Senior now a two-sport college commit
One Colorado product appeared on Lake Forest College’s men’s cross-country roster in 2023.
One was all it took to apparently convince the coaching staff that they needed another.
Never relied upon to be the No. 1 runner at 5A Regis Jesuit in Aurora before graduating in Spring ’21, Bart Brophy will begin his senior year as a Forester having been named LFC’s Most Valuable Performer in 2022 as a sophomore, and also having logged the program’s fastest race time in three years this past fall as a junior.
And ready to learn from the unquestioned leader in Fall 2024 will be 2A Ignacio’s Corey Gomez. Accompanied by family and seated at a table inside IHS Gymnasium before coaches, friends, school personnel and other backers, the senior made known Thursday afternoon, March 28, his confirmed intent to attend the Lake Forest, Ill., school and compete on its cross-country and track-and-field teams.
“To be that far from home, but to just be somewhere new, have my own opinions and thoughts without family and friends … influencing everything … . It’s very nerve-wracking, but I’m very excited,” Gomez said. “I’m excited to having committed. The transition to that next level of education and athletics … it’s going to be a big step, but the people that I met there made me feel very welcome. That definitely helps.”
“I have had the pleasure to coach Corey the last three years – this is going to be our fourth year,” IHS Boys’ Track & Field head coach Alfonso ‘Ponch’ Garcia said. “I’m so happy and proud that he’s going to go to college – and do some running, take advantage of what he’s done at our school.”
“And if Corey thinks it’s going to be good for him, I believe it’s going to be good for him,” said a smiling Karri McCarter, Ignacio Cross-Country’s head coach the past two seasons. “Because in all this he found self-confidence, and … so I hope the distance and the hard work – and the education he’s going to get – just continues to grow that confidence.”
With this fall marking the 50th anniversary of its joining the Midwest Conference (formerly Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference, established in 1921 and called such until the 1994-95 academic year), Lake Forest will clad Gomez in Ignacio-esque red-and-black as the squad hopes to improve its standing within the MWC.
Under second-year boss Patrick Austin in 2023, LFC’s men finished eighth out of nine teams at the MWC Cross-Country Championships held in Grinnell, Iowa, and won by host Grinnell College. (Prior to the COVID-canceled 2020 campaign, Lake Forest had ranked third in conference four of the pandemic-preceding six seasons.) Two weeks later the Foresters ended their season 31st out of 31 at the NCAA Div. III Midwest Regional in Waverly, Iowa.
With Wartburg College hosting that particular 8-kilometer race, Brophy finished a team-leading 153rd overall but clocked 27 minutes, 59.5 seconds – more than 26 ticks quicker than his team-best, 45th-place time at the MWCs.
Lake Forest’s best result came in Wisconsin at Beloit College’s Olde English (featuring creek crossings, plus jumps consisting of logs and hay bales) Race, where LFC – paced by Brophy’s sixth-place 29:54.1 – finished third but ahead of the meet-hosting Buccaneers, who did not have enough entries to score as a team.
And through it all, the Foresters appear to have bought into the instruction of Austin and assistants Jill Wilkerson and Ryan Mount.
“He’s a very good coach … outgoing and warm with his athletes,” said Gomez, who first made contact with Lake Forest via the Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) website. “And I had the chance to talk with a couple of his runners there, by themselves, and they had nothing mean to say. All positive things.”
Half a mile from Lake Michigan and roughly 30 miles north of Chicago, and with an enrollment approaching 1,800 students, LFC also made Austin head of its track team just a couple months after joining both sports’ coaching staffs before the 2022 track season. And in late February, Lake Forest’s men closed out the indoor T&F season at the Ripon (Wis.) College-hosted MWC Championships. Helped by Brophy becoming the first Forester to break two minutes (clocking a ninth place 1:59.61; the top eight runners earned team-scoring points) in the 800 meters (four 200m laps), LFC placed eighth out of nine teams.
“I’ve definitely taken to the 800; that’s right now my best bet of making State – the open 8 and the 4×8,” Gomez said, alluding to the still-young CHSAA track-and-field season. “Austin … thinks that’s my best option; since I do have a longer stride and a little bit of speed, he believes that’s good for me.”
“I’ll also be running the mile, and I’ve been talking with Austin for, like, a training regimen – in correlation with how I’m training now – and all my coaches think I’ll thrive anywhere I go.”
“Under good coaching he just continues to get better,” said McCarter. “I’m really proud of his hard work, and the dedication he put into himself and our team. He absolutely deserves this; he worked really hard for me for two cross-country seasons – and a track season – and shows right here that hard work pays off.”
“They have very small class sizes; I think 14-15 is average, so … I’m very excited about that,” Gomez noted. “I have chosen a major in history, with a minor in pre-law. Hoping to go that ‘law’ route after college, after (getting) my bachelor’s. So hopefully it’s … challenging enough for me to move forward.”