GO CHEROKEE!
On August 16th, 2010, eleven of Cherokee's runners reported to the extraordinary RunningWorks Cross Country Camp in beautiful Canadensis, Pennsylvania and participated in a tough week of training and classes. Unlike last year, when campers suffered from record-high temperatures and humidity, regular rain showers, and a record number of bugs, this year they had the opposite: reasonable temperatures, no rain, and few bugs!
The following pictures are of Cherokee coaches, several former Cherokee athletes serving as counselors, and some of our present-day athletes at camp. Now, here's the problem. There are lots of pictures of Greg Malloy, Ryan Bobb, Aiden Lynch, Bill Hornung, Matt Venanzi, Ty Somers, and Freddy Rasmussen but where are the pictures of Matt Adams, Jeremy Morgan, Matt Decker, and Danny Mintzer?! Probably there are several in the 800+ pictures posted on the RunningWorks website. Take a look at RunningWorks Cross Country Camp Photos and if you find some, let us know at Webmaster and we will transfer them!
On September 11, 2010, seven members of the Cherokee Cross Country Team competed in the 15th annual Cherokee Challenge and all seven ran well. Aiden Lynch was the team's top finisher, placing 8th in a field of 269 runners in the Junior race with a 30 second improvement from last year. Also in the Junior race, Jeremy Morgan improved by 42 seconds over last year. In the Senior race, Ryan Bobb, medaled with his 35th place finish in a field of 259, running 23 seconds faster than 2009. Senior, Eric Birkhead, knocked 31 seconds off of his time from last year and Senior, Jason Brockman, running in his first cross country race, acquitted himself quite well! Sophomore, Matt Decker, knocked 53 seconds off of last year's performance to place 50th in a field of 249, while Freshman, Sankeerth Kondapalli, earned Runner of the Meet honors for the aggressive way he raced. Sankeerth has shown tremendous improvement in the short time he has been on the team! Additional details on the meet can be found at: Cherokee Challenge Main Page.
Thanks to Pat Montferrat of NJRunners for providing these pictures from the meet!
On September 14, 2010, Cherokee traveled to Gloucester County College for the first of several Batch Meets. These meets replace the "Dual Meets," "Tri-Meets," and other combinations favored by the Olympic Conference for more than ten years. Although they have no impact on Conference titles, Cherokee will participate in three of them this year and use them as training opportunities.
The coaches held out several runners from Batch Meet # 1 and the team placed 3rd. Matt Venanzi led the way with his 2nd place finish. Ty Somers (9th), Billy Hornung (14th), Matt Decker (28th), Jason Brockman (30th), Jeremy Morgan (31st) and Matt Adams (39th) were the other scorers for Cherokee.
Jason Brockman was selected as the Runner of the Meet! Competing in his first 5K, Jason ran very aggressively through the middle of the race and held it together over the last half-mile even though he was hurting! GO JASON!
On September 21, 2010, Cherokee traveled to Gloucester County College for the second Batch Meet of the season. The coaches again used the meet as a threshold-training exercise for the Varsity, and as a racing opportunity for the JV. In the JV race, Matt Decker was selected the Runner of the Meet as he led the way for Cherokee, dropping 30 seconds on his PR and placing 11th in a field of 174 runners! Jeremy Morgan was Cherokee's next finisher in 22nd place with a season-best time, while Jason Brockman and Vishnu Kadirisani also set new PR's to help the team to a 6th place finish!
