Cherokee Cross Country Pictures, 2017, Page IV





"The Bigs" . . . !


After a long season of "lesser" races, Saturdays in November mark a significant change: the state championship series! The first, the SJ Sectional Championships is open to all varsity teams in South Jersey but only the top five teams in each Group (17 teams in SJ Group IV) advance to the Group Championships. From there, it is even harder to advance, with only the top three in the Group IV race (20 teams) moving on to the state's Meet of Champions! Then there's Foot Locker Regionals in New York! . . . Yikes! . . . GO CHEROKEE!





NJSIAA South Jersey Sectional Group IV Championships

On November 5, 2017, the team returned to Delsea High School for the NJSIAA South Jersey Sectional Group IV Championships and brought home the 2nd place trophy!

Going into the race, Cherokee's Varsity knew that they all would have to run monumental races to defeat the truly great Kingsway team but getting 2nd wasn't expected to be that easy either! The coaches felt pretty sure that their Senior star, Justin Kelly was going to take 1st place but there was even more pressure on their following runners to break up the Kingsway pack and score important points. As it turned out, they ran well to take 2nd but not well enough to overcome the Kingsway harriers!

Although Justin Kelly didn't feel his best, he still ran a strong race -- fastest time of the day! -- and pulled away over the final quarter mile to claim his first South Jersey Group IV Title, joining Marc Pelerin (2001), Alex Yersak (2005, 2006, 2007), Shawn Wilson (2012) and Jack Shea (2016) as Cherokee's only sectional champions! After the race, Justin experienced a vast range of emotions as he was incorrectly identified as failing to go around a cone and initially DQ'd!

Beyond that, it was a "death sentence!" As explained by the Meet Referee, Justin could not advance even if Cherokee's team qualified for the following week's Group States! That remark turned out to be incorrect but, when it was made, it generated a great deal of "discussion" between the coaches and meet officials! (Insert emogie for "wild sarcasm" here.)

Thanks to the good sportsmanship of Kingsway's coach and top three runners, who assured the meet officials that Justin was running with them and had not cut the course, Justin was reinstated! GO KINGSWAY!

In passing it should be noted that, had the Cherokee coaches been less mature and less experienced, it would have been much less likely that Justin would have received justice! They kept their cool when the original official who made the call discussed his view of "the incident" and appeared to be unsure of what happened. He then left the site. In order to get a clear picture of what was supposed to have happened, the coaches contacted the Kingsway coach and athletes who confirmed that the original official must have been mistaken because Justin did not cut the course. They asked the Kingsway athletes to speak to the meet referee and, much to their credit, they and their coach agreed. The meet referee listened, considered what he had heard from the original official and from the Kingsway athletes, and reversed his decision to DQ Justin! Faced with the incredible possibility that the race champion would be DQ'd from the race and from further state competition, many coaches would have exploded in anger and frustration but Cherokee's coaches did not. Instead they looked at the situation reasonably, searching for an explanation and a reason to overturn the original decision. That says a lot about their maturity and experience, and provided a great lesson for the young men on the team! GO COACHES!

Behind Justin, Chris Spisak was also not having his best day but what a difference a year makes! Although he struggled a bit, Chris still managed to run well and take 6th with a time a full minute faster than last year! Ironically, Chris' "off" day was really a positive as it showed how much he has matured as a runner! Running well when things are not going great is the hardest thing to do, and Chris handled it beautifully! Chase Miller, Brandon Marks, Jon Conn and Ethan Wechsler all finished within 12 seconds of each other -- between 16th and 23rd -- to secure a second place finish for the team!

Jon Conn's race was most notable as he was the only Cherokee runner to finish with a 5K PR! He ran really well over the 2nd half of the race and just kept moving up! For his efforts, Jon earned the Runner of the Meet honors! GO JON!

Although a 2nd place finish at Sectionals behind one of the top teams in the state is great, the team will need an even better effort next week at the Group States in order to advance to the State Meet of Champions (only the top six Group IV teams advance)! GO CHEROKEE!

Meet details at: NJ.MileSplit. Also, Robert Kellert, Senior Editor of NJ.MileSplit, interviewed Justin Kelly after his reinstatement as the Sectional Group IV Champion at: NJ.MileSplit.

Jon Falk sent this along early for your enjoyment!


Sectional Varsity Team, 2017



Here are some from our regular photographer.


Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals





NJSIAA New Jersey Group Championships

On November 11, 2017, the team returned to New Jersey's incredible championship course at Holmdel Park for the NJSIAA New Jersey Group Championships but failed to achieve their major goal: to advance to the upcoming Meet of Champions!

The team advanced from last week's Sectionals and, running well, hoped to be among the top three teams in the Group IV race and advance to the All-Group championship race, or the Meet of Champions! Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

It was a tough day for Cherokee at the Group States, especially for Senior Captain, Justin Kelly. As Coach Shaklee reported, "Justin was on his way to a very good race until hitting the steep downhill in the woods less than 800 meters from the finish. At that point, he was in 2nd and going after the leader. As he raced down the hill, he was hit with a debilitating cramp in his abdomen. It came on suddenly and very intensely. He struggled to get breath in and doubled over in pain. Justin knew Cherokee needed him and he tried his best to keep moving but it was practically impossible. He lost 60 places in the last 700 meters but refused to drop out and finished in 62nd as Cherokee's 5th man."

"It was devastating for Justin. Before that point, he was feeling good and looked like he would be able to contend for the win. After that point, even with some very nice races by others on the team, Cherokee finished 7th as a team and failed to advance to the Meet of Champions. Justin will not get the opportunity to show what he can do against Group champions from throughout the state. However, he will run the Footlocker Northeast Regional meet in two weeks at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City! I know Justin will be ready for a good one!"

If not for that situation with Justin in the final 700 meters, it would have been a very good day for Cherokee. Sophomore Chris Spisak ran 16:36 for 21st, which advanced him to 17th on the All-Time Cherokee at Holmdel list and 5th fastest sophomore behind Nick Falk - 16:27, Marc Pelerin - 16:30, Greg Bredeck - 16:34 and Jack Shea - 16:34! Chris earned one of the Wild Card Individual slots for MOC so he will have a chance to improve next week! Behind Chris, Cherokee's other two sophomores, Ethan Wechsler and Chase Miller had outstanding races, finishing 35th and 37th, both timed in 16:47, which puts them tied for 21st on the Cherokee list and makes them the 10th and 11th fastest sophomores in Cherokee history! It will be fun to see what these three guys do over the next 2 years! GO SOPHOMORES!

Not to be overlooked, the coaches selected both Ethan Wechsler and Chase Miller as the Co-Runners of the Meet! Why would you separate two performers who scored the exact same time and ran their best races of the year on the most difficult course in New Jersey?! GO ETHAN! . . . GO CHASE!

Senior Jon Conn, once again, ran a strong race and finished as Cherokee's 4th man in 17:02. That tied Jon for 35th on the All-Time list. He did an incredible job this season! Besides scoring important points throughout the season, Jon was the most consistent runner on the team! He never had a bad race and finished with what was probably his best effort yet! Seniors, Brandon Marks and Matt Smith were Cherokee's 6th and 7th men. Although they didn't have great races on Saturday, they, along with Justin and Jon, have been stellar contributors -- both as runners and role-models -- to Cherokee's program over the past four years! GO SENIORS!

Interesting note: Although Cherokee finished 7th in Group IV, when the results from all the groups were merged into one race, Cherokee still came out 8th among 118 scoring teams! That means only one team in all the other group races -- Christian Brothers Academy -- ran better than The Chiefs! It may not be what the team wanted but it is still an impressive outcome! GO CHEROKEE! . . . List at MileSplit Meet Merge.

Meet details at: NJ.MileSplit Groups


Groups Groups Groups Groups Groups Groups
Groups Groups Groups Groups Groups Groups
Groups Groups

Aaron Laserna of MileSplit provided the following:

Groups Groups Groups Groups Groups Groups


Recently read a Sports Psychologist in The Inquirer arguing ". . . sports are worth it, and sports are a terrific arena for parents to teach their kids life skills . . . goal-setting . . . helping kids learn the mental skills to handle their emotions. . . . Sports is a terrific place to learn delayed gratification and that you can't always get what you want. It's a great place to learn how to be part of a team, to work towards a common goal, to learn how to deal with an authority figure like a coach, which is kind of like a boss. You can't script it. That's the beauty of sport. How do you cope with that?"

As you review your Cross Country season, what do you think of that?! Anything missing?






