GO CHEROKEE! GO CHIEFS!
On a rainy November 7, 2015, Cherokee's Varsity raced for "the bigs" at the South Jersey Group IV Sectional Championships. They planned to win the event and advance to the State Group IV Championships at Holmdel but they didn't have their best day.
Despite racing hard throughout the race, they failed to repeat their victory over their main rival, Cherry Hill East (the defending state champions), but they were still able to take 2nd ahead of the 16 other teams in the race! The five top teams in the race -- East, Cherokee, Jackson, Southern and Kingsway -- will join the other 15 Group IV Sectional qualifiers from around the state in the final race for the State Group IV (team) Championship!
Apparently, our guys aren't "mudders" and the rain didn't help their performances. Still, Jack Shea and Nick Falk ran solid races to give Cherokee a good start. In addition, Justin Kelly and Brandon Marks also ran well, and Brendan Falzone set a new 5K PR!
The guys know they can run better -- plug in their times from the SJ Open (same course a month ago) and Cherokee wins Sectionals -- and they'll need to in order to advance out of a very deep State Group IV field and make it to the Meet of Champions! GO CHEROKEE!
The coaches selected Brendan Falzone as the Runner of the Meet in recognition of his PR performance at the meet! GO BRENDAN!
Details at NJ.MileSplit
On a cool and windy November 14, 2015, Cherokee's Varsity showed-up big-time at the New Jersey Group IV State Championships! Yeah, the guys aren't well-oiled machines where everyone runs exactly as programmed but, on great teams when one falters, the others step up and fill the gap! Something like that happened at Groups! Overall, it wasn't the team's best race but there were some very impressive individual performances: the team finished 3rd and qualified for the State Meet of Champions as a team for the first time since 2008 when Cherokee finished 2nd in the Group IV State Championships and placed 10th at the Meet of Champions!
On the individual performances, Jack Shea had an outstanding run as he moved up from around 15th at the mile to take 4th with the 7th fastest time of the day out of all the races! In addition, Jack's time of 16:03 moved him up to number 4 on the All-Time Cherokee List at Holmdel, behind Cherokee greats Shawn Wilson, 15:40 (2012 State Champ and Footlocker Finalist), Marc Pelerin, 15:44 (2001 Meet of Champions winner and Footlocker Finalist) and Keith Krieger, 15:46 (2002 Meet of Champions runner-up)! In addition, Justin Kelly, despite being sick, ran a very strong race and dropped 20 seconds off of his previous Holmdel PR with a 16:45 finish, making him the 18th fastest Cherokee runner ever on the course! Senior Captain, Mike Zurzolo came back big from a disappointing Sectional outing, to run his best race of the year and beat his previous best Holmdel time by 30 seconds, while Brandon Marks continued his great season with yet another strong race, dropping 11 seconds from his previous Holmdel PR! Nick Falk was a little under the weather and also had some difficulty with a hip issue that has been with him all season but he still hung in there to take the important 5th scoring position on the team!
Looking ahead, if Nick is feeling better next week, he'll run with Jack and give Cherokee a powerful 1-2 punch in the Meet of Champions. Those two, backed up by Justin, Mike, Brandon, and perhaps Brendan Falzone and Steve Gravlin, will be a lot for the other teams to deal with! The goal, then. for the Meet of Champions is to have the best team race of the year and to make the Awards Podium as one of the top 6 teams in the state! GO CHEROKEE!
The coaches selected Mike Zurzolo as the Runner of the Meet! He had one of those "yikes!" meets where he bounced back from a bad race at Sectionals with the best cross country race of his career TO DATE! GO MIKE! . . . GO AGAIN AT MOC!
Further details at: NJ.MileSplit
The pictures ain't so hot! Tough lighting with the bright sun going down.
On November 20, 2015, the day before the New Jersey State Cross Country Meet of Champions, Cherokee's Varsity traveled to Holmdel to check out the course and get ready for the last state cross country race of the year.
The following day, a fantastic cross country day with bright sun, light winds, and temperatures in the 50's, the team arrived as the 8th best team from the Group Meet of last week and finished as the 7th! Jack Shea was, without a doubt, the Runner of the Meet -- GO JACK! running 15:46 for 6th place (the 2nd fastest underclassman)! Jack's time tied him with one of Cherokee's legends, Keith Krieger, on the All-Time Cherokee at Holmdel list! Krieger ran 15:45.8 in 2002 which rounds up to 15:46. (Some years they leave the tenths and other years they don't. Technically, for Cross Country, the time is supposed to be rounded to the second . . . which goes back to pre-FAT days and is now stupid but whatever.) Also, Jack's time was one second off the Cherokee Junior Class Record of 15:45 set by another legend, Shawn Wilson in 2011.
While the rest of the runners on the team did not have their best days, it was still enough for Cherokee to finish as the 7th best team in the entire state! Finally, Cherokee returns five of seven from the Varsity team and they are looking for big things next year!
GO CHEROKEE!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Friday
Race Day
By the way, in what seems like a long long time ago, Nick Falk announced to the world that he would not have his hair cut until the TEAM raced in the State Meet of Champions. Last year, he and Jack Shea qualified and raced in the MOC but the TEAM did not qualify. That meant another year . . .. Of course, this year the TEAM qualified and raced and, as a result, Nick visited the local salon -- yeah, he's a Marlton kid so no plebian barber shop for him -- for a trim. Pictures from Mom, with love.
