Harrison Gavalas Helps Cortland 4x400-Meter Relay Team Win National Championship

Harrison Gavalas quite often relives a vivid memory of his senior year at Southampton High School. Following his first indoor track season, he sat in Eddie Arnold’s office on a little orange stool asking his coach if he should continue to play baseball, a sport he had played his entire adolescent life, or if he should run outdoor track.

Gavalas said Arnold wouldn’t budge, and said that it was his own decision to make, but that he would support him either way. Eventually, Gavalas decided to run track that spring and it’s a decision that has paid off.

Now a junior at SUNY Cortland, Gavalas became a national champion as part of the Red Dragons’ 4x400-meter relay team that won and set a new school record of 3:12.59 on the final day of competition at the NCAA Division III Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships at Nazareth University’s Golisano Training Center on Saturday.

Gavalas has now earned All-American honors all three years of college. He was a part of the 4x4 his freshman year that placed eighth outdoors, earning First-Team All-American honors, and was also part of the outdoors 4x4 that finished 12th in the nation last season, earning Second-Team All-American honors.

“I chose right, I guess,” Gavalas said of his big decision over three years ago. “Everything has panned out.”

The 4x4 this past weekend was conducted in two heats. In the opening heat, Wisconsin-La Crosse set the time to beat at 3:12.89. Cortland competed in the second heat with Bethel, Loras and RIT. Senior Evan Jensen led off the relay for the Red Dragons and opened in 48.81 seconds and was close behind leader Bethel. Sophomore Zion Cheatham posted a leg of 48.19 seconds and took the lead late in his run. Gavalas extended Cortland’s lead with a 48.67 seconds split, then graduate student Josh Jeffes ran the final 400 meters in 46.94 seconds.

Jeffes, who was new to the team this season coming over from SUNY Delhi, held off a late charge from Bethel’s Grant Nelson to give Cortland the heat victory, and the national title, by three-tenths of a second. Bethel and Wisconsin-La Crosse each finished in 3:12.89, with Bethel earning second when the time was extended to thousandths of a second (3:12.881 to 3:12.889).

The Cortland quartet broke its own school record of 3:12.87 set previously this year — an impressive feat considering that it occurred on a flat track while the previous record was on a banked track at Boston University. It’s the program’s first relay national title ever.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Gavalas said of the national championship win the day after on Sunday. “I’m getting small bits of what happened, but it’s all still so surreal.”

Gavalas said there was some extra motivation this season, being that the relay team, albeit with different runners, reached the finals last season to become All-American, but finished last in their heat. He said the team did not want that to happen again this season, and to its credit, it came into nationals undefeated. But, with the top teams in the nation all competing against one another, nothing is a given.

“None of this is possible without any of those guys,” Gavalas said, referring to his teammates. “I’m not going to lie, I was the worst runner, technically, the entire season. So if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have ran that fast.

“But I did give it my all in the finals,” he continued. “I like to say, comparison is a thief of joy, and the competition between us is so good, it doesn’t matter how we do individually — we’re teammates, we’re a team, we love each other — and we’re there to make every single one of us better. And it’s the finals, nobody is hiding.”

To win a national championship, Gavalas added, and to run the time that he and his teammates had, means they ran a perfect race, or very close to it.

“The fact is we beat the defending national champs [Bethel],” he said. “It’s a surreal moment and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our coaches, coach [Steve] Patrick, coach [Curtis] Merrick. And you can’t leave out your teammates and family and friends who have been supporting us all year. In no way is any of this possible without them.”

“Wow! That was pretty amazing!,” head coach Steve Patrick said. “Evan led us off strong. Zion ran an amazing leg to once again hand off in the lead. Harrison dropped the hammer on his leg, and Josh finished like a man possessed.

“It was certainly a tremendous experience and really fantastic efforts by them to earn our second title of the day,” he added. “It’s pretty crazy to think that they went undefeated on the entire season.”

Gavalas said he talks quite regularly with both Arnold and Eddie West, who is the boys track coach, having taken over for the now retired Tony Dottin.

“Coach West and Eddie Arnold are two of my biggest supporters from Southampton,” he said. “I still get on the phone with them. It’s a very mental sport and those two, they really might not have known, but they really helped me get to where I am now.”

Arnold said having been a Division II All-American at Millersville, he can relate to college athletes, especially the mental aspect of it all.

“I’ve gone through the highs and the lows just like Harrison has,” Arnold said, “and so I just share with him my experiences and the things that I went through. I remember I was stuck at a certain time for almost an entire season and I was frustrated, but you just have to be patient and stick with it and eventually it’ll come.”

Arnold said he’s been so proud of Gavalas already, having been a two-time All-American prior to winning a national championship. But adding that to his resumé, Arnold said, is very impressive.

“To be a national champion in Division I, II or III, that’s a huge accomplishment, at any level, relay or individual,” he said. “Harrison has become a student of the event. He understands what’s at stake and that when you have breakdowns you can have breakthroughs. He has an internal fortitude that many athletes just don’t have. He wants it.”

Arnold said it also helps coming from a family that has been largely successful in many aspects of life. His sister Gabriela ran track at the University of Connecticut, his brother Artemi walked on to the men’s basketball team at St. John’s University, and his youngest sister Jeorgiana is currently running track at the College of Charleston. His oldest sister Chloe is currently working in the film and entertainment business.

“All of the Gavalas children excel,” Arnold said. “They have an incredible drive to succeed.”

West and Gavalas share a special bond from when the Gavalas family suffered a personal tragedy when a fire gutted their home just a week before Christmas 2019. West, a volunteer firefighter, was on the scene and helped the family through the ordeal, Gavalas said.

As the focus now shifts to outdoors in the spring, Gavalas said his relay team is going to have high expectations once again. But to think back to that decision he made his senior year of high school to now, he said it’s been an incredible ride and one that’s not over yet.

“God is good and his timing is always perfect and he has a plan for you,” he said. “This national championship feels pretty good. To know you’re the best in the nation in DIII, I thank my parents, my family, my teammates.

“What does the future hold for outdoors?” he asked. “Maybe people think this was a Cinderella story, from where we came from at the beginning of the season until now. But we showed what we can do this indoor season and we’re going to show it this outdoor season. One thing we do well as a team is accountability. We hold ourselves to a high standard and now we’re only going to hold ourselves to an even higher standard.”