John Raffel
Sports Scene
St. Louis cross country coach Jay Puffpaff has a fine runner in Evan Goodell. But the key to Goodell’s success has been the quality of the runners on his team who have been pushing him.
Goodell is in his senior season.
“He was a little banged up at the beginning of the season,” Puffpaff said. “So we had to take a long-term approach. We have him back healthy now. So we’re getting him back into some harder work and some harder training. We’re getting ready for the end of the season.”
Because of his early year challenges, it’s tough to tell if Goodell is on line to have his best running season.
“We have several weeks, though, and we’ll use up those weeks,” Puffpaff said. “The goal is to be ready by the end of the year.”
The Sharks coach has been impressed with Goodell’s consistency.
“Every day, he’s doing exactly what he needs to do to be the best he can be,” Puffpaff said. “That started all the way back in the seventh grade and continues. He has a consecutive days of running streak that goes back to the end of his eighth-grade year. He has a consistency of putting in work and doing the right things that has put him in a situation to be successful.”
In track, Goodell ran 9:13 in the 3,200-meter run last season and won the Division 3 state title. For cross country, his PR last season was 15:38.
“I think the whole guys cross country team in general has rallied behind Evan, especially when he was banged up early in the season,” Puffpaff said. “They kept him in the right frame of mind. They took over some of that responsibility of getting everything to where it needs to be.”
At the most recent TVC West jamboree, St. Louis was first with 41 points, nine ahead of Ithaca. Goodell won the race with a season’s best of 17:43.12. Cologio Alghire took fourth (18:29.89). The Sharks then took places 11 through 13 with Jeffrey Blackwell (19:37.97), Austyn Rhines (19:40.28) and Brandon DeRosia (19:48.80), while Michael Wert placed 17th (20:41.32), Austin Rios 21st (21:00.050) and Austin Aldrich 23rd (21:20.09).
“They pulled it together for that meet,” Puffpaff said. “We still have a lot of work to do. But they’re focus on the process of getting better every day, and are trying to get ready for the end of the season.”
Goodell could have a post-high school cross country and track career.
“He’s talking to several schools, so he’s in that process right now,” Puffpaff said. “He has a list of schools he’s looking at next year. I would say he’s equal in both (sports). He’s a distance runner and does more of the longer distances in track. He holds his own. He won the state championship in the 3,200 and made significant improvement over the winter from the cross to the track season. We’re trying to continue that progression.”
Goodell is anxious to see how it will be get by the end of the season as he strives to get heathy.
“We’re getting there,” he said. “At the end of the season, it would be good.”