Is this the year for ACC?

Updated: May 10, 2011 7:22PM

It appeared the cat-and-mouse game between Marmion coach Dan Thorpe and Aurora Central coach Troy Kerber had already begun at last Friday’s Kane County Boys Track and Field Meet.

Looking ahead to tonight’s Suburban Christian Conference meet his team is hosting beginning at 4 o’clock, Thorpe sounded a bit like former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz.

“We have to be creative,” Thorpe said. “We have to have a perfect night and ACC has to have an off night.”

So, the Chargers are the favorites?

“Oh, by far,” continued Thorpe, quick to add, “but our kids compete. Our kids will be there. We’ll show up.”

Last year, he was echoing similar sentiments, up to the time his Cadets went out and won their fifth straight conference championship.

Woe is he? Uh, probably not.

Marmion and ACC were both stepping up in competition last Friday, when the Cadets scored 26 points to place ninth and the Chargers had 17 to place 11th in a 14-team meet where they were the two smallest schools.

Senior Eddy Grahovec led Marmion with a win in the 800-meter run in 1:58.21, while ACC sophomore Joe Fese ran a personal best in the 200 and got nipped at the wire by St. Charles East’s Dillon Mugge (22.67).

“Grahovec ran such a solid race,” Thorpe said. “He’s very confident right now.”

Grahovec made it to the 2A state meet last year in the 300 hurdles and was ninth overall on Friday in a stellar field. He finished in 41.33 seconds in a heat that featured five runners who went under 40 seconds.

“This was the first year he ran cross country,” Thorpe said. “So he’s got a good foundation.”

Grahovec also ran a leg of the Cadets’ 400-meter relay, too.

“It speaks to his versatility,” Thorpe said.

Kerber, meanwhile, did some maneuvering with his lineup on Friday because the Chargers came back the next day and ran at the Mooseheart Relays.

“We’re going back-to-back, state meet simulation and the kids enjoy the (Mooseheart) meet,” he said, noting that he kept Fese out of Friday’s 100 because it would add a lot of races (with prelims and a final) to his workload.

“What we really wanted to do (Friday) was load our relays in the county against this great competition and then let Joe turn it loose a little bit in the 200,” Kerber said. “He just ran a personal best.

“We put some younger kids in a few events and we’ll be doing some more racing (Saturday), so we’re just kind of spot running some of our athletes (Friday). The emphasis is a little more on the quality rather than the quantity. It will compromise us in terms of team points for the county, sure, but we’ve represented ourselves well here.”

He noted that both his 800 and 3,200 relay teams had eclipsed the state qualifying marks and that his 400 relay had one minor glitch or it might have done so, too.

As for conference, he said, “You’ll see a different look team on Wednesday. We have a surprise out there that you’ll see.”

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