A running theme for Ronzone family

Rosary junior Madison Ronzone paused to remember whether she took a training run last Christmas.

It’s a safe bet her dad knows.

Now that his three children are immersed – and excelling in – his favorite sport, Matt Ronzone finds himself fully invested, too, making up for lost time when Madison, Michael and Megan were growing up in Batavia.

Oh, Matt Ronzone was around then, he just wasn’t hovering. He tries not to hover now, even though he can’t help beaming or asking his kids about their mileage every night at dinner.

“He definitely never pushed us into it,” said Michael Ronzone, a Marmion freshman. “He’d bring it up. ‘You guys could be really good at this.’ But he never made us. And then once we got into it, he’s just been so passionate. A lot of support from him, too.”

Matt Ronzone met his wife, Liz, through a mutual friend while both competed as Notre Dame track and field athletes in the late 1980s. Their relationship started thanks to running; their sense of family has grown because of it.

Ask either Ronzone sibling about his or her top cross country or track achievement to date, and a corresponding brother or sister seems to recall the events just as vividly.

With both parents also no strangers to the neighborhood pavement, the Ronzones enjoy a built-in pastime, if not conversation piece.

“I think it’s nice that we all have something in common,” said Madison Ronzone, an all-state finisher at November’s Class 2A state cross country meet in Peoria. “It’s kind of really easy to talk about it and share how we’re improving, just common success and having the same enjoyment from it.”

Fittingly, all three Ronzone children will attend the brother-and-sister schools Marmion and Rosary next school year.

Megan Ronzone, an eighth grader who helped Rotolo Middle School to an IESA Class 3A state title in October, will enroll at Rosary in the fall. She’s looking forward to developing the same fellowship she found in middle school.

And, ideally, similar elation.

“My teammates and my coaches’ reaction to us getting first place, I don’t think we expected it as much,” Megan Ronzone said. “We went in there with a lot of different thoughts and we were nervous. When they called our names, we were shocked and crying. It was a great season. A lot of emotion and a lot of fun.”

Like many runners before and since, Matt Ronzone embraced that atmosphere in cross country and track, in his native Indiana and at Notre Dame.

He cherished a sport that not only hailed individual strides and success, but somehow made it contagious to want the same for the runners moving along at either side each day.

He met his future wife, and soon after, they were married and started a family. While there’s no revelation story for Matt Ronzone to tell – such as wanting three children to round out a five-member team cross country score with he and his wife – it’s no secret which direction he wanted them to go.

“If I was somebody on the outside looking in, it might be, ‘Oh, your’e just going to make your kids run,’ “ Matt Ronzone said. “I didn’t want to be like that. I really wanted them to fall in love with the sports like I did. When I hear my kids talk about running, it’s not, ‘Oh, I beat so and so.’ It’s the camaraderie they developed with their teammates.”

Liz Ronzone called oldest daughter, Madison, “kind of our guinea pig.” She was first involved in competitive swimming, a sport the Ronzones thought would boost her endurance if she ever leaned toward running, and Megan eventually followed.

Megan also is a legacy at Annunciation School in Aurora, where she and both siblings have competed in track. Because Annunciation does not offer cross country, however, Michael and Megan ran cross country at Rotolo.

Madison did not take up cross country until arriving at Rosary in 2012, but that experience undoubtedly influenced she and her sister.

“Megan wanted to start running earlier than Madison did because she watched Madison [in high school],” Liz Ronzone said. “It’s been a good road for Megan.”

Meantime, Michael felt influential pulls from a variety of sources.

“Knowing that my dad had run in college, that’s what really drove me,” he said. “Before (Madison) got competitive in it, I wanted to be competitive. It really hit us around the same time.”

In July, the Ronzones traveled to Mackinac Island, Michigan, as part of their vacation. Naturally, they could not stomach a respite from running. Some vacation days even are planned around a daily workout.

In Michigan, each family member took aim at the task of running around the island’s perimeter, approximately eight miles, they said. Following the recent norm – Madison estimates Michael surpassed her as the fastest Ronzone a couple years ago – everyone ran at a different pace.

Some even went in different directions.

“We’d come face-to-face with each other as we were running,” Madison said, “so it was nice to see a familiar face.”

Next school year promises perhaps the biggest dose of deja vu for the family’s sisters yet.

Rosary’s season opener still won’t be the first time the siblings have been at the same meet site. Repaying Megan for the youngest-child factor she couldn’t exactly control, Madison and Michael rooted for their sister at several Rotolo meets.

Conversely, Megan will already be well-versed with Peoria’s Detweiller Park whenever she lines up in the starter’s box for her first IHSA state meet. She has supported her sister there before, and hoped to do the same for Michael before he narrowly missed the cut at sectionals in November.

“It was a bummer, being two tenths of a second away and one point as a team,” Michael said. “But I definitely learned that I have a lot more to improve. … I’m taking it for what it’s worth and I’m seeing it as a motivator for next year.”

If he ever should lose sight of that goal, Michael need only leave his room. Even if it isn’t dinnertime, it’s likely at least one family member has running on the brain.