On October 23rd, 2019, the Varsity team returned to DREAM Park Equestrian Center in Logan Township, NJ for the Olympic Conference Championships and they raced like thoroughbreds! . . . Get it . . . thoroughbreds? Racing at the DREAM Park Equestrian Center?! . . . Never mind . . ..
Coach Shaklee sent his thoughts on the day:
"We finally fielded our entire top varsity line-up yesterday at the Olympic Conference Meet! In just the third 5K of the year for the team -- only the second for Nico, Brett and Conor, while only the first for Dylan -- we came away with a convincing win against a very good Cherry Hill East team!
East kept it close through the first two miles but we were able to pull away over the last third of the race!
Ethan Wechsler had arguably the best race of his life with an incredibly fast 15:13 win! In doing so, he defeated East's Oliver Adler (who beat him by 2 seconds at the Shore Coaches Meet) by 41 seconds! His time broke his own course record set at last year's conference meet by 29 seconds! He is rolling into top shape just at the right time for the championship season!
Behind Ethan, we had a strong pack! Chase Miller, Nico Grilli and Tyler Jackson finished within 3 seconds of each other to take places 3 through 5, while Mike Gavio in 8th, Brett Shea in 10th, and Danny Boria in 14th gave us a strong 5 through 7! Conor Jacob in 21st, Bobby Hackney in 27th, Joe Natoli in 47th, Matt Campbell in 52nd, and Dylan Odud (just back from injury) in 69th, were our 8th through 12th runners. In addition to Ethan's PR, Chase, Nico, Tyler, Mike, Danny, Conor and Joe all set PR's of their own! The result was a low score of 21 points which means we would have won comfortably even if the rest of the conference was combined into one team!
The coaches selected Nico Grilli as Runner of the Meet! Nico improved from 26th last year to 4th this year and dropped his time on the course by 55 seconds! He has also done a great job of managing his nagging hip problem throughout the season! GO NICO!
It was our 5th Conference title in a row and our 4th Division title!
Next up, the Haddonfield Novice Meet on Wednesday at Pennypacker Park!" GO CHEROKEE!
Conversation about 200m from the finish line: Guy asks, "Who's that kid?" . . . "Wechsler of Cherokee." (Thoughtful pause) . . . "He should come with a warning sign!" : < )
Reuben Frank reported on the meet and marked his headline with FIVE EXCLAMATION POINTS! Makes you shudder, doesn't it?! Check out his report at SJ Track Blog: From the Backstretch or a copy on our server at Frank's Blog.
Further details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On October 23rd, 2019, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association announced their SJTCA Cross Country Team Rankings # 7 and Cherokee remains at 1st on the list, followed by Haddonfield, Cherry Hill East, Ocean City and Kingsway! GO CHEROKEE!
List at SJ Track Coaches Association.
On October 29th, 2019, NJ.MileSplit announced their NJ.MileSplit Boys NJ Cross Country Team Rankings # 8 and, after their victory at the Olympic Conference Championships, the Chiefs remained in 3rd place on the list! CBA and West Windsor-Plainsboro North HS remained at 1st and 2nd. Ethan Wechsler, who broke his own record at the site by 29 seconds, received only "Honorable Mention" in the Athlete of the Week category! GO CHEROKEE!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On October 30th, 2019, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association announced their SJTCA Cross Country Team Rankings # 8 and Cherokee remains at 1st on the list, followed by the usual suspects: Haddonfield, Cherry Hill East, Ocean City and Kingsway! GO CHEROKEE!
List at SJ Track Coaches Association.
On October 30th, 2019, the team traveled to Pennypacker Park for the Haddonfield Sub-Varsity Invitational and . . .
BREAKING NEWS! STOP THE PRESSES!
In an intramural contest, initial reports indicated that Coach Shaklee's team lost a close contest to Coach Thompson's team but evidence delivered anonymously to our headquarters raises questions about that result! Several pictures, accompanied by a cryptic note, argue for a different outcome! The note: "Check out these pictures, with more to come, that indicate a gross foul was committed during the race: Jacob was deliberately tripped! I also caught Thompson manipulating the scores after the race!"
Our crack team of researchers studied the pictures but they saw no evidence to support the writer's assertions! Although they recognized Coach Thompson in a picture and he does look intense, they're not even sure whose legs are shown in the other pictures! . . . But he/she promised more pictures to come! Stand by!