NJSIAA New Jersey State Meet of Champions

On November 18, 2017, the team returned to the state's championship course at Holmdel Park for the NJSIAA New Jersey State Meet of Champions but all but one were there to support the one: Sophomore Chris Spisak! While the team failed in its quest to advance to the meet, Chris qualified as a Wild Card Individual, having run one of the top times in the Group Championships. But getting there is one thing . . . generally speaking, each year, it's the toughest race of the year, pitting about 190 of the highest-achieving runners in the state!

Despite threatening reports of doomsday weather conditions, it was a good day for Cross Country, and Chris, appearing for the first time in the Meet of Champions, raced well! Looking at results from Group's a week ago, Chris was tied for 49th in the merged results heading into the Meet of Champions and he finished 49th in the meet! His time was a few seconds slower than last week but he competed hard and held his own against the best of New Jersey! Chris was the top finisher from Burlington County and the 8th best from South Jersey!

The day following the meet, the South Jersey Coaches Association selected Chris to the All-South Jersey Team along with Justin Kelly. Looking back over the season, Chris' improvement from last year was incredible! Last year, his best 5K on any course was 17:08. This year, Chris ran under 16:00 on a couple of occasions and ran 16:36 and 16:42 at Holmdel, the toughest course in the state! With Chris leading the way, ahead of a great group of underclassmen, Cherokee can expect to have one of their best teams ever in 2018!

Surprise . . . the coaches selected Chris Spisak the Runner of the Meet! OK, that was a "tongue-firmly-in-cheek" remark but it's meant as a reminder of what Chris accomplished -- his consistently great performances -- throughout the season! GO CHRIS!

Details, race pictures and video at: NJ.MileSplit.

Here are some pics from our photographer and MileSplit:


MOC MOC MOC MOC MOC
MOC MOC MOC MOC MOC


Now, here's one for discussion! Chris appears startled in these pictures taken at the finish line and one humorist suggested he thought the big redhead challenging him was Coach Thompson! Wouldn't that startle you?!


MOC MOC MOC





FootLocker Northeast Regional Championships

On November 25, 2017, Senior Justin Kelly, planning to make-up for his failure to qualify for New Jersey's Meet of Champions, traveled to New York City's Van Cortlandt Park for the FootLocker Northeast Regional Championships! The goal here was to qualify for the FootLocker Nationals by finishing among the top ten in the race!

FootLocker is THE premier meet of the Cross Country season here in the Northeast. The top athletes from New England and the Middle Atlantic states converge on Van Cortlandt Park to race the 5K course and to qualify for the Nationals! The race is insane, close to 200 toeing the line, but a trip to the National Championships would be even more "insane!" Cherokee's Marc Pelerin placed 9th in 2000 and did not advance but, in 2001, he placed 6th and advanced to the big race (then) in Orlando, Florida! Shawn Wilson did the same in 2014, advancing to the national championship race in San Diego, California! In addition, Keith Krieger placed 13th in 2002 but failed to advance.

Like Krieger, Justin ran very well but did not advance! He finished 16th in the championship race, 5th among New Jersey runners, 1st among South Jersey runners, and his time was the 5th best ever by a Cherokee athlete! That was good enough to earn "2nd Team, All-Northeast Region" honors! Reviewing state achievements (for grins and not advancement), the outstanding group from New Jersey won the team competition by 20 points over the 2nd place team from Massachusetts!

Yes, San Diego is pleasant this time of year and the trip would have been fun but, given Justin's nice performance, it was great to see him finish the season on a high note after the disappointment of the Group IV State Meet! GO JUSTIN!

Race details at: NY MileSplit. Also at: FootLocker.

Pictures from NY.MileSplit, doctored a little to locate Justin! Can you find him in the start picture?! (Hint: he's way left of the porta pots!)


JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker
JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker JK at Footlocker





South Jersey Track Coaches Association's Cross Country Banquet

On December 5, 2017, the coaches and most of Cherokee's Cross Country team traveled to Auletto's Ballroom in Almonesson, NJ for the 38th Annual South Jersey Track Coaches Association's Cross Country Banquet. They went there to honor two of their teammates who were selected to the All-South Jersey Team, Justin Kelly and Chris Spisak, and, for the underclassmen, to check out their future (?!).

Last year, as expected, three Chiefs were named to the All-South Jersey Team -- Jack Shea, Nick Falk and Justin Kelly -- and the team was named the "Team of the Year." Unexpected was the naming of Coach Shaklee as the "Coach of the Year." This year, things were somewhat routine because, as expected, Justin and Chris were named to the All-South Jersey Team but neither the team nor the coach received additional honors. The pressure is already on for next year!

