Two things are a constant with Painter Richards-Baker ’21.
He has a lot of green in his closet, having played sports for 51Âþ» and now Dartmouth College. And the second is that Painter wins wherever he goes.
The Asheville Citizen-Times announced its All-Western North Carolina Track & Field Team for the 2021 season on Friday with Painter being named the Athlete of the Year for the newspaper’s coverage area, which includes nearly 40 high schools.
51Âþ»â€™s Randy Ashley was named Coach of the Year giving the Greenies a sweep of the major awards.
Painter won state championships in the 110-meter high hurdles (14.83 seconds) and 300-meter hurdles (39.17) at last May’s NCISAA Division I meet in Cary. The Greenies placed second as a team with 107 points, which has resulted in Rocky Hansen ’23 (distance), Dawson Reeves ’24 (distance), and Quinton Cancel ’23 (jumps) joining Painter on the All-WNC first team.
Painter has transitioned to college sports this school year and was a wide receiver for Dartmouth's Ivy League championship football team in the fall.
Rocky will enter the 2022 track season for 51Âþ» with the school record for the 1,600-meter run (4:16.61).
The full All-WNC team can be viewed at and will be in Saturday’s print edition of the Citizen-Times.