On November 27, 2015, the day before the Nike Cross Nationals: Northeast Regional, Cherokee's Varsity, now identified as the "Evesham Harriers," traveled to Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, NY to prepare for what would become their final cross country race of the season. GO HARRIERS!
The results are in! Once again, nice races but not yet at a level where the team makes Nationals! This time, tenth in the Northeast Region! The highlight of the race was the continued improvement of Jack Shea as he ran the boldest race of his life, actually taking the lead at one point! Yeah, at Regionals! His time of 16:05 was the fastest by a Cherokee runner at Bowdoin Park by over 36 seconds -- Alex Yersak was Cherokee's top finisher in 2007, running 16:41.8 for 17th -- and an incredible finish to a terrific season! Nick Falk had a good first half in the race but struggled to stay on his feet on the slick down hill sections and lost some ground. Justin Kelly and Brandon Marks both ran well, and Mike Zurzolo held on well although he struggled over the last half of the race. Finally, Steve Gravlin ran another solid race, just as he did at the Meet of Champions, and Brendan Falzone hung in there even though he didn't have his best day.
What a team! Really! South Jersey Open, County and Conference Champions; 2nd at Sectionals, 3rd at State Group IV, 7th at the Meet of Champions, and 10th in the Region . . . and five of the seven return next year! What a team! Really! . . . but more on that later!
The following pictures were taken at the meet by the New York/MileSplit team. Interestingly, one photographer was on the lead vehicle and he took hundreds of pictures of the lead pack as they covered the course. If, for example, you were Jack Shea and stayed in that group throughout the race, you have a bazillion pictures to remind you of the day. If, however, you were farther back, then you'll have one or two pictures or, even worse, you'll have none and have to depend entirely on your personal memories!
Details at: NXN.
On December 2, 2015, a large contingent of Cherokee athletes, coaches and parents attended the 36th Annual South Jersey Track Coaches Association Awards Banquet at Auletto's Ballroom in Almonesson, New Jersey. Last year, Cherokee's Justin DeTone received the first Scholar-Athlete award for academic and athletic excellence and Nick Falk was named to the All-South Jersey Cross Country Team. This year, the team decided not to muddy the waters with subjective academic considerations and just went for the more objective athletic awards!
Reminding everyone of years past, Cherokee won two of the ten positions on the All-South Jersey Cross Country Team! Nick Falk returned to take his second All-SJ award and Jack Shea took his first well-deserved position on the All-SJ Team! GO NICK! GO JACK!
Robert Kellert of NJ.MileSplit attended the banquet and posted a report on the event: NJ.MileSplit.
On December 2, 2015, Cherokee's Cross Country team held its annual awards dinner at the school. There the team, coaches, families and friends, enjoyed a meal together, applauded the accomplishments of the team this season, and bid farewell to the graduating seniors. Besides the meal provided by the parents, the highlight of the evening was the Coaches' awards, including the Most Improved, Most Valuable, and the Unsung Hero. Coach Shaklee's remarks are at: here.
--- The following Coaches' awards were announced by Coaches Shaklee and Thompson:
--- In addition, Jack Shea was named to the All-State Cross Country Team by the Star-Ledger newspaper and NJ Advance Media for NJ.com -- the first since Shawn Wilson! It's no secret that Jack planned to "take down" the 2011 Cherokee Junior record at Holmdel held by Shawn Wilson. Jack missed that goal -- Shawn clocked 15:44.5 as a Junior while Jack clocked a rounded-up 15:46 -- but Shawn has the Cherokee Senior record/All-Time record at Holmdel too -- 15:39.4 -- and everyone expects Jack to go for that one too! GO JACK!
--- As expected, Jack and Nick Falk were named to the All-South Jersey Team by the South Jersey Track Coaches Association; to the All-Conference, 1st Team by the Olympic Conference Coaches; and the All-County Team by the Burlington County Times. Also, Justin Kelly was named to the All-Conference, 1st Team and Mike Zurzolo and Brandon Marks were named to the All-Conference, 2nd Team by the Olympic Conference Coaches.
--- The Burlington County Times named Jack Shea their Runner of the Year at the same time they named him to their All-County Team. Also named to the All-County Team -- for a second time -- was Nick Falk. The newspaper inexplicably ignored the outstanding racing of Justin Kelly who, if you make a quick review of the season's results, clearly finished ahead of at least four of those selected by the newspaper's distinguished committee of one overworked reporter! In addition, a strong argument can be made to also include Cherokee Captain Mike Zurzolo on the All-County Team but no one at the newspaper is home!
A few days after the banquet, Reuben Frank, a sports reporter who abandoned the sinking BCT ship, now working for Comcast and blogging at the SJTCA website, From the Backstretch, wrote the following glowing report on Jack Shea's breakout season: "Shea Caps Huge Season With Top-10 Finish At Nike Regionals!" Access the entire blog at SJTrack Blog and the specific article on Jack: here.
-- Again, the team cleverly invited Jon Falk, grandfather of Nick and Joe and retired photographer from the Philadelphia Daily News, and his camera to the banquet! Here's some of his work from the occasion! GO MR. FALK!
~ ~ Congratulations to everyone for a great season, and thanks for all your efforts! ~ ~
GO CHEROKEE!