Andrew Richard, Jena High School’s sole member of the Cross Country team, recently competed in the Holy Savior Menard Open at Maryhill Spiritual Center in Alexandria.

He ran a time of 25:20 improving his time by four minutes.

This improvement in his time was great, however, what made his coach, Bert Bowens, prouder, was why his time wasn’t any better than what it was.

During the course of the race, Richard stopped to help a fallen runner, which took time off his race.

Coaches eventually came to aid the fallen runner but the assistance by Richard caused his overall time to increase.

“I was more proud of that (him stopping to help the fallen runner) than the improvement of his time,” said Coach Bowens.

The LHSAA Cross Country Regionals will be held in about three weeks and Richard will need to place in the top 25 (typically with a run time of 20:20) to advance to the state competition.