The Etrain 11: It Takes a Village

By Jarrett Felix

For the first few years of my high school running career, I felt insignificant. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it. I was dropping time and making friends. Learning how to be disciplined, how to push the most out of myself. But I didn’t make much of a dent on our team’s impressive roster. Unless we held guys out of a meet, I didn’t race varsity until my senior season. Privately and inwardly, I would complain about my situation, lament the opportunities others around me had.

Of course, it turns out I really had nothing to complain about. It could have been a lot worse. I could have raced for this year’s LaSalle team.

At a seemingly random indoor meet at Haverford College, the LaSalle boys loaded up the Mile race. Behind Patrick Grant and Evan Addison’s 1-2 finish, LaSalle posted 14 sub 5 minute marks and had a mind-blowing 28 runners contest the event! Five of their athletes broke 4:40 for the mile during indoors and four cracked 4:50. That’s 9 high quality indoor milers and we haven’t even delved into the upper or under distances.

During a typical TFCAofGP meet, each school is only allowed one entry per event. The distance events contested are 800m, Mile, 3k, 4x800m and Distance Medley Relay. That gives you just 10 true distance spots. Just to make into an ordinary indoor meet (the ones I managed to get into when I was 65 second quarter miler), you basically have to be a sub 4:50 indoor miler. That’s madness.   

It’s a truly accomplished group runner for the Explorers. Although not household names, LaSalle’s proverbial bench has runners like Greg Galbreath who, as a junior this past spring, ran under 4:40 in the 1600 and under 10 minutes in the 3200. Matthew Zilligen, Jack Seiberlich and Quinn O’Neill each ran 4:45 for 1600 this spring. Those guys would be studs on a lot of XC squads around the state, but at LaSalle they had to settle for a JV heavy schedule.

I used to think being a part of the Upper Dublin team was a curse. If I was at a smaller school, in a smaller district, maybe I could have been a state qualifier. I certainly could have cracked a few varsity races and ran on an “A” 4x8 as a younger athlete. But in the UD system, competing day in and day out with such talented and motivated teammates, I made improvements I couldn’t have made anywhere else. I had to fight tooth and nail just to make a small impact on the team. Just to get a good job or a pat on the back. And it motivated me. It made me hungry.

So imagine the atmosphere at a place like LaSalle. During the cross country season, the LaSalle explorers rode a tight pack to PCL and District 12 Championships. At the state championship on the difficult Hershey course, LaSalle placed 4^th overall, despite the fact that they had no individual in the top 35. Their top 5 runners were separated by just 15 seconds and their top 7 runners were separated by just 19. That’s it. It probably took me 19 seconds just to write that sentence. The Explorers also got 7 runners across the line under 17 minutes. They were the only school to pull that off in the meet, rivaling the great 2012 Henderson State Championship squad who had last pulled it off before them.

They pushed each other every race, daring their teammates to push themselves a little bit harder, sprint just a little bit faster. And although they probably wanted to beat one another more than anything else, they also wanted to raise the others up as high as possible. So during the indoor and outdoor season, despite a variety of individual achievements and potential, the LaSalle boys decided to load up on the 4x800 and DMR with fresh squads.

LaSalle’s depth came in handy as they were able to use an alternate in the trials of the 4x8 at states before putting their “A” team on the track on Saturday. The extra rest could have paid big dividends as LaSalle placed 7^th in the 4x8 finals, running a terrific 7:50.62.

It’s rare that a team like this comes together. A team that is talented, hard-working and unselfish. And deep. Incredibly deep.

Eddie Goebel was the team’s top runner during XC. He finished 39^th at states and won the individual district title. He was flanked by Stephen Paul who also placed in the top 50 at the XC state championships, one of the strongest accomplishments a runner can boast. His time of 16:39 would have placed him in the top 25 as recently as 2013.

The team’s #3 and #4 runners for XC States were arguably the two biggest speedsters when things transitioned to the oval. Evan Addison and Patrick Grant both had ability to run well under 2 minutes for 800m and played key roles in the team’s relay success (7:50 and 10:28 for a DMR). But both runners finally had a chance to show their individual talents in an open mile at the PA Distance Festival. Grant and Addison each ran 4:17 for the full mile (coverting to roughly 4:15-4:16 for the 1600) which put them on the “Etrain All Time List” and would have slotted them right in the mix for individual medals at the previous week’s state championships.

In the all-important #5 spot at Hershey, was Frank Livolsi. Frank spent most of his senior season in the shadow of his teammates. Although he was a key contributor to the varsity squad, he wasn’t out front winning races or grabbing headlines. Even during indoors, he was mid pack in the team’s onslaught of an individual event’s results. But as things shifted towards outdoors, Livolsi found his rhythm. He pulled off a strong win at the Knights Invitational and then continued his momentum into the Henderson Invite, where he hung tough in a pack with the best in the state. But Frank wasn’t done yet. He dropped a sub 9:30 3200m time at both districts and states to win the D12 title and placed 12^th overall in one of the deepest events in AAA.  He was the only individual competitor for LaSalle on the distance side at either track state championship.

So sometimes, it may feel like you are in the shadow. Sometimes it may feel like nobody notices you or appreciates your hard work. But the beauty of this sport is that, whether you are the fastest or the slowest, you always have a chance to prove yourself. You always have a chance to better yourself. And even on a team as loaded as LaSalle, even a guy who was a #5 guy on an XC team, you will have a chance to have your moment.