The Blue Eagle senior heads to the PIAA state championship meet having set a shining example of team over self at the District 11 meet.
Julian Liaci’s huge goal at last week’s District 11 boys track and field championship was to break the long-standing record in the 3A 100-meter dash.
But the huge-r goal for Nazareth’s super senior sprinter was to get his 400 teammates to Shippensburg.
So Liaci, by his own admission, hardly worked at all during practice on his sprinting – from block-work to starts and more – to focus on the relay.
He even changed roles from anchor to second leg, hoping his having to run a longer leg – more like 115 meters than 100 – would give the Blue Eagles’ unit an edge.
Which meant Liaci had to learn a whole new skill in the last two weeks of his scholastic track career.
“I’d never handed a baton off before,” said Liaci, who anchored last season’s PIAA champion 400 relay.
This is where the traditional heartwarming story would advise that Liaci accomplished both his goals – shattering the record of 10.74 set in 1989 by Northampton’s Jason Kremus while carrying the Blue Eagles to the PIAA championships set for Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University.
Unfortunately, this is 2017, not a year so far for much of any kind of warmth, heart or otherwise, and the difficult truth is that Liaci didn’t set the record – he ran 10.77, which did win gold – or lift the relay as Nazareth finished seventh.
But in another way Liaci succeeded magnificently – in showing how to be the greatest teammate imaginable.
Look at how close he came to the D-11 mark – 3/100 of a second, a wink, a flicker of an eye, a toss of a hand. Had he spent more time in the pre-meet preparation doing work on his 100, he very easily could have tightened up his race to run under 10.74. After all, he’d run 10.67 at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference meet.
Liaci admitted his start in the D-11 final was not ideal, probably costing him the record. Remember, he did very little block-work all week, and sprinting is such a hair-trigger event that even the slightest slip or fumble in the blocks can be critical. Yet Liaci passed up that work to concentrate on the relay.
And no one would have blamed Liaci in the slightest for being a little selfish. That’s because the D-11 meet is the only place district records can be broken. Unlike a school record or a regional record, which can fall at any competition, D-11 records have one place they can be broken. So, before the D-11 meet, if Liaci had spent a lot of time on his 100-meter dash, he’d have had every excuse to do so, especially given that the relay was a longshot at best to qualify for states.
Instead, he tried to help his teammates, putting all his efforts there instead of his much-cherished personal goals.
If there’d been any justice, the relay would have made states, but 2017’s not been a big year for justice, either, we’ve noted.
It’s not like Liaci didn’t have a brilliant D-11 meet. He became the first three-time D-11 100 champ and set the meet record in the 200. But afterwards he was more upset about the relay struggles than he was happy with his gold medals.
But in putting team ahead of individual, Liaci achieved something else that will last long beyond any race or any time he ever runs: a legacy of unselfishness.
And Liaci is big on the big picture. He "gets" it.
Liaci is that rare scholastic athlete who tends to look towards the future. During last spring’s epic state title run, he frequently mentioned how he wanted the relay to win to put Nazareth track on the map (they did, believe us).
This spring isn’t much different.
“At states I am going to go all out and push as hard as I can, for the last time running for Nazareth and I hope I can take a state championship back for the Blue Eagles,” Liaci said. “I would love to do that.”
Liaci’s chances for PIAA individual gold are best in the 100, where only Harry S Truman junior Sayyid Saunders has run faster – and that by a mere 1/100 of second (10.66 to 10.67). A state title in the 200 may be a challenge – four entries have faster times than his 21.60, led by Coatesville’s Terence Laird at 20.83.
But even if Liaci falls short of PIAA gold, the example he set before the District 11 meet establishes a legacy he can be intensely proud of.
Here was perhaps the greatest boys sprinter in D-11 history, a Division I football player (Villanova), putting aside self for team and making a real sacrifice along the way. By doing so, Liaci set an example that coaches can cite for decades to come about how team comes first – no matter what.
And no matter what he does or doesn’t do this weekend at Shippensburg, when it comes to the athletic values that really matter – unselfishness, teamwork, achieving for the greater good, Julian Liaci is already a champion.
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.