Home of the Cadets

Marmion encourages both school spirit and a healthy balance between mind and body. With these goals in mind, students are encouraged to participate in multiple sports throughout the school year.

Athletic facilities include an indoor swimming pool, weight room, gymnasium, rifle range, football stadium, all-weather track, six tennis courts, two baseball diamonds, and several practice fields.

Summer Camps 2008

Parents Brochure - Understanding Steroids

Download the Athletic Student/Parent Handbook

Cross Country

Stein Leads Stellar Championship Season
Finishes 11th in State

With five of the top eight runners from last year’s team returning, the Cross Country season began with a first place finish in the Yorkville Invitational.

This superb effort was followed by total domination in the Aurora City Meet. Senior Josh Stein won by 56 seconds in a time of 15:09. Stein, a pre-season pick as a top area athlete, was followed home by teammates in 3rd through 8th places. Freshman Ben Kanute finished in first place at the frosh-soph level.

Josh Stein skillfully handled the 3.1-mile Marmion course in 16:17.1 as he won top honors for the second consecutive year in the Royal-Cadet Invitational.

With Josh injured, freshman Chris Hebert stepped up to finish first out of 214 runners in the Minooka Open.

In late September, the Illinois Prep Times, ranked the Cadets 22nd in the state.

At the Charger Classic Invitational, Marmion led the way with a first place finish having five runners in the top 19. Josh Stein returned to remain undefeated in 2007 leading the field by almost 38 seconds with a time of 14:33.4 for the three-mile course.

At the Conference Meet a victorious Josh Stein establish a new Marmion course record with a time of 15:30. All seven Marmion runners earned All-SCC honors with finishes in the top 10. T.J. Hefferman (3rd), Oscar Aguinaga (6th), and Matt Wenzel (7th) earned first-team honors and earning second-team honors were Bennett Marsh (8th), Ben Kanute (9th), and Zach Young (10th).

Dating back to the 2000 Season, Marmion has an incredible record of 75-2 in dual meets.

Football

A Rollercoaster Season, But Playoff Bound

Marmion’s multiple option offense was definitely too much for South Elgin in the season opener with Marmion amassing 356 yards. The final score, after the Cadets scored 38 unanswered points, was 45-12.

Coach Dan Thorpe, in his third season with an overall record of 9-9, knew that Kaneland would prove to be a formidable non-conference opponent. The 42-38 victory featured junior quarterback Ricky Bird completing 21 of 39 passes for 317 yards, one a 78-yard touchdown pass to senior Manny Juarez, and he also rushed for two TD’s.

Juarez is viewed as a Division I prospect and plays wide receiver, running back and is a stalwart on defense as one of the defensive backs. Cadet Nick Zuccarini accounted for 6 solo tackles and 10 assists and was named the Walter Payton SCC Player of the Week for his impressive performance.

Home fans also witnessed the stellar kicking of senior Alex Picini who finished 2nd out of 100 kickers this past summer at the Auburn University Kicking Camp. The Cadets team motto this year is “Finish” and by averaging 43.5 points in their first two games they seemed poised for an incredibly difficult three games set against the following conference opponents: 6-time defending state champion Driscoll Catholic, 5A state runner-up Marian Central Catholic, and 2004 4A state champ Montini.

Marmion’s game against Marian Central was the first night game (under temporary lights) on the Butterfield campus. The atmosphere was electric and all in attendance also enjoyed the cheerleaders’ cheers and the performance of the band. This series of mega-opponents proved too much for the Cadets and resulted in three defeats. They added a third victory to their record with a Homecoming win against St. Francis. Down 0-3, the Cadets score came on a 64-yard drive late in the fourth quarter. An interception in the end zone by Sean Fichtel with 56 seconds remaining in the game came up huge as Marmion finished on the right end of a 7-5 final score. The uncommon score occurred when the Cadets decided to take an intentional safety with 3.7 seconds remaining to ensure their victory.

Fresh off this Homecoming success, the Cadets then caused six turnovers and rolled over Immaculate Conception by a score of 33-7.

The Cadet's regular season ended with a 24-14 victory against St. Edward. Their 5-4 record was enough to get them in the State Play-offs (Class 6-A) for the first time since 1998.

Golf

Consistent Play Leads to Golf Championship

In pre-season articles, Marmion’s Varsity Golf team was being described as an elite group. Coach Jen Konen commented that “I think we are deeper than we have ever been. I’m thrilled with our prospects and potential for the season.” Junior Bryce Emory had been a state qualifier as a freshman and last year was selected as the Kane County Chronicle Player of the Year. Senior Luke Kolquist is a 4-year varsity player and Senior Robby Whitehead is possibly the best #3 golfer in the area.

