Recent 2023 graduate Jack Garvin’s family has seen much of Geneva’s 175-year history. Garvin is one of the first students to ever attend Geneva as a fifth-generation student, with his great, great grandmother Ida Sterrett Peoples attending Geneva in 1904.
Garvin’s family is also an athletic one. In the late 1990s his father, Bob ’98, was a standout baseball player, and his mother, Tesha (Martin) Garvin ’99, was a starter on the Geneva volleyball team. His paternal grandfather, Bob Garvin Sr., was a star pitcher for the Golden Tornadoes in the early 1970s.
Not surprisingly, Jack and his five younger siblings all proved to be quite athletic growing up, and athletics were a significant part of his life. He arrived at Geneva in 2020 as a freshman, entering the Cybersecurity 3+1 program, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. His plans to walk on to the Geneva basketball team were curtailed when he came down with COVID early in his freshman year, forcing him to quarantine for a significant stretch and miss tryouts.
Once he recovered, Jack decided to focus on his academics during college. One of his roommates encouraged him to join the track team for his senior year after seeing Jack excel during pickup basketball games.
After some consideration, Jack joined the team at the beginning of this past year. He had very low expectations, as he didn’t have much prior track experience. But he thought it would be fun, allowing him to compete in collegiate athletics while getting to spend time with several friends on the team, even if he couldn’t help the team much from a performance standpoint.
It didn’t take long into preseason training to realize that not only would Jack be a helpful performer, but he excelled in the high jump. At his first indoor meet, he cleared 1.80 meters (5’11”), which put him among the top jumpers in the conference. Midway through the indoor season, he cleared 1.97 meters, breaking the indoor school record.
Jack would go on to win both the Indoor and Outdoor PAC Championships in the high jump event this season. His top jump of 2.01 meters (6’7”) is just two inches off the outdoor school record and put him on the cusp of qualifying for the NCAA Division III National Championship meet.
Jack has enjoyed his time with the track and field team so much that he is planning to compete again next season while pursuing his master’s degree. While his expectations will be different heading into next season, there’s little doubt his performance will continue to jump out to people.
-Chris Matthews '00
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