Marmion Academy distance runners set for state push

The numbers may not lie, but sometimes they don't add up.

That could prove true tonight for two Marmion Academy distance specialists at the West Aurora Class AA Boys Track Sectional.

Senior Josh Stein and junior T.J. Heffernan are coming off wins Monday at the Suburban Catholic Conference meet in the 3200 meters and 1600 meters, respectively. Stein won his race in 9:52.0, Heffernan at 4:31.6.

Both are well above the state qualifying times (9:33.24 and 4:23.74) for those races yet their coach, Marmion assistant Dan Billish, is confident they can make it to state.

"Josh has run state qualifying times in both the 2-mile (3200) and mile (1600)," said Billish, a former standout distance runner at Indiana.

"A lot of times the difficulty with running the conference meet the week of sectional is that a lot of times take a backburner."

Stein (lower stomach muscle pull) and Heffernan (shin) have both returned from injury. Both led early in their races Monday and then backed off with the sectional meet looming.

SCC coaches, in fact, met after the meet and discussed moving their league meet to an earlier date.

"I think there's more talent in the conference now and other coaches are seeing the adverse affects of having it the same week as sectional," said Billish.

"You want to go into your conference meet and perform at the highest level and you don't want to be telling kids to 'Back off and hold your position,' because it takes away from the importance of the meet."

Stein, who will run next year at Loyola, will run both events.

"Josh has started to figure out his system," said Billish. "He's run 10 seconds under qualifying for the 2-mile and three seconds under for the mile. He's definitely there. He was all-state (11th in Class 3A) in cross country and knows what it takes."

Heffernan may need to reel it in a bit. He ran a 58-second opening quarter at the conference.

"Ideally, I'd like to see him go 65 (seconds), 65 the first two laps," said Billish. "I think he's in very good shape to run 4:23."

Strong fields in both races should help the Cadet runners do their best.

"We have a sectional that's beyond good in the two-mile," said Billish, noting that it will include Neuqua Valley standouts Chris Derrick and Danny Pawola as well as Naperville North's Kyle Gibson.

Derrick won the state 3A cross country title and was a national runner-up last fall. Pawola was eighth at state and Gibson was all-state as well.

Top two finishers in each event plus any others hitting state qualifying marks will advance to next weekend's state meet at Eastern Illinois University.

Preliminaries begin at 4 p.m. in the field events, 5 p.m. in the running events. Boys Track Sectionals