Jason Lavoe '21 Recruiting Profile

My most memorable moment in track and field didn't have to do with a big meet, record or a medal. It was actually at a smaller, dual meet with my school’s rival. This was during my first season in my sophomore campaign and I hadn’t yet realized that I loved the sport, I was just getting better at it. I was having a tough week; at practice, I had tweaked my hamstring, I did poorly on a test before the quarter ended and I was missing home a bit. Despite these issues that seemed way more important at the time, I went into this meet a bit nervous to race against our rivals for the first time, especially in my rookie season. Before my 100 meter dash, I was wondering how I was going to pull through and I had a bunch of emotions going through my body. I struggled to do a couple of hurdle walkovers but I told myself to pour all the pain and pressure onto the track. The gun went off and all the emotions I was feeling just left my body and I ended up running my fastest race at the time and at the meet.

I realized that track allowed me to escape life for a few seconds. Whatever was going on outside of the meet didn’t matter, especially while I was running. This is when I fell in love with the sport and realized it’s not only about running fast. Track and Field is truly a sport about life; if you commit to a process of progression, you should get the results back all depending on your effort and mindset. I realized that I’m persistent in my efforts to be great in track, the classroom and other areas of life. Although I’ve only had two full seasons of track under my legs(sophomore spring season, junior winter season), it didn’t take long for me to figure out that this was the sport for me. I plan to bring the same passion to whichever school and program I run for next!