Marmion wins 11th straight conference title
Marmion's numbers did not lie.
For every sprint won by Montini's Mitch West or Malcolm Pitchford hurdles victory there was a horde of red, white and blue scorers.
At Marmion's Fichtel Field in Aurora on Tuesday the Cadets won their 11th straight Suburban Christian Conference boys track championship in the league's final year, 250 points to Montini's 178.
St. Francis, the fresh-soph winner, tallied 71 points and Aurora Christian 35. This fall the first three schools move to the Chicago Catholic League and Aurora Christian to the Northeastern Athletic Conference.
With only four teams competing each was allowed four entries per event rather than the usual two. That rewarded Marmion's depth.
“Our kids are willing to come out and train. We try to make track fun and enjoyable. Just stick around, you'll be champions,” said Thorpe, name-dropping Nick Sevenich, Brandon Currie, Rory Arnold and Zach Turnbow. None won races but all added to the happy total, and that was his point.
“He was just really big that fourth-place really counted — or just, like, every point counts,” said Marmion's Luke Juriga, who did win both discus and shot put.
As expected Marmion dominated from 800 meters on up, Brady Bobbitt taking the 800-meter run and the 3,200 and Andrew Burroughs the 1,600. The Cadets won the 3,200 relay and the 1,600 relay, Bobbitt anchoring. Of 93 available points in the open 800, 1,600 and 3,200, Marmion scored 71.
It also had the edge in the field with Isaiah Brown in long jump, Juriga sweeping the throws and Seth Groom taking high jump. Groom finished second in triple jump to Montini's Matt Fisch and placed fifth in long jump before a hip flexor said enough is enough.
“Now that we're switching we're going to see new schools, new people, better competition maybe. I'm not sure yet, but I feel pretty good about this,” Groom said.
After failing to clear a height at Saturday's Kane County Meet, Aurora Christian pole vaulter Josh Schien won pole vault at 13 feet. A pesky hamstring and working new poles made it a down-and-up week.
“It was more of a mental thing more than anything, just trying to get myself back into it,” he said. “My mind wasn't there, my body was.”
St. Francis sprinter Jeff Duke, a horse for the Spartans along with jumper Adam Izewski and middle-distance man Breandon McClure, gave Montini's West a run for the money. Duke ran on 400 and 800 relays, placed second in the 100 and third in the 200.
“We've done a lot of work but coming in no one knows that, so we've just got to come in ready to run and do our thing,” he said.
West typified where Montini is at, a bringer of speed. The sophomore won the 100 dash in 10.83 seconds, the 200 (22.88), the 400 (50.52) and joined Michael Hollingshed, Will Smith and Nick Foster on a victorious 400 relay. Though the Broncos were runner-up West was named athlete of the meet.
“We had the upper edge in the sprints, they had the upper edge in the distance stuff,” West said.
“I think I'll sleep pretty well tonight, this was a good day.”