University of Delaware Athletics
McGroarty's Competitive Drive Leads To Record-Breaking Success
3/2/2018 10:28:00 PM | Track & Field - Indoor
With three older siblings, competition was nothing new for Liz McGroarty.
Everything turned into a competition. When the four McGroarty kids were acting up in the house, their father (Chuck) would tell them to go run a few laps around the house.
“My two oldest siblings (Patrick and Colleen) would just shrug it off when my dad would tell us that, but it turned into a race for us (Kevin and Liz). Maybe I should've taken a hint about how much I enjoyed running at that point,” the youngest McGroarty child, Liz, said.
Even vacations would turn into races for the McGroarty kids when the parents would challenge the kids to see who could race to different points on the beach.
“Looking back on it, I'm thinking that it may have just been a way to keep us kids from bothering them, but I always used to try and run the furthest and fastest. I would just try and keep on going to have my brothers and sister tire out,” Liz laughed.
Nowadays, McGroarty has become a star for the University of Delaware track & field team, who will be well-represented at this weekend's ECAC Championships in Boston.
Entering this weekend's meet, McGroarty has toppled school records in the 800m and 1000m in back-to-back meets. Pretty impressive, right? The Glen Mills, Pa. native also shaved time off of her 3k and 5k for huge personal bests in both events.
“Liz's success really doesn't come as a surprise to me,” distance coach Ryan Waite said. “She has been someone that has challenged herself and held herself to high expectations from the first day we sat down when I got to Delaware two years ago.”
Both Waite and McGroarty look back and laugh at that first meeting, one in which McGroarty was scared to bring up her true expectations and goals in fear that Waite might think she was crazy.
“I was really nervous when Coach Waite first got here because I didn't want him to think I was unrealistic,” McGroarty said. “But I knew what I wanted to accomplish and I knew what I wanted to really aim for, so eventually we talked it out and got to work.”
Waite quickly credits Kevin Cataldo, McGroarty's first distance coach at Delaware, with setting her up for a big final two years with the Blue Hens.
“The relationship the two of them developed and plan they laid out really built the foundation for what we've seen over the past two years,” Waite said. “We really fine tuned some things and the credit really goes to Liz for pushing herself and holding herself to high expectations.”
Two school records, a top-three finish at the ECAC meet and All-CAA honors is quite the accomplishments for someone who thought that lacrosse was her sport of the future.
“I played as much lacrosse as humanly possible growing up. I loved to compete, but I guess I should've taken the hint when my favorite part of the game was when I got the ball in the open field and could just take off,” McGroarty laughs.
It was during her sophomore year at Garnet Valley when McGroarty truly shifted the focus to the track.
“We were in preseason for lacrosse and we had to do a two-mile run test. I took off and at the end, I finished first, but my coach walked up to me and asked if I realized I had run an extra lap. I had run an entire extra lap and still finished first. That's when I decided it was time to shift gears to track,” McGroarty said.
Six years later, she is set to toe the starting line in the mile, an event she finished third in last year.
This year?
“I want to win, it's another chance to compete, just like I've been doing since I was young. This time, it just won't be against my brothers and sister” laughed McGroarty.
Players Mentioned
