Egolf trying to follow his brother’s running steps

Updated: May 9, 2011 10:44PM

When Jasen Egolf watched his brother Justin run, he wanted to try the sport, too.

“I thought it was so cool,” Egolf said.

Then there was a bit of a reality check, however. “When I started out, I didn’t really like running at all,” he said.

But now Egolf has come full circle. Something clicked during the 2009 cross country season, when he was a sophomore at Hebron. “I really picked it up and started enjoying it more,” Egolf said.

That continued last spring, when Egolf finished second in the 1,600 meters at the regional and qualified for state. A 22nd-place finish stoked the competitive fire and Egolf gave up playing basketball to concentrate full-time on running.

The results are apparent this spring, as Egolf has emerged as the premier distance runner in the Porter County Conference ahead of this week’s league meet, and one of the best in any league in Northwest Indiana.

“He’s way ahead of last year at this point,” Hebron coach Mike DeFries said of his star, who ran 4:30.38 at state last year. “He hasn’t been pushed yet. He’s been running against the clock.”

At Egolf has been running a lot. At the Kouts Invitational two weeks ago, he won the distance triple (800, 1,600 and 3,200) and anchored the Hawks’ first-place 3,200 relay team to boot.

That last race is something Egolf considers a necessary evil.

“He says, ‘I really hate running the relay other than that it’s a good warm-up,’” DeFries said.

“I really wish I didn’t have to run it,” Egolf said. “(But) I run it for the team.”

Likewise, the 800 and 3,200 are more for preparation than anything else, though Egolf is solid at both distances. His preferred race, as it is with many distance runners, is the metric mile. He’s gunning for Hebron’s school record of 4:20, set in the early 1990s by Bill Centifanto.

“It’s not too long and it’s not too short,” Egolf said of the 1,600. “The first two laps are pretty easy, the last two laps are a gut race.”

And he’s shown plenty of intestinal fortitude, especially at last year’s regional when he fared well in a strong field. That will be a focus again this season.

“Oh yeah, I’m really pumped for sectional (at Rensselaer) and regional (at Valparaiso),” he said. “I really want to go out and win regional.”

By then, Egolf’s workload may be lighter.

“For the conference meet on Thursday, we’re still going to put him pretty much in everything,” DeFries said. “We want the (maximum amount of) points. When we get to the sectional, I don’t know how much he’s going to run.”

Everything up till that point is about being ready for the race for state qualifying, The Hawks ran at the Washington Township Relays last Saturday, but Egolf took the SAT in the morning and then went out to do some speed work.

He, like DeFries, is taking the long view and looking to be No. 1 in the meets that matter the most.

“Winning is like the best feeling ever,” Egolf said. “When you get a taste of it, you can’t get enough.”

And that’s coming from a guy who knows that taste very well.

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