By Chris Kuchta
Correspondent
When Tom Graves set the Class AA state cross country meet record as a Sandburg senior in 1977 at Peoria\'s Detweiller Park, he never could have dreamed his son would try to chase that mark on the same course 29 years later.
Especially since the Graves family no longer calls Illinois home.
Dr. Tom Graves, who is the assistant superintendent of the Washington County Public School District in Abingdon, Va., will accompany his son, Griff, to Detweiller Park on Saturday for the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational.
Griff, a junior at Abingdon High School and a Virginia state cross country champion himself, will participate in the meet unattached in an effort to see just how close he can come to his father\'s still-standing 3-mile mark of 13 minutes, 56.6 seconds.
\"I really can\'t wait to run there,\" Griff said. \"Illinois has some of the best runners in the country, and on top of that, it\'s pretty cool to be a second-generation runner at Detweiller. It means a lot to my dad.\"
As for the elder Graves, the nearly 700-mile drive from Abingdon to Peoria is well worth the effort.
\"I can\'t tell you how excited I am about it,\" said Dr. Graves, who also won the state title in 1976. \"For Griff to run on that course and see where he stacks up with some of Illinois\' legends is really exciting. It will be nice to see how he stacks up to his old man, too.
\"Virginia has some pretty good cross country runners, but they really don\'t compare to what Illinois has. This will be a great experience for all of us and some great competition for Griff.\"
The Graves can thank Sandburg cross country coach John O\'Malley for hatching the plan to have Griff run at the site of his father\'s greatest high school accomplishment.
\"We came for a visit last year and went to watch Sandburg at the Mount Prospect meet,\" said Dr. Graves, a five-time All-American in track and cross country at Auburn University. \"Coach O\'Malley wanted me to come over and speak to the Sandburg guys, and after I was done, I told them that if they ever wanted to come out to Virginia, they were more than welcome. They took me up on the offer and came out here in June and trained with Griff for a few days.
\"While they were here, they started to talk to Griff about running at Detweiller. We decided it would be a great idea and it kind of went from there.\"