Mar 27, 2006
By LYNN WORTHY, Sun Staff
Lowell Sun
LOWELL -- Patrick Morasse has been running in and around Lowell since he was born, literally. He had a standout career at Lowell High running for the Red Raiders in the fall, winter and spring before embarking on another storied run at UMass Lowell.
Now a senior for the River Hawks, the 21-year-old who was born and raised in Lowell sees the final finish line of his career on the horizon. This spring will most likely be his final season as a competitive runner and he hopes to make the most of it, Either way he says he'll walk away with no regrets.
"I like it, so it does kind of stink that it's over, but I've done my time and got what I wanted out of it so I'm not too upset about being done," Morasse says.
In his senior year at Lowell High, Morasse helped guide the Red Raiders to their best cross county finish in school history as they took second place at the All-State championships in 2001. Lowell High boys track and cross country coach Phil Maia still raves about him.
"He was such a leader," Maia says. "He just did wonders for the program. When a kid of that caliber comes along you just enjoy what you're doing."
Maia says all he ever hopes for his former runners is that they're able to enjoy running years down the line, but he's also proud that he can point to a guy like Morasse as an example for young runners that he can have success at the highest level both athletically and academically.
During his career at UMass Lowell Morasse has won All-American honors during the indoor season three times in his career. In 2004 and 2005 he was honored for the mile, and earlier this month he was part of the distance medley relay team that finished fifth in the nation.
He also holds UMass Lowell records in the mile (4:06.54) and the 1,500 meters (3:48.11).
UMass Lowell men's track and cross country coach Gary Gardner is in his fourth year at the helm for the River Hawks, having taken over the program the same year Morasse came in as a freshman.
"The thing that stands out is that he probably has the best instincts of any kid I've ever coached," Gardner says. "As far as in a race, you can give him a little bit of guidance before that, but he kind of knows what to do and he's known that since he got here. He just knows when to move and when to sit and usually that's a skill that takes a long time to teach somebody."
Gardner says he has had about as good a coach-athlete relationship with Morasse as any athlete he's had at UMass Lowell, and he has tried to talk Morasse into continuing with a running career. A couple of training groups interested in sponsoring Morasse have contacted Gardner.
"It's funny because he's a competitor," Gardner says. "He's probably one of our toughest competitors on the team -- if not the toughest. You'd think somebody like that would want to keep running, but I don't think it was ever in his thought process to keep running. There aren't many people that would give that up. Certainly, if he kept going he'd probably be in the Olympic Trials in 2008."
In general, taking running out of the equation for most accomplished distance runners is like draining blood from their veins. They thrive off their ability to push their body to the limit. But Morasse isn't your average runner.
The average top-flight college runner isn't also working on a degree in mechanical engineering and burning the midnight oil mastering the physics behind thermal heat transfer. Engineering departments are usually where athletic careers go to die, but not for Morasse.
When the team travels it becomes a crunch to get school work done so that he can get a full day to concentrate solely on running, but otherwise he and Gardner have managed to balance his training schedule with his course load.
While he says running has helped him stay focused and dedicated in the classroom and helped him learn how to push himself, he says he's just about ready to end his daily juggling act of the past eight years.
"I'm not going to probably take it (running) as serious," he says. "I'll at least take time off for a little while. It's a lot to put on your body, getting out there everyday."
This year was an especially tough one physically, the hopes were that he'd be able to breach the magical mile time of four minutes, but Morasse injured his left knee during cross country season. He continued to run and train for several weeks but it ultimately ended up setting him back several weeks. Consequently, he never got completely going during the indoor season.
He says he is just now comfortable with the base he has built back up again though his knee may require surgery after the season to fully fix. For the time being he doesn't run twice a day when the team doubles up on practice sessions, but he does run and ride the bike. He has also adjusted his original goal of competing in the 5,000 meters this spring.
Last Saturday in the first race of the spring season, he won the 1,500 and finished second in the 800 at the Miami Hurricane Invitational. He qualified for nationals in both of those events.
"I'd love to see him go out as at least competing for a national championship," Gardner says.
Once his racing days are over, Morasse says he hopes to find a job in the engineering field that will allow him to work on a master's degree part-time, possibly at UMass Lowell. He wants to get his feet wet somewhere in either the solar or nuclear engineering field, but he's not tied down to any specific area. He wants to see what opportunities will arise.
"It's pretty wide open," he says about his future. "There's a lot of different options I can go to."
Lynn Worthy's e-mail address is lworthy@lowellsun.com