Our photographer attended but he's no indoor event photographer! Here are a few he shot: have fun at his expense by pointing out the flaws . . . Yoo-Hoo, pay attention to "depth of field," you rookie! Additional pictures from the banquet are available at: NJ.MileSplit.


SJ Banquet SJ Banquet SJ Banquet SJ Banquet
SJ Banquet SJ Banquet SJ Banquet SJ Banquet





Cherokee Cross Country Team Banquet

On December 12, 2017, the athletes, coaches, parents and friends met as a team for the last time this season at the annual Cross Country Team Banquet! There they reviewed the the impressive number of Team and Individual Championships and other accomplishments, recognized the achievements of the Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Freshman Teams, and honored several key individuals on the team! Coaches Shaklee and Thompson paid special attention to the graduating seniors, most of whom were four-year members of the team!

Before going on, let's look at how Cherokee's four-year graduating seniors matured over the years by looking back at 2014:


Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh
Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh Seniors as Frosh


While the group enjoyed a meal provided by the parents, the coaches reviewed the accomplishments of the team and various individuals, and those comments are summarized on the attached document: Accomplishments and Awards. In addition, Coach Shaklee's personal remarks are at: Coach's Message.

Following those remarks, three important Coaches' Awards were announced by Coaches Shaklee and Thompson. These awards are a a big deal because they are given by people who really know the athletes and know the most-deserving of all! They were selected not simply because they were the fastest runners . . . the coaches also consider their dedication to the team and its values, their leadership, character, self-discipline and self-motivation, sportsmanship, competitiveness, and persistence. Congratulations to the following athletes who were selected to receive the Coaches' Awards:


~~ Most Improved Runner -- Chris Spisak. Chris showed impressive maturation as a runner in one year and results speak for themselves! Last year, he PR'd at 17:09 at Delsea, one of the easier courses here in South Jersey. This year, he ran under 16:00 twice, once at the Carlisle Invitational and again at the Conference Championships (Rowan University), and then he ran 16:36 at Holmdel, the state's most demanding course! He never had a BAD race even when he was not having a GREAT day! He showed real growth as a runner! GO CHRIS!

~~Unsung Hero -- Jon Conn. Jon was a guy who no one was aware of outside of our team but he was "Mr. Dependable!" That sounds almost insignificant but, in Cross Country, dependability is great! Dependability scores points! Look at his record this year: there was only a 22-second difference between his fastest and slowest 5K's of the year! The slowest was at the toughest course, Holmdel, where he ran 17:02! The fastest was at Delsea where he ran 16:40. "_________ is up and down and, when he doesn't get a great start, he quits on himself, but Conn . . . Conn keeps working and he'll score some points!" GO JON!

~~Most Valuable Runner -- Justin Kelly. No surprise here! Justin has had an outstanding career! He leads by example, trains hard, and races tough! Great positive attitude! This year he was the best runner in the region! You RunningWorks Campers, think of the Marcus O'Sullivan story! Small for his age, few thought Marcus would excel in the future. Justin is kinda like that: small in stature as a Freshman, he made his early doubters back off as he rose in the ranks of the great Cherokee and regional runners! GO JUSTIN!


After the awards, the athletes took over the program. Four, in particular, Justin Kelly, Brandon Marks, Jon Conn and Matt Smith addressed the audiences in what was described as "the best student comments ever made at a team banquet!" The seriousness over, the seniors introduced a new quiz show, "Let's Ask the Coaches," a program apparently designed to inflate the already overblown ego of young Coach Thompson! "Hey, 'fake news!'" Anyway, Coach Shaklee went home a defeated, empty husk while Coach Thompson went home with a smile on his face and a trophy as big as his car! GO THOMPSON!

The team's regular photographer was unavailable but Mr. Bill Shea, Coach and Parent, provided the following pictures. They're a little rough because of poor lighting and cropping but they capture many of the events of the evening, and they are appreciated. If other parents have pictures they would like displayed here on the Cherokee Cross Country and Track and Field website, please pass them to Coach Shaklee! The cover of the 2017 Cherokee Cross Country booklet is Here.




Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet
Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet
Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet Banquet
Banquet Banquet


~ ~ Congratulations to everyone for a great season, and thanks for all your efforts! ~ ~

GO CHEROKEE!









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