Boys Track: Marmion wins SCC for eighth year in a row
Updated: May 9, 2012 10:11PM
Some things never change, or so it seems, at the Suburban Christian Conference boys track meet.
Host Marmion piled up 150 points and cruised to its eighth straight team championship Wednesday night, outdistancing crosstown rival and runner-up Aurora Central by 45 points. Montini (84) was third, followed by Walther Lutheran (71) and Aurora Christian (59) in the 10-team meet.
“We’ve got the biggest boys enrollment in the conference, so we should do well if we can get the boys to come out,” said Cadets coach Dan Thorpe, who has coached seven of the wins. “Mike Timm was the coach of that first one, in 2005. He got the kids out and got them excited about track.
“By seed times, I had us winning by 12 points, so we had some kids step up.”
There were some big changes, though, as four meet records fell, three in jumping events and one relay. Marmion senior Pete Stefanski broke the 26-year-old high jump mark of 6-foot-5˝ inches set in 1986 by Montini’s Jim Pytlik when he cleared 6-6 on his first attempt then bettered it by making 6-8 on his second attempt.
Cadet junior Jake Ruddy went 22-9 in the long jump to break the mark of 22-3¼ set by John Lotarski of St. Francis in 1999, and Montini’s Pat Barrett cleared 14-6 in the pole vault to shatter the mark of 12-8 set in 1997 by Joe Valentis of St. Francis.
Aurora Christian coach Dr. Jeff Schutt got a first from his 1,600-meter relay team that included Billy Howorth, Nate Jensen, Jake Gehman and anchor Johnathan Harrell. They won in 3:24.11, breaking the mark of 3:27.90 set by a Marmion quartet in 2009.
“It goes back awhile, so it was nice to get that,” said Stefanski, who missed three attempts at equaling his season best of 6-10. “I wanted to hit 6-8 today so I’m glad I did that. Now I can go into sectional next week and I hope to hit a big jump. I just barely nicked (the bar) with the back of my calf on the third attempt (at 6-10).”
The paved apron at Marmion is also a little small for Stefanski, who starts his approach in the grass.
“It’s a little bit of a problem, but I’ve dealt with it before,” he said.
His season-best, though, came at Streamwood’s Millenium Field, where he will compete at sectional next week.
“He’s not an athlete doing track anymore, he’s a track athlete,” Thorpe said of Ruddy, who played baseball freshman year before coming out for track last spring. “Last year and the first month of this season he was just out for track, he’s into it now.”
Marmion’s other wins came from Ben Cole (42-3½) in the triple jump, Mickey Blake (45-11˝) in the shot put, Matt Choice (10:08.94) in the 3200, Nolan Dickson (1:56.58) in the 800, Freddy D’Escoto (41.90) in the 300 hurdles and the 3200 relay team of Kevin Grahovec, Chris Burrows, Nick Delaney and Brady Hunt (8:27.0).
“The running events went pretty much as planned but we’re still developing in the field events,” said ACC coach Troy Kerber, who got wins from Matt Meyers (4:29.78) in the 1600 and his 400 relay team of Zack Flint, Javier Liz, Connor Robinson and Joe Fese (44.20).
Meyers, seeded 10 seconds behind Marmion’s Nolan Dickson, held the Cadet off at the finish with a dive over the line.
“I could sense he was there so I just dove and hoped for the best,” said Meyers, sporting a little road rash on his arm but none the worse for wear.
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