Liam Morrissey has been a student-athlete at Hawthorne High School for the past four years. Morrissey has been a lineman on the football team and has been running distance for the track team. Excelling in both sports, Morrissey has been the one to break the image of the “typical” distance runner. Distance runners are seen as having a lean body shape, but Morrissey is much bigger than the average runner. Morrissey’s size and build have made him into a force to be reckoned with on the track.

Morrissey believes that he has an advantage over the other runners because “they are much smaller and skinnier than I am, and they can’t move like me.” Being over 6 feet tall allows Morrissey to take bigger strides than the rest of the runners. The longer strides allow him to speed through the races. The other runners do not stand much of a chance.

Morrissey holds the unofficial school record for the fastest mile ever ran in PE. He also has an impressive time of around 4 minutes and 45 seconds in the mile on his track team. Track Coach Gustav Schell always praises how Morrissey is able to achieve such feats. He has not seen a lineman who runs distance as well as Morrissey does.

Julian Parra, who also runs distance, says that “Morrissey always excels at practice by running the extra mile, and he is usually the first one done and I always struggle to maintain at his pace given his talent.”

The Clarion hopes to see great success out of Liam Morrissey in the upcoming spring Track and Field season, and continued success in the remainder of the winter season.