Marmion wins championship on home course
Five years turned out to be just as long as Marmion could wait.
Bennett Marsh provided the front-runner and Marmion's pack did the rest for a convincing 53 points and the championship of the annual Royal-Cadet Invitational hosted by Marmion on Saturday.
While Marsh ran a 16:23 to finish third overall, his teammates all stepped up their times too. Senior Chris Hebert took eighth, then junior Matt Choice, senior Eddie Grahovec, junior Will Graft and junior Brady Hunt followed each other into the chute in 13th through 16th, respectively.
"Pretty much everyone on our team ran a PR," Marsh said. "Our goal was to come in and win our home meet. We're pretty happy. This week I think everyone on our team ran well."
Marmion showed its depth with its sixth and seventh runners, Hunt in 16th and seventh runner Rich Parilla in 28th. All the Cadets pushed hard over the final mile of the course.
Saturday's championship is just the start of what the Cadets hope to do this year. They will be even stronger when Ben Kanute, who will run with Marsh in the lead pack, returns soon from his triathlon season.
"Our team wants to be top three (at 2A state)," Marsh said. "That was our goal last year and we didn't have our greatest race. We're doing pretty good with what we are doing now."
Individually, Glenbard East's Mike Fahey passed six runners in the final half mile to vault from seventh place to the championship in 16:14.
"We do a lot of speedwork and that helps with the finish," Fahey said.
Fahey said he wasn't feeling well when he opened the season taking 25th in 15:57 last week at Hinsdale so he was quite pleased with his title Saturday.
"I knew I was in good shape," Fahey said. "Coach puts us in great shape and I felt I could win the race today."
Glenbard East placed fourth as a team with 118, trailing Marmion, Benet (100) and Batavia (113). After Fahey's title, senior Mike Dexl and junior Bill Booth were next in 21st and 22nd.
Junior Matt Rurka ran a 16:50 to take ninth and lead Benet, and he was followed by senior Marlon Torres in 12th.
Leyden's Fabian Cabrera was one of the runners Fahey caught in the last half-mile. Cabrera also was pleased with his runner-up finish and holding off Marsh down the stretch for second by two seconds.
"It was a tight race especially the last straightaway," Cabrera said. "It was hard, I tired out a little."
With a time of 16:23 on the 3.01 mile course, Cabrera has a little work to do for his goal of breaking 16 minutes.
"I think I did pretty good," Cabrera said. "I wasn't expecting to keep up with them. I was a little surprised. I thought it was hard compared to last race I did."
Senior Roberto Gonzalez took 23rd helping Leyden finish seventh out of 17 teams.
Mike Redmond paced Batavia in fifth place. He found a familiar face to run much of the race with - Marsh - who was a teammate in middle school.
"I was pretty happy with my race especially because of the conditions. It wasn't bad for 2 miles but the back of the course got pretty muddy," said Redmond, who lost his balance on one sharp turn but kept pushing to finish in 16:36 after running a 16:02 last week at the Leavey Invitational.
Batavia junior Chris Spadafora finished 11th.