I wonder what does 「ごとと」 does in this sentence

> そもそも陸上部は恋愛 **ごとと** 断絶していたのに

I've tried to use Jisho.org but to no avail, there are no definition of it
which are relevant to the content of the sentence.
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2015-06-26T09:37:00.870
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2015-06-26T11:57:37.007
2015-06-26T11:01:44.690
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question
words particles
Is 「ごとと」 used as a particle or just plain word?
In your sentence, 「恋愛ごとと」 consists of following parts: 恋愛 + ごと + と  
And ごと comes from こと(事), which means anything related to the noun before ごと。In
this sentence, 「恋愛ごと」 means anything related to love affairs.

Another example,  

  * 人ごととは思えない (I don't think it's an affair of other people), 人ごと is often written as 他人事
  * 私事(わたくしごと) personal matter, personal concern: 私事に立ち入る話を中断する (interrupt a personal conversation)
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2015-06-26T10:11:48.703
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2015-06-26T10:11:48.703
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answer
You are parsing that part incorrectly. There is no such word 「ごとと」.

It should be parsed as:

> 「[恋愛]{れんあい}ごと + と + 断絶していた」

「恋愛ごと」 means "love-related matters". You will encounter this usage of 「ごと」
quite often.

See definition 二-12-㋐ in :
<https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BA%8B-502856#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88>

「と」 is of course a particle.

**_"even though the Track & Field team was severed from love-related matters
in the first place"_**
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2015-06-26T10:20:53.073
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2015-06-26T10:20:53.073
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answer
I would translate 恋愛ごとと断絶していた as "stayed away from romantic matters."

恋愛ごと can include but not limited to love affairs.
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2015-06-26T11:57:37.007
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2015-06-26T11:57:37.007
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answer