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By Joe Reardon Foxboro’s Liz Holmes has faced every challenge head on in her rookie season of track and continues to make coaches and competitors alike, shake their collective heads in awe at the freshman’s talents.And it’s safe to say the best is yet to come for the enormously talented Holmes, who threw a wrench in the girls’ mile landscape this year.
Her latest captivating performance came at the Loucks Games in New York. Running against a stacked field in the 1600 meters, Holmes stuck with the pack and pushed hard over the final 300 meters to take fifth in 4:54.24. The time translates to a 4:54.89 mile, a personal best for the pint-sized trackster with the long, flowing stride.
Holmes is the overwhelming favorite to capture the Div. 3 mile this weekend and the odds-on favorite for a state title in the event the following weekend at the state meet. While Holmes has breezed through races for fast times, her new personal best didn’t come easy as she felt the effects of the quick pace over the last 400 meters. “I was in seventh or eighth for the first lap then a bunch of girls dropped back,” said Holmes. “I felt really good until the last 300. My legs couldn’t move anymore. I really felt it (in my legs) because it’s the only outdoor race where I’ve been pushed. That last 300 just killed me.”
The engaging freshman with the big smile is mature beyond her years, which leads to her level headedness during races. Holmes picked up where she left off after a sterling winter season that saw her finish a strong second to Peabody’s Catarina Rocha in the state meet mile with a scintillating 4:55.74. Holmes destroyed the field at the Coaches Freshman/Sophomore Small Schools Championships, racing to a meet record of 5:06.61 and clocked a swift 5:09.47 for the Hockomock League Championships title. And in her debut at the 2 mile in a dual meet against Sharon, Holmes ran a controlled 11:25.40 for the easy win.
While Holmes’ natural talent is undeniable, it’s the sheer mental toughness that separates her from the state’s other elite runners. Save for Rocha and possibly Lincoln-Sudbury’s Marika Crowe, she has no peers in the mile. And as much as she respects the talents of her competition, Holmes fears absolutely no one once the gun goes off. Her mother and coach, Ellen Gallagher, herself a standout distance runner at Bridgewater-Raynham and Harvard University, caught the first glimpse of her daughter’s will and tenacity when she was only 20 months old.
On Halloween night, Holmes threw on a blue dress and glow necklace to join the neighborhood kids trick o’ treating. After traipsing nearly a mile around the neighborhood, Holmes didn’t pause for a second at joining the older children for a second time around. “I remember thinking that she had such a tenacious spirit,” said Gallagher. That tenacity was nowhere more evident than the indoor state meet when she took on Rocha at the Reggie Lewis Center.
Holmes and her mother talked over the various scenarios that could play themselves out and decided the best approach was to stay with Rocha for as long as she could with the belief that she had the strength to maintain a strong pace and finish with a fast time. The race played out perfectly. At the gun, Rocha and Holmes immediately went to the front. Holmes was only steps behind Rocha. She had her doubts as to how long she could stay with the state’s best female runner, but also knew she was running the race of her life. “I didn’t think I was good enough to stay with her,” said Holmes. “I was freaking out because I didn’t think I’d be with her at all.”
Rocha began to press hard 1000 meters in and began to put daylight between herself and Holmes. Far ahead of the tight pack, which had all but conceded the race to Rocha before the gun, Holmes continued to press until she crossed the finish line in second with a stunning 4:55.74. Rocha was very much aware that Holmes was sitting on her and praised the youngster after the race. “I knew she was coming and she’s very good,” she said.
The pre-race strategy proved to be spot on. “We didn’t see any other way to run it,” said Gallagher. “She had to stay with Catarina for as long as she could. Otherwise, we were afraid she’d be back with the pack that was letting Catarina go. There’d be no benefit to Liz.” Two weeks later in New York City, Holmes stayed behind early before surging to the front to easily capture the freshman mile in 5:02.49 at the New Balance Indoor National Championships on the lightning fast Armory track. “The first lap everyone was settling in,” said Holmes. “The pace started to get really slow. When I went through the 1000 I thought this is not right and I took off.”
The indoor season was a smashing success for Holmes who also clocked fast times at the Coaches Elite Invitational (5:03.75) and the Div. 3 Championships (5:05.35), where she pulled away from the talented Katie Powell of Bishop Feehan at 800 meters..
Holmes isn’t looking too far past this weekend’s Div. 3 meet and the states. She does intend to play one more season of varsity soccer in the fall before inevitably making the move to cross country. Still, she will attend a cross country camp in the summer and plans to pack in 4-5 miles daily on the rural roads around her house during the summer months.
And even though Gallagher will be taking over the cross country program, she has no qualms about her daughter spending her fall at midfield and not on the trails. “I want her to do whatever she’s happy with,” said Gallagher. “I love watching her play soccer. The only reservation I have is that it’s much more of a contact sport. I get nervous. I’ve watched the games and the girls can get very physical.“She’s got the rest of her life to run.”
Gallaher realizes the special opportunity she’s had in coaching her daughter and that it’s something most parents never experience. “I like it,” said Gallagher. “I love to be involved in the track program. I think what I’ve noticed when it comes to coaching Liz is I feel a little bit of pressure to try to calibrate her coaching to fit her skill set. Liz puts enough pressure on herself. She doesn’t need me to put added pressure on her.”
With Rocha moving up to the 2 mile, the probability that Holmes will be by herself pushing the pace in the Div. 3 meet is enormous. At states, she could find company at the front with Crowe. The chances of Holmes running with a pack at nationals is extremely high. Holmes has the versatility to run at the front or in a pack. The most important thing to her is to continue dropping her mile time.
“I want to run faster,” Holmes said. “I don’t know what will happen. It depends who’s running. I’d much rather worry about my time. I want to do well. I like taking the lead, but I did like when I was behind the other girls (at Loucks) and I could just follow what they were doing. It’s alright when I take the lead. I don’t mind it at all. “When I ran at Loucks, that was a blast. I was running to keep up. It’s always fun to have the lead, but running with a pack, they can pull you along.”
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