The Cadets wasted no time in capturing the Larkin Invitational for the second year in a row. Marmion followed up by edging Batavia by 6 strokes as junior David Brouch earned top honors for the first time at the varsity level.

They defeated Wheaton Warrenville South by 10 strokes before achieving a second place finish in the 16-team Geneva Invitational that was highlighted by Kolquist and Emory finishing 4th and 5th respectively. Kolquist birdied 3 of the last 5 holes to capture fourth.

Victories over Driscoll Catholic and Marian Central Catholic preceded an impressive victory over 34 teams in the Fenton Invitational.

Following a 23-stroke victory over Montini in a dual meet, Kolquist then shot a 71 while leading the Cadets to a 4th place finish out of 30 teams in the Batavia Invitational.

The best-ball format of the Oswego Panther Scramble couldn’t slow down the Marmion machine as they had 5 eagles and won first place with a 20 under-par score of 52.

In the SCC Championship, undefeated Marmion came out on top for the second consecutive year. Sophomore Timmy Johnson earning top honors with a score of 73 highlighted this exciting victory. Contributing to the team victory were Bryce Emory (74), Bobby Whitehead (75) and Luke Kolquist (78).

In the IHSA Regional, conducted on the Mill Creek Golf Course, the Cadets finished 9th with Junior Bryce Emory advancing to Sectionals.

Soccer

Soccer Reclaims Conference Title

Often you will hear coaches profess that many life lessons are to be learned by being a competitor in their sport. This past summer Marmion Soccer under the direction of Coach Kevin O’Connor took this premise to the next level.

Coach O’Connor and his players began the 2007 season with a 10-day trip to Brazil. The team agreed that the trip was about so much more than soccer, as the team visited two orphanages, donating school supplies, shoes and even a washing machine.

Coach O’Connor commented, “The soccer training was fabulous and the competition we played was very strong. Certainly what the players saw on their trip and the generosity they displayed while there will stay with them for a lifetime. The group came home knowing how fortunate we all are to have the conveniences we have.”

The soccer team returned to the States determined to improve on last year’s 11-9-4 record. This year’s varsity team anchored by 9 returning starters and 12 varsity lettermen benefitted from the addition of top newcomers juniors Alex Rindone and Mike Shay and sophomore Max Rosenfelder. The Cadets began the season by defeating Willowbrook and then faced very stiff competition in the Barrington Invite and Pepsi Shootout.

It was apparent that their approach to the season prepared them to play their best ball-control soccer against conference opponents. The team dominated the conference with their defense anchored by the play of three-year varsity captains Taylor Weis, Luke Friedman, and Doug Conroy. They ended their regular season by soundly defeating St. Francis to clinch the Suburban Catholic Conference championship with an undefeated 6-0 record.

The Cadets advanced to the Class AA Regional Final at Naperville Central by defeating Oswego 3-2. With a record of 15-7-2, Marmion’s season ended with a loss to Naperville Central.

Basketball

Basketball Ends Regular Season on Winning Streak

The basketball season started off with the Cadet’s sharing the title at the Marmion Thanksgiving Tournament. Senior Mike Orlowski set expectations high scoring 17, 20 and 16 points during the tournament.

The bubble burst with some tough conference losses to Immaculate Conception, St. Edward and Driscoll.

They got back on track starting a ten-game winning streak with a nail-biting 58-57 win against Montini.

In a non-conference win against Hinckley-Big Rock, senior Hayes Cooper thrilled fans hitting five 3-pointers in a row from beyond the arc and finishing with a game-high 17 points.

Another season highlight was the Cadet’s two wins over Aurora Central Catholic.

Mike Orlowski said that communication could be the key in the team’s turnaround.

“The defense has been really good the last five games and it’s really propelling us,” said Orlowski. “This year we have a lot more team camaraderie than the last two years. We’re talking all the time out there. Coach has been stressing defense and we finally figured out that good defense can win games.”

Orlowski also knows that you cannot win without getting the ball in the net and followed suit with an average 14.8 points per game. Senior Ricky LaBerge also added an average 13 points per game.

The Cadets finished the regular season with an outstanding Senior Night win against IMSA 92-41.

“It was a good game for the seniors, the way everybody passed the ball around unselfishly,” said Coach Pat McNamara. “The way Orlowski and LaBerge deferred to the other seniors showed the kind of character they have.”

The Cadets concluded their 16-11 season (7-7 conference) with a 54-36 loss to the top-seeded Glenbard North Hilltoppers in the second round of the Regional competition.

