Parents . . . GO PARENTS!
"History and tradition are great, but ya can't eat history and tradition!"
Who knows what idiot said that but, whoever it was, he had a good, if badly stated, point in mind. Cherokee Cross Country has one of the most celebrated history/traditions in New Jersey -- 15 consecutive appearances at the State Group Championships, and 12 consecutive appearances in the State Meet of Champions, with five State Championships during that time -- but, with the graduation of four out of the top seven on last year's team, that history/tradition will be greatly tested in 2009!
For one thing, the competition seems to get stronger every year! Group IV at the state level is incredibly deep, with powerful teams such as WWPS, Old Bridge, Southern, Bridgewater-Raritan, Toms River North and Ridgewood to contend with. But even on the local level, potent teams such as Lenape and Shawnee will compete for county, conference and sectional championships!
Leadership on the team will come from the three remaining members of last year's top seven -- Steve Burkholder, Matt McCarroll, and Kyle Smith -- and from others who will be called upon for both their running and leadership skills: Seniors Frankie Devine, Josh Perez, Mike Czuba, and Mike Palmieri; Juniors Ryan Bobb and Greg Malloy; and Sophomores Aiden Lynch, Billy Hornung and Matt Venanzi! It will all come down to how committed the team is, and how hard they work! History/tradition may intimidate others for a while but all of that tends to fade when the gun goes off!
GO CHEROKEE!
On July 4th, 2009, as part of his own training program, Coach Shaklee signed-up for the 2nd Annual Marlton Mayor's Cup 5K Run, a road-race in the heart of downtown Marlton, New Jersey, and more than a dozen former and present Cross Country athletes, and at least three team parents, joined him in the race. The Alums included Matt Mueller, '02; Marc Pelerin, '02; Kevin "Ted" Schickling, '08; Steve McCarroll, '08; Chris Applegate, '09; Kyle Miller, '09; Adam Henriksen, '09; and Evan Stone, '09. And, while there were many parents cheering on the runners, four actually ran the race: Mike McCarroll, Don Henriksen, Chip Candy, and Bill Rapp (technically a track parent but today he was welcomed to the distance ranks!). The Alums dominated the race with Pelerin, Schickling, and Applegate and Mueller taking 2nd through 5th place! They were followed by the first active Cherokee CC runner, Matt McCarroll, in 6th, with Coach Shaklee close on his heels in 7th! Ryan Bobb and Greg Malloy took 11th and 12th; and Kyle Miller and Kyle Muench followed in 15th and 16th. The top twenty was rounded out by Steve McCarroll who finished in 20th. Later finishers included Bill Hornung, Adam Henriksen, Evan Stone, Frank Devine, Mike Czuba and Ryan and Colin Merrigan.
Results at: Mayor's Cup.
Here are some pictures from the race. Some athletes are MIA as the photographer missed them in the crowd. Alumni pictures are on the 2009-2010 Alums Page. If using Microsoft Explorer, you may hover over the thumbnail picture for a description, and then click for a larger version. Other browsers, just click.
Parents . . . GO PARENTS!
On August 17th, 2009, fifteen of Cherokee's runners reported to the extraordinary RunningWorks Cross Country Camp in beautiful suburban Canadensis, Pennsylvania and participated in a tough week of training and classes made all the more difficult by record-high temperatures and humidity, regular rain showers, and a record number of BUGS! No, not the "Bugs as big as Buicks" described by Woody Allen in Annie Hall but enough of them to carry off a Buick! Hey, anyone see what happened to that little kid in K Group?!
The following pictures are of Cherokee coaches, several former Cherokee athletes, and our present-day athletes at camp. For a wider selection of pictures, including some more of Cherokee runners, from camp, see RunningWorks Cross Country Camp Pictures, 2009.
Hey, did anyone see Kyle Smith?! Well over a thousand pictures were taken at camp but Smith isn't apparent in any of them, except for the two close-ups below! Was there really a Dunkin' Donuts a half-mile from camp?
On September 12th, 2009, the season began in earnest on a particularly unpleasant Fall morning! After 24 hours of rain -- the weatherman said 3 to 4 inches -- that had finally slowed to a drizzle on Saturday morning, the team showed-up as both hosts and competitors at the 14th Annual Cherokee Challenge on the campus of the high school! After altering the course a bit to avoid the washouts in the wooded part of the course, the meet went off as scheduled.
In the merged results, using regular 5-man scoring, Cherokee placed 7th out of 70 teams led by Steve Burkholder who finished 15th in the senior race. Others who medaled in their races were: Greg Malloy, 21st in junior race; Matt McCarroll, 32nd in senior race; Aiden Lynch, 14th in soph race; Matt Venanzi, 30th in soph race; and Billy Hornung, 33rd in soph race. The Runner of the Meet was a close call between freshman, Freddy Rasmussen, and sophomore, Zach Roether, who both showed tremendous improvement in time from the time-trial run on the course two weeks earlier. Freddy knocked 4:19 off of his time, while Zach improved by 5:59! Zach's time was also three minutes faster than his time from last year at the Challenge! GO ZACH!
The pictures are all by "guest photographers," to whom we owe our thanks! The first group is by Dyestat's Northeast Regional Representative, John Nepolitan.
The second group is by NJRunner/Mile Split's former publisher, Pat Montferrat.
And a third submission from parent Mike McCarroll, who rightly believes that the pictures on the site should portray "more than just a bunch of running dorks." OK . . . that last part was made up. Anyway, parents are strongly encouraged to take their own high-resolution pictures at the meets, showing the action, Cherokee supporters, Cherokee-related funny stuff, etc. There definitely should be more than one voice on this site! So have fun, get clicking, and mail your pictures to The Handyman.
On September 15th, 2009, Cherokee met their first challenge of the dual-meet season as they pursued their 13th consecutive Olympic Conference American Division Championship! Running on the B course at Gloucester County College, the team beat both Cherry Hill H.S. East, 15 - 49; and Washington Township High School, 20 - 41! Steve Burkholder led the way with his individual victory, and was followed closely by Kyle Smith, 3rd; Ryan Bobb, 4th; Matt McCarroll, 5th; Aiden Lynch, 7th; Greg Malloy, 8th; and Josh Perez, 10th. Of the top seven, Ryan Bobb, Aiden Lynch, Greg Malloy, and Josh Perez all improved on their best times from last year on GCC's B course (Malloy by 2:33!). Others who improved from last year are: Billy Hornung, Matt Venanzi, Andrew Yang and Jeremy Morgan (by 1:56!). In addition, first year runners, Alberto Redaelli, Ryan Merrigan, Lou DiGeambeardino and Matt Decker all ran well.
The Runner of the Meet honors go to Ryan Bobb who stayed focused and raced competitively all the way to earn his highest finish ever in a varsity cross country race. GO RYAN!
Dual Meet Record: 2 - 0. GO CHEROKEE!
