Syaira Richardson recently finished her freshman year on the track and field team at Ohio State University with All-American honors in the women’s 4×400 relay.

Richardson, along with her relay team, earned First Team All-America honors, and this is the second consecutive year this has happened for Ohio State. This was a small victory for Richardson as she made the transition into college athletics.

The indoor season was successful for Richardson and she managed to have new personal records in all of her events, but she experienced roadblocks in her success during the following outdoor season.

In the outdoor season, Richardson admitted that she had hit a few roadblocks because she wasn’t trusting her training and coaches as much. She was used to working with her high school coach Justin Byron and having so much success.

Richardson had difficulty coming to a new environment and trusting the coaches the same way.

“Outdoor got a little rough,” she said. “I had a lot of mental blocks when it came to trusting my coaches and my training. I had to understand that it wasn’t high school and that it was going to be different from Coach B’s training. I had to keep telling myself trust the process and take every disappointment as a lesson.”

The Suffolk native will use what she went through her freshman season to motivate her for her sophomore campaign.

“I didn’t get the results I wanted this year, but I know what to expect for next year,” she said. “I am going to take everything I learned this year and turn it into something better next year.”

Richardson was a distinguished member of Team WAR. She has helped the team win numerous state titles while winning her own in individual events. The former WAR standout has also gone to countries like Peru to represent the USA and compete and has bought home gold. At the national level, she has also been an All-American.