At this point, days later, after hundreds of hours spent inquiring into and seeking to expose a miscarriage of justice, the notorious Tripping Investigation had to close. The unidentified person who promised more pictures -- one wag suggested it was Coach Shaklee's mother -- failed to appear and no further evidence is available. Our detectives identified the runners' legs in the original picture -- Conor Jacob and Bobby Hackney and, even though Hackney was very close to Jacob's heels, there still is no evidence of foul play! Besides, Hackney has an untarnished history of sportsmanship, not to mention a winning smile, and it is highly unlikely that he would resort to such an action! On the second issue, Coach Thompson's alleged "manipulation" of the scores, a few observers suggested that Coach Thompson would do anything to beat Coach Shaklee again, but the overwhelming testimony depicts Coach Thompson as a fairly-honest competitor who is unlikely to do such a thing! Conclusion: case closed!
Faced with that interpretation, Coach Shaklee finally submitted his view of the event:
"On a wet, somewhat muddy course, the Cherokee team still managed some good performances at the Haddonfield Invitational! The team ran well enough to take a close win over Cherry Hill East by a score of 38 to 45, with Haddonfield a distance 3rd with 102 points! Bobby Hackney led the team with his 2nd place finish and was followed by Conor Jacob - 5th, Matt Campbell - 12th, Joe Natoli - 14th and Bradley Popler - 15th! Natoli and Popler both set new 5K PR's, Popler by a large margin as his time of 17:26 took 44 seconds off his previous best from the SJ Open at Delsea!
Bradley has been racing better and better each outing and has become a more focused, determined athlete! For the improvement he has shown, and for the excellent race he ran, the coaches selected him as the Runner of the Meet! GO BRADLEY!
In addition to the five scorers, Cherokee had three others run sub-18: Dylan Odud, Jameson Crozier and Bryan Lafferty! Two other notable performances were turned in by Tommy Bromley, who placed 3rd in the Freshman race with a 54-second PR and Daanyal Kaleem who PR'd in the JVB race by over a minute!
The intra-squad Shak/Thompson Battle at Haddonfield went, for the third year in a row, to the Thompson team who edged the Shak group by a mere 2 points! Everyone is wondering how many more times can Thompson get lucky? Perhaps he should purchase a lottery ticket."
A bit of history here: In the past, the Haddonfield meet was a final and great opportunity for Sub-Varsity and Freshmen runners to end their seasons! The course was an ideal PR location because it was flat, fast and firm! Perhaps, more important, 19 years ago Coach Shaklee and Coach Callinan (now relaxing at Central Administration) increased the competitiveness of the meet by setting-up a unique intramural contest that continues to this day! For the record, by 2018, Coach Shaklee's teams won the contest 11 times, Coach Callinan's teams won 2 times, and Coach Thompson's teams won 3 times! (No one seems to know what happened those other years!) This year, two evenly divided Cherokee teams stepped up to the start line and the tradition continued! The results now stand at: Shaklee, 11; Thompson, 4; and Callinan, forever at 2!
The official meet details are at: NJ.MileSplit.
On November 4th, 2019, the team returned to DREAM Park Equestrian Center in Logan Township, NJ for the Olympic Conference JV Championship, the last meet for most on the team and the place to "leave a message" for future opponents!
Coach Shaklee sent his comments on the meet:
"For many on the Cherokee Boys Cross Country Team, Tuesday's Olympic Conference JV Championship was the last race of the season. With perfect weather conditions, it was a chance to end the year on a positive note! Many of the team's runners did just that and the result was a resounding team victory with a very low score of 18 points, 33 ahead of runner-up, Washington Township!
Bobby Hackney led the team, winning this event for the 2nd year in a row with his fastest time of the season! In doing so, Bobby earned Runner of the Meet honors! GO BOBBY! Freshman, Conor Jacob, (stayed on his feet!) and continued his excellent season with a strong finish to pass the first Washington Township runner in the last 200 meters and secure 2nd place! Matt Campbell - 4th, Dylan Odud - 5th and Bradley Popler - 6th, completed the scoring for the team with Dylan setting a season best and Bradley a new PR! For good measure, Bryan Lafferty and Joe Natoli finished 8th and 9th to give Cherokee 7 of the first 9 finishers! Bryan also set a new 5K PR! Behind the top seven, new PR's were recorded by both Aiden Dickinson and Joe Hough!
Next up, the Varsity team begins the state tournament this Saturday as they attempt to win just the 9th South Jersey Group 4 Championship in school history when they take to the course at Delsea High School!" GO CHEROKEE!
Official details at: NJ.MileSplit.
PS. The unfortunate official who drove his new Volvo deep into the mud of DREAM Park expressed his gratitute to the men of Cherokee who tried unsuccessfully to push and pull him out of the muck!
Our photographer suffered something of a "Brain Fart" and messed up some of the camera settings on this beautiful afternoon! See for yourself:
Odds and Ends
The Real Deal
