Men's Cross Country | January 17, 2019

The key to success can be described in so many different ways. Hard work, dedication, commitment, persistence, and confidence are just a few words that come to mind when thinking about success. 
 
For Ryan Fennelly, the key was culture – a culture that was established by a legendary head coach at La Salle University, the late Charles Torpey.
 
A former standout runner for the Explorers, Fennelly was a part of the "Golden Era" of La Salle cross country. And while he had numerous individual accomplishments in both cross country and track, Fennelly doesn't credit himself; he acknowledges the culture that Torpey created among his teams.
 
"Torpey created a great culture where you really wanted to do everything you could to be the best teammate and best athlete that you could be," Fennelly explained. "I think a lot of my teammates felt the same way about him."
 
It was a culture that Fennelly wanted to be a part of when he was making his college decision, which he says was a "fairly easy" one. He knew about the team's success and the talented local recruits Torpey was bringing to La Salle.
 
"I really connected with him on the phone when he called me," Fennelly recalled. "I knew he had a really good recruiting class coming in with me. I had competed against some of the guys that had already signed with La Salle."
 
The Explorers had won the Atlantic 10 Conference Men's Cross Country Championship in 1999 and the team was becoming one of the more recognized squads in the region.
 
"I was pretty excited about what he was doing and what he had done with some of the recent teams and athletes," continued Fennelly. "Torpey sold the program, and I was all-in from there."
 
Fennelly redshirted in cross country during his first year and remembers a trip out to Pittsburgh in which the team lost to Saint Joseph's, which upset him even though he wasn't even competing yet. The following year, he and his teammates were motivated and as focused as ever.
 
With a strong team culture and a newly inspired focus, Fennelly was joined by a talented group of athletes, recalling Bryan Skelly and Tim Carroll as accomplished runners among his class.
 
"We had a good core group," described Fennelly. "There were probably 10 really accomplished high school runners in my class. The guys before me also set the bar pretty high."
 
In 2001, Fennelly helped the Explorers win the A-10 cross country title as a freshman, which he described as one of his favorite memories at La Salle. Fennelly, who finished the race in fourth, was honored as the league's Most Outstanding Rookie Performer.
 
"We took the top four spots," explained Fennelly. "Todd Witzleben won the individual title. Tim McAteer, another guy who was four-time all-conference in cross country, was second. Bryan Skelly was third, and I was fourth. Colin Benner was sixth. We had five of the top six finishers in that race, and I thought from a team perspective, that was one of the coolest moments for me."
 
That moment was the start of something special for Fennelly, who ended up earning all-conference honors in each of his four A-10 cross country races. Two years later, La Salle's success in cross country spilled over to track and field.
 
In 2003, Fennelly won gold at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Track & Field Championships as a member of La Salle's distance medley relay team and took silver in the mile as well. The Explorers won the men's team title, another moment that Fennelly cherishes to this day, and Torpey received A-10 Coach of the Year accolades.
 
Fennelly capped off his time as an Explorer with all-conference honors in both cross country and track, all-region accolades in cross country, individual titles for indoor and outdoor track, while also setting school records.
 
Thinking back on his experience at La Salle, Fennelly gave a bit of advice to current and future Explorers:
 
"It is a pretty short window, so I think it's worth making a lot of sacrifices. Looking back on it, I wish I would've done the little stuff – eating better, taking care of yourself, getting plenty of sleep. All that stuff really matters. And I think that's the difference between being a good athlete and a great athlete."
 
A graduate of La Salle's business school, Fennelly earned his degree in Management Information Systems. Looking back, he remembers Marianne Gauss, a professor who still teaches at La Salle today, who had an impact on him as his advisor and public speaking professor.
 
Even after graduating from La Salle, it was Torpey who still kept Fennelly motivated.
 
"After I graduated, I would still meet with Torpey and we would do some training," said Fennelly. "I did a lot of the local road races after college… A few years later, I got more serious. I started training a little bit."
 
Fennelly has accomplished a lot as a runner in his post-La Salle career as well. He has run in the New York City, Boston and Chicago marathons. Most notably, he qualified for the U.S. Indoor Championships in the 3,000 meters in 2009.
 
"I ran just under eight minutes in the 3K, which was about six seconds faster than I ran in college, and I qualified for the indoor race," described Fennelly. "I was pretty psyched to make it there."
 
Former All-American and La Salle Hall of Athletes member Brian Gallagher had a post-collegiate running group called the Philadelphia Track Club that Fennelly was involved with. Their group included La Salle alums along with former runners from other Pennsylvania schools like Saint Joe's and Duquesne. When Sean Quigley, another All-American and member of the La Salle Hall of Athletes, was still in school, Fennelly would also train with him.
 
"[Brian] had a group that would meet and do long runs and some workouts together, so I started connecting with those guys and running with them a bit," Fennelly said. "We had a good post-collegiate group, and we would meet and work out. We would go back to La Salle and do workouts. We wouldn't necessarily work out with the team, but we'd do a similar type of workout at La Salle's track or over at Belmont Plateau. It felt like there was a team environment even though we were out of school."
 
For Fennelly, he had a dependable running group to lean back on well after his La Salle days. But still, it was Torpey who was there to keep him in check.
 
"Torpey had a lot to do with me getting back into shape after having some time off," explained Fennelly. "He was really involved and he would always get me motivated when I was falling out of shape. Just sitting down with him and talking to him in the La Salle track office and I'd be motivated and ready to start training again."
 
Fennelly now gets to join Torpey in the La Salle Hall of Athletes.