Rifle

Rifle Team Wins State Championship

The Schroeder Snipers Rifle team had a winning season that began with top finishes at the Illinois State Rifle Association Conventional Prone Championship, NRA International Open Redbird Classic and the Raider Classic.

The weekend of January 13-14, Marmion’s Varsity Precision Air Rifle and Junior Varsity Sporter Rifle Teams shot in the NRA Junior Sectionals.

At this 3-Position Precision Event Kevin Kuebrich was awarded first place with a score of 557. Ian Christian was awarded first place Intermediate with a score of 558. In the Sporter Event sophomore Alex Hardison placed second overall with a score of 479. Freshman Ryan Novack placed second Intermediate with a score of 449.

The team travel to Pekin IL on March 10 for the Illinois High School Rifle League State Championship. Marmion out shot seven teams for the honor of being named State Champions. They also fired a team record at the competition with a score of 1,138 points of a possible 1200.

The team is still waiting on the results from their most important competition of the season, the Civilian Marksmanship program (CMP) National Qualifier. If they win, they will travel to Bowling Green KY to represent the State of Illinois at the CMP Nationals later this Spring.

Swimming

Cadets Qualify Ten for State Meet

It did not take long for this Cadet team to make its mark. Only two meets into the season, the Cadets took first place at Marmion’s own Randy Block Memorial Relays and shattered four pool records in the process.

“We knew of the records before we got in to swim,” said senior Ryan Gensler, part of two record-breaking relays. “Our goal was to go and try to get the records and to get the best times for the season.”

The 400-yard medley relay of Steve Dukleth, Peter Flight, Ryan Gensler and Brian McMeans swam 3:46:96 breaking the record set in 2002 by 6 seconds. Marmion 200-yard frosh-soph medley relay of Tyler Capen, Matt Lifka, Austin Cox and Thomas Delves swam 1:41:59 and was 3 seconds faster that a record Brother Rice set in1983. The frosh-soph 200 freestyle relay of Cox, Delves, Lifka and Matt Pircon swam 1:31:81 breaking another pool record from the 1983 meet by 2 seconds. The final record was set by the 300 backstroke relay of Capen, Gensler and Brett Bromann. The team’s time of 2:43:73 was 1 second better than the 2005 record. During the season Luke Martinez also set the team record in the 500-freestyle and Steve Dukleth set the pool record in the 100 Butterfly.

The Cadets went on to take home top honors at the Sandburg Invitational and finished a solid second at the Naperville North College Events.

The team won the Metro Chicago Catholic Aquatic Conference title and finished third at the incredibly difficult Neuqua Valley Sectionals qualifying for State in 16 events.

Swimmers competing at State were Brett Bromann, Tyler Capen, Austin Cox, Ryan Delves, Thomas Delves, Peter Flight, Ryan Gensler, Matt Lifka, Luke Martinez and Matt Pircon.

Wrestling

Freshman Wrestler Wins Three Weight Class Titles

At the end of last season, the wrestling team graduated the first group of seniors to compete in the program for all four years.

Despite that loss, the team opened its new season by winning the Seneca Invitational for the second consecutive time. The Cadets finished with a team score of 226.5, which was 40 points better than the second place team. Of the 14 weight classes the Cadets had championships in five - junior Kris Gillette (103 pounds), junior Matt Grange (119), freshman Pat Greco (135), senior Anthony Crifase (140) and freshman Nico Jimenez (171).

At the Plano Reaper Classic, the Cadets won four weight class championships to finish fourth out of 16 team. Gillette, Grange, Greco and Jimenez all took weight class titles.

Pat Greco won his third title of the season at the Newbill Invitational at Geneva. Jimenez reached the finals before being pinned by last year’s Class A State champion.

Greco thinks it is only a matter of time before Marmion establishes itself as a powerhouse wrestling program.

“It’s exciting for the years to come,” Greco said. “We’re building it up right now. I think our team probably has the best work ethic of any team in the area. We just really work hard, and it’s paying off.”

Matt Grange (119), Dan Deufel (125), Chris Adrian (130), Josh Scheffert (152), and Nico Jiminez (171) combined for 153 regular-season victories leading the team to a 18-4 record and second place in the Suburban Catholic Conference. Deufel won Conference title in his weight class.

At the Regional contest, three Marmion wrestlers (Greco, Jimenez and Chris Hoare) advanced to Sectionals. Adrian and Grange just missed qualifying after finishing fourth at Regionals.

