Jesuit cross country has always been the team to beat season after season, but this season the team has a familiar name on the roster…twice. Connor and John Garvey are two of the best runners on the team and two of the leaders of the team. Every cross country stat sheet has had the name Garvey on it two times since John joined his brother Connor on the team sophomore year. They are not twins though, they are triplets. Their brother Sam being an avid supporter of the duos vast accomplishments on the track.
While John and Connor are definitely two of the best runners on the team, almost always placing in meets, they have not been running cross country their whole lives. Connor started his career at St. Monica in 7th grade, “what made me start running was to get in shape for other sports in seventh grade.” He even still clearly remembers his first race, “I was racing against 8th graders [as a 7th grader] and ended up getting tenth place…Elliot Hartmann was running with me the majority of the race along with the rest of bearcat squad.” While John on the other hand got an even later start, saying that “[he] only got serious [about cross country] after freshman year.” Despite their late starts, they quickly began to take over Jesuit Cross Country, earning very high finishes in the majority of the races they raced in.
John may have started later than Connor but Connor still believes that he is an amazing runner for the amount of time he’s been running. Anyone who looks at John Garveys times will easily be able to tell that his junior year was his breakout year. Connor has a special pride for his brothers work, “His junior track season is when he just decided to break out by dropping his mile time from 4:48 to 4:28 in two weeks, dropping twenty seconds in a mile is an absurd amount, and he was able to do it in two weeks. It surprised mainly everyone but not Coach Robinson or I, because how our coach likes to put it, ‘He’ll get us to the church, but where we sit is up to us.’ And ever since that race John has decided he will be sitting in the front row.”
Both of the runners see that having a brother on the team is an advantage. Connor says that “having John around definitely made me a better runner. When someone is up there with you, you always want to beat them,” while John believes that “Connor started out a lot better runner than [him] so it motivated [him] to become a better runner. Having someone to always train with is awesome.”
While Connor and John may be the star runners of the family, their brother Sam is always “out at the races and supporting us,” said John.
Their teammate Miles Burrow had a lot to say about the two, “watching John and Connor interact with each other is always great. I have looked up at the two as sort of role models for me in cross country. They’re both amazing runners and great guys. Its definitely great to have them both on our team, they might bicker sometimes but mostly they’re great leaders and everyone pushes themselves because of them.”
Coach Robinson had a lot to say about the brothers. Their coach of three years now believes that, “both have experienced significant gains over the past 2 years. Both have talent and are highly motivated,” he even says that they are, “the coach’s dream combination.” Over the years, Coach Robinson has become close to the two star athletes, he can even tell which coaching styles each brother responds to better, “John likes proving that he can overcome difficult challenges. Connor takes pride in putting in the grueling daily work because it gives him confidence to challenge his limits.” Their coach also believes that the fact that they are brothers only, “makes things easier. They are each other’s biggest supporters.” But Coach Robinson doesn’t think of them as only brothers to one another, they are also “brothers to their teammates.” Lastly, Coach Robinson is known for expecting a lot from his runners, but with the brothers he says that, “neither ceases to amaze [him].”
Both Connor and John are amazing runners and the fact that they’re brothers just adds another unique factor to distinguish these two runners from the rest of the pack.
