Rindone leads Marmion to another title
If this were the symphony, Alex Rindone would be playing first chair.
"He was second fiddle to other kids last year as a sophomore, but he's really gotten turned on to track, has worked hard and deserves everything that he's achieved," said Marmion Academy coach Dan Thorp.
That includes being named Outstanding Athlete of the Meet by the Suburban Catholic Conference coaches Monday after helping the Cadets orchestrate their third straight league championship by scoring 177 points.
St. Francis was second with 130.5 points, followed by Marian Central (58) and Aurora Central (54).
"He got in the weight room. He's running distance workouts to increase his endurance and you see that at the finish line," Thorp continued, noting the junior sprinter's strong finishes to win both the 100- and 200-meter dash.
Rindone had personal bests of 10.70 seconds and 22.10 seconds, respectively, in the events. He also anchored the Cadets' winning 800 relay that included Mike Gruesen, Nick Assell and Bobby Miles and ran a leg of the third-place 400-meter relay.
"I just try to push to the end, the main thing is pumping your arms," said Rindone. "I've made a big improvement from last year when I was running between 11.3 and 11.4 (in the 100)."
The 800 relay featured a newcomer in Gruesen.
"(Gruesen) ran a great leg," said Rindone. "He's been getting faster. We knew we had to do well in all the relays we could because we knew St. Francis had good depth. We just thought we had better depth."
They did and it showed as the Cadets got wins in six other events and scored in every event but the pole vault.
"We're a nice track team, we cover all the events," said Thorp.
The wins included Josh Stein (9:52.0) in the 3,200 run, T.J. Heffernan (4:31.60) in the 1,600 run, Mike Duhig (20-3.25) in the long jump, the 1,600 relay (3:35.40) of Duhig, Heffernan, Matt Bauman and Oscar Aguinaga and Joe Weber in both the shot put (50-11.5) and discus (130-01).
Aurora Central junior Anthony Kelly was in contention for the MOA award after winning high jump (6-2) and 110 hurdles (:15.70), but took fifth in the 300 hurdles.
"I really haven't (high) jumped that well this season. I've kind of been in a slump, said Kelley, who may focus only on the high jump at sectional.
He cleared state qualifying mark of 6-4 in the first meet of the season but hasn't done it since.
Boys Suburban Catholic Conference Meet