first place,” he said. “I wanted to be just a pole-vaulter. It’s just really fun, and there’s so much that goes into it, and obviously it’s fun to fall down from 15 feet onto a mat. It feels like you’re messing around, but you’re really training.”
While pole vaulting might be his original love, York said the rest of the multi-event world appeals to him.
“It’s a little intimidating until you get the feel for multi-event athletes very well whenever you compete with them,” York said. “You spend so much more time with somebody that’s doing a multi, versus someone you just see in one race. Every single event, you get to know them a little bit better. I don’t really see it as intimidating. I try to help them get better as well as help myself
get better.”
York’s training regimen is what’s bettering his performance. This year marks the first time that he’s trained specifically for multi-event competitions.
“I have never actually done a multi with extensive training for the multi,” he said, staring at the track and watching his teammates vault. “It’s always been in the summer after my high school season, and every week I’d get more rusty on certain events. It’s good now that I actually get to train for it, so that’s probably pretty much what’s leading to how good I am doing right now. It’s a lot better training with the coaches and everything.”
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That regimen involves three and a half hours of rigorous, daily training.
Zuyderwyk said York generally trains for two or three events per day. One day York will focus on technique work for the shot put and then practice jumps; another day he’ll run in preparation for the 60 and 1,000-meter runs in the heptathlon. Other days, he’ll work on the pole vault and jumps, Zuyderwyk said.
“The hours are longer than for most of the other athletes,” he said. “So, these guys probably train three and a half hours a day, or something like that, in order to get their conditioning in, their running in, their speed work (and) their technique work for the different events. And then they are, obviously, strength training, as well.”
Before the official training began, senior teammate Jeremy Lee said York was going to be great.
“When I first got here, we had some kind of ‘all athletes’ meeting for all the teams, and that’s when I first met Richard,” Lee said. “I started to set up a practice before we actually started practicing as a team. He came out with me and my roommate, and we all just did, you know, some informal workouts with each other, and I could tell right then and there he was definitely going to be something special. I came and told Brian (Wilson), ‘Richard is going to kill this year.’”
Likewise, Wilson said having York around is helping everyone on the team.
“Last year I trained by myself. You know, having some people to train with this year has just been nice,” Wilson said. “Hearing about his stats out of high school and him being such a well-defined athlete out of high school — it was nice knowing he was going to come here, and we could kind of compete against each other in practice and the meets, and kind of, you know, push each other to do better. I know I have made big improvements just being able to work out with him. Trying to beat him has made me a better athlete.”
With the Mountain West Conference Championship starting on Saturday, York said he wants to reach an NCAA qualifying mark.
“I just work on trying to get my best mark possible,” he said. “I want to go into it hoping that my training will get me to where I need to be. I don’t want to stress it. I don’t want to tell myself that I have to do this, or I have to do that. I just want to go out, run my race, do my event and if everything going as well as I think it is, it should all work to where I’ll qualify.”