Nico Jiminez received the team’s MVP award, Chris Hoare was named Most Improved and Chris Adrian received the Best Mental Attitude award

Baseball

After 20 years of varsity coaching, Jim Reiland ‘57 has decided to retire.

“I’m almost 68 years old. I’m tired,” Reiland said. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I started coaching my first year out of college in 1961. I pretty much knew coming into the school year this is what I was going to do.”

Coach Reiland has coached several high-impact players who went on to play Division I baseball. T.S. Meagher ‘99 (Illinois), Matt German ‘02 (Northern Illinois), Matt Trowbridge ‘02 (Western Illinois) and Austen Siwiec ‘06 (Valparaiso) are some of his more recent players to go on to strong college athletic careers. Coach Reiland was the sophomore coach for eight years before getting the head varsity job. He replaced legendary Coach Joe Nardone.

Reiland’s impact on baseball goes beyond Marmion. He has also coached the Aurora American Legion teams for 36 years. “He’s been good for the whole community,” said Athletic Director Joe Chivari. “He’s known in Aurora, especially in baseball circles. He’s volunteered his time for decades. People see Jim as a coach that enjoys being around the kids and still has a burning desire to win.”

This season the Cadets finished with a 14-19 overall record, 5-9 in Conference. Senior Todd Thomas and junior Tim Milroy were named All-Conference. Todd also received the Baseball Achievement Award. SCC Academic All-Conference athletes were senior Scott Peters and juniors Jacob Graves, Allen Kus and Matt McHugh.

The sophomore team finished 24-3 with a first place tie in Conference. Sophomore coach Dave Rakow will take over as Varsity Head Coach next year.

Tennis

The tennis team finished second in the Suburban Catholic Conference with an overall varsity record of 8-3.

Freshman Sam Pecyna emerged as the team’s No. 1 singles player. He went on to place fourth at the tough West Aurora Sectional and qualified for the State competition.

The team made opponents take notice when they took the titles at the Lockport Invitational and the Yorkville doubles Tournament. They finished off tournament play with a 1st place sweep at the Batavia Quad meet.

Sophomores Steve Ausman and Brian Hoss were named All-Conference by winning the third doubles event at the SCC Conference Meet.

Academic All-Conference players with a GPA above 3.7 were juniors Robert Fortier, Michael Rios, Tom Weiler and Taylor Weis; sophomore Steve Ausman; and freshmen Michael Deufel and John Mason.

Robert Fortier was the recipient of the team’s Fr. Columban Reed OSB Achievement Award. The team is coached by Pat Maurer ‘61.

Track

Marmion’s track team went undefeated in dual meets this season finishing with a 12-0 record. They went on to win the Conference title by a spread of 39 points.

Conference champions were Bryson Hope (110 hurdles); David Grange (1,600 and 3,200 runs); 400 Relay team of Laird Boulden, Tim Rowley, Alex Rindone and Jake Walker; Tim Dennelly (discus); Ed Burke (long jump); and Peter Tate (shot put).

“We scored in every event thus showing our excellent team depth,” said Coach Dan Thorpe. “We are a very nice team. Yes, we have some great individuals, but you win big meets with a team and that is what we did. Those fourth and fifth place points are as important as the first place points and many players showed great guts and competed to get us points on a very windy day.”

The Fresh/Soph team also won Conference with an even better showing (Marmion 229 points with second place St. Francis at 95 points). Two runners, David Grange and Josh Stein, qualified for the State Meet. David came from behind to win his 1,600-meter preliminary heat. He ran both the 1,600 and 3,200 in the State finals -- a challenge for any athlete. He finished an impressive 5th in both events in class AA (large schools).

Grange Sets Two School Records

David set school records in both events running the 1,600 in 4:13.88 and the 3,200 in 9:07.32. He was named the Suburban Catholic Conference Runner of the Year, All-State, All-Conference and received the team’s Glenn Gilbert Achievement Award. He has received a full-scholarship to run at Iona College in New York next fall.

Also receiving All-Conference honors were seniros Laird Boulden, Tim Dennelly and Jake Walker; juniors Ed Burke, Bryson Hope, and Peter Tate; and sophomores Alex Rindone and Tim Rowley.

Academic All-Conference athletes with at least a 3.7 GPA were seniors Chris Adrian, Laird Boulden, John Konovodoff and Jason Richmond; juniors Brian Bakala, Andrew Canning, Alex Heinen, Ryan Hunt, Ryan Lutz, Conor McDonnell, Michael Meszaros and Josh Stein; sophomores Michael Duhig, Tim Rowley and Michael Shay; and freshman Matt Wenzel.