[1] Richardson gained fame during her high school career at Rochelle High School (total enrollment 59) when, as both a junior (2008) and senior (2009), she (as the only state qualifier from her school) single-handedly won the UIL Class A girls team track championship, notwithstanding that as the only qualifier she could not compete in relay events, which under UIL scoring rules count double the points of individual events.
[2] Under the University Interscholastic League track and field scoring system, points are awarded to the top six finishers using a 10-8-6-4-2-1 scale (10 for first place, and so on) for individual events.
To train, she used the school's track, which "is made of dirt, grass, weeds, rocks, red-ant mounds and ruts...a trench from an old water line [to] hurdle, goats and a llama grazing beside it, armadillos and deer pattering across it",[3] and nearby Brady High School's all-weather running track.
[5][6] The additional 18 points gave her (and Rochelle) a total of 42, six ahead of second place teams Chilton and Seymour,[5] neither of which had any chance of overtaking her in the relays.
As a senior, Richardson comprised the entire Rochelle girls' track team, and qualified for the same five events as in 2008.
The accomplishment made Richardson the only person in Texas high school track and field history (male or female) to single-handedly win the team title more than once.
[3] After three seasons of limited success competing in heptathlon and javelin for the Texas A&M Aggies,[9] Richardson switched to rugby, where she was named to the 2013 Women's Collegiate All-Americans.