SE, H-L grads tapped for hall of fame induction

It's been years since they last competed, but two area high school graduates who excelled as distance runners will claim one more honor later this month.The Ohio Association of Track & Cross Country Coaches will induct Vincent Fries and Carime (Reinhart) Richter into its hall of fame at the organization's annual banquet Jan. 26.Fries is the most decorated male cross country athlete in the history of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.The 1998 Seneca East graduate won individual state titles as a freshman, sophomore and senior and finished second as a junior, leading his team to state runner-up finishes each season. The Tigers remain the only squad to capture four-straight runner-up trophies.He is the only one to ever win the boys state title as a freshman, the only three-time boys winner who also claimed a runner-up finish (five others have won the title three times each), the only runner in state history — male of female — to score 1 point at each of the state championship meets (the champion his junior year ran as an individual, not for a state-qualifying team), and the only runner in state history — male or female — to score a perfect 12 points in four years of postseason competition.Fries still holds the 5K cross country record at Seneca East (15:41), as well as school records in 1,600 (4:19.9) and 3,200 (9:29.8) in track.He qualified for the state track meet individually six times, ending as a five-time All-Ohioan. He ran second in both the 1,600 (1998) and 3,200 (1995), and finished fourth three times in the 3,200 (1996, '97, '98).Between cross country and track, Fries tallied three individual state titles, three individual state runner-up finishes, 10 state-qualifying performances, nine All-Ohio finishes, 10 regional titles, 10 district titles and 10 league titles while guiding Seneca East to four league, district and regional titles.Fries planned to compete in cross country and track at the University of Cincinnati, but motorcycle accident ended his running career.He now lives in the Seneca East community and volunteers at the school and at home cross country events.Richter, a 2004 Hopewell-Loudon graduate, also experienced plenty of individual and team success.She led the Chieftains to four state cross country meets, with H-L finishing fourth in 2002. Hopewell-Loudon also claimed two regional, three district and two league team crowns during her running career.Richter won nearly every regular-season cross country race in which she competed, and ended up scoring just 20 points in the 12 postseason races in which she competed (district, regional, state) while also capturing four individual league titles, four individual district titles and three individual regional titles.She ran in the top four at the state meet all four times, finishing second in 2000 and 2001.Her most notable state finish may have come in 2000, when she was declared the winner in a neck-and-neck affair with Minster's Sunni Olding. Richter was initially declared the winner, but an official contested the order of finish. A committee of three then reviewed the video of the finish and ruled 2-1 in favor of Olding.Richter also stood out for H-L on the track.Despite missing the state meet her sophomore year due to a stress fracture, she ended her high school track career with six top-five efforts, including a runner-up finishes in the 1,600 (2003) and 3,200 (2004).Richter next competed at Ohio University in both cross country and track.She earned team MVP honors all four years in cross country and was named the team's freshman of the year in 2004. She was also named the track team's MVP as a junior.Richter was named All-Mid American Conference in cross country all four years, and finished on the podium at the MAC Championships in both indoor and outdoor track in 13 of the 14 races in which she competed.She won individual MAC titles in the cross country (2006) and 10K in outdoor track (2007), and added four runner-up finishes.Richter helped lead the Bobcats to back-to-back MAC crowns in cross country (2006, '07), as well as the All-Ohio Team Championship (2006).As a student, Richter was named Academic All-Ohio three times in both cross country and track (only sophomores, juniors and seniors are eligible) in high school, while collegiately she earned U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division I All-American Academic honors in cross country in both 2005 and '06.