The team is moving towards its peak as it looks forward to the final races for the Freshmen and JV squads, and the championship races of the Conference, Sectionals, Groups and the Meet of Champions for the Varsity! GO CHIEFS!
On a windy, dark and cold October 23, 2006, several of Cherokee's Freshmen and Sophomores traveled to Gloucester County College for the SJ Frosh-Soph Meet. Three Cherokee Freshmen ran in the 125-man Frosh race, with Ian Foley taking 3rd, and Frank Devine and Mike Czuba finishing in 13th and 52nd! In the 120-man Sophomore race, Ryan McNair took 6th; Evan Stone, 11th; Rob Roselli, 16th; Kyle Miller, 18th; Adam Henriksen, 26th; and Josh Ungerleider, 55th! Had the meet been scored as a team event, Cherokee's Sophomores would have won easily!
The coaches selected one runner from each race as the "Runner of the Meet!" In the Freshman race, Ian Foley was chosen because of the outstanding way he finished his race; and in the Sophomore race, Adam Henriksen was chosen to highlight his first sub-19 on a challenging, official 5K course! GO IAN! GO ADAM!
Full results at: SJTCA
Alas, gloomy conditions equal gloomy pictures!
On October 27, 2006, another gloomy and fairly cold day in South Jersey, Cherokee competed strongly in the Olympic Conference Championships at Gloucester County College, taking second overall in the championship race and completely dominating the JV competition! In the main event, Alex Yersak continued his dominance of SJ events by taking 1st! He was followed by scorers Chris Applegate in 6th; Colin Cunningham in 16th; Steve Burkholder in 20th; and Sean Hartnett in 27th! Mike Medvec and Matt McCarroll completed the team in 33rd and 36th. There were 107 athletes in the race.
In the 137-man JV race, Cherokee put five scorers in the top seven places: Kevin Schickling took 1st overall; with Brenden Burke in 2nd; Rob Roselli in 4th; Ryan McNair in 5th; and Marc Saccomanno in 7th! Although there was no team scoring, Cherokee's "B Team" in the race placed ahead of any other team and would have taken 2nd place overall! That scoring team included: Evan Stone in 10th; Kyle Miller in 11th; Ian Foley in 12th; Joe Foley in 18th; and Frank Devine in 21st! They were closely followed by Adam Henriksen in 26th; Liam Eells in 27th; Josh Ungerleider in 48th; and Mike Czuba in 50th.
The coaches selected Alex Yersak as the "Runner of the Meet," noting his record-breaking first place finish in the Championship race! GO ALEX!
Complete results at: Olympic Conference
The New Jersey State Coaches Association recently named Coach Shaklee as their "Cross Country Coach of the Year" based on the achievements of his 2005 team and on his impressive career at Cherokee High School!
The citation said in part: "Steve Shaklee has been a mainstay of the Cherokee Cross Country, Winter Track, and Spring Track & Field Programs for fifteen years. Under his guidance, tentative young runners have matured into highly competitve athletes, and groups of young men have combined to win championship after championship. In sixteen seasons of coaching Cross Country, Coach Shaklee has led his teams to 13 Conference Championships, 11 County Championships, 6 South Jersey Championships, and 4 State Championships, while accumulating 111 wins against a mere 13 losses. This includes a perfect 29-0 record in the past five years with five Burlington County Championships. Steve is a previous State Coach of the Year (1998), two time South Jersey Coach of the Year (1990, 1997), and multiple time Burlington County Coach of the Year, and now has added one more trophy to the shelf with his latest honor as the New Jersey State Coaches Association 'State Coach of the Year.'" Congratulations, Coach!
On October 29, 2006, with wind speeds and temperature in the low 40s, Coach Shaklee competed in the annual Halloween Bone Run at Parvin State Park in Pittsgrove, NJ. Coach Shaklee took 11th overall, first in his age group, finishing in 17:10; while his wife, Cricket Batz Shaklee, took 30th overall, third female, in 19:56! There were 332 finishers in the race.
Complete results at: Bones Run Results
On November 1, 2006, Cherokee's JV and Freshmen athletes traveled to Haddonfield for what was for them the season's "last chance" to win a race and/or set a new PR: the Haddonfield Invitational! That, by itself, was enough incentive, but there was an extra inducement: intra-team bragging rights!
For the sixth year, to encourage additional competition among the runners, the coaches split the team into two equal squads. Coach Shaklee's squad, the "St. Joe Hawks," and Coach Callinan's squad, the "LaSalle Explorers."
The "Hawks" included Sean Hartnett, Ryan McNair, Marc Saccomanno, Joe and Ian Foley, Adam Henriksen and Josh Ungerleider. The equally talented "Explorers" included Brenden Burke, Rob Roselli, Evan Stone, Kyle Miller, Frank Devine, Liam Eells and Mike Czuba
The individual results: fourteen runners . . . eleven PR's, with three (Ian Foley, Evan Stone and Kyle Miller) under 18 for the first time! Yikes!
The team results were close but, once again, Coach Shaklee's squad defeated Coach Cal's: Hawks: 36; Explorers: 42. Six times in a row . . . Yikes again!
The coaches selected "Co-Runners of the Meet:" Ian Foley for his 1st place showing in the Freshman race and his outstanding PR; and Brenden Burke for his consistency throughout the season, routinely dropping his PR race after race, and for his excellent PR in this race! GO IAN! GO BRENDEN!
Complete results at: SJTCA
