On October 6th, 2022, NJ.MileSplit posted their Team Ranking for Week 4 and, based on Cherokee's performance at the Shore Coaches, the team's state rank dropped from 4th to 10th! It will not improve after the SJ Open because the coach chose not to load the Varsity race. GO CHIEFS! Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Similarly, on October 6th, the SJTCA posted their Team Ranking for Week 3 and Cherokee dropped from 1st to 3rd, behind Haddonfield and Cherry Hill HS East.
Cherokee won't see Haddonfield until the MOC but, assuming both coaches decide to race their teams, we are scheduled to meet East at the Olympic Conference Championships on October 18th! GO CHIEFS!
Last week, on October 7th, 2023, Cherokee took most of the team to DREAM Park for the South Jersey Track Coaches Association Open. Coach Shaklee held out four of his top runners and, while the remaining athletes did well, they were no match for a rising Cherry Hill H.S. East. That story is told on the previous page and there's also an explanation for why there are no pictures accompanying that section. As it turned out, however, the pictures were rescued recently by our tech-savy photographer (he found the memory card slipped into a never-used pocket of his camera bag during his awkward glitch repair) and some are featured below while they and others are available on the District's Google page!
On October 13th, 2023, a beautiful, sunny day at Millcreek Park in Willingboro, the team stepped-up and generally whipped the County in the Burlington County CC Open! Coach Shaklee had a busy weekend, including his 50th High School Reunion! YIKES!! Despite spending all that time with really old people, he managed to send the following comments on the meet!
"Cherokee once again dominated the Burlington County Open to win a 10th consecutive championship and the 22nd in the past 27 years!
"The Junior Varsity squad was first and they absolutely devastated the field, taking the first 9 spots and 12 of the first 16! I highlighted Junior Varsity because this was a really good Varsity team and, if they were in the championship race, they would have finished a close 3rd to Shawnee! Enzo Corona, Dom Pileri, Silas Matteson, Tate Midora and freshman, Sean Sooy all ran between 17:14 and 17:54 to take the first six spots! Also coming in before anyone from another team were Rory Carroll, Luke Reistle and freshman, Gavin Danielewicz in 7th, 8th and 9th! Behind that group, the other members of the Cherokee team all ran well! Everyone who ran the meet last year improved their times this year! Some, like Sam Wright and Josh Lowery, by almost three minutes!
"The Varsity results were almost as impressive with Cherokee taking the first 5 spots! If the rest of the county combined as one team, the score would have been Cherokee - 15 and the Rest of The County - 42! Up front, the boys were under strict orders to not lead before exiting the woods just past the two mile mark. Nick Kuenkel and Bobby Poplau were under even stricter orders to not lead before the last hill, less than a half mile from the finish! Once out of the woods, Liam Tindal made an aggressive move and strung out the pack which included five Cherokee runners, one Moorestown runner, and one runner from Shawnee. Liam's move may have been a bit too aggressive as the only one who went with him was Nick! Once they hit the hill, Nick moved to the front and pulled away for a 16-second victory! Liam did his best to hold on but the aggressive move hurt him some and both Bobby Poplau and Logan Bromley went by. There was a 22-second gap from our first to fourth runner and another 17-seconds back to freshman, Ben Realley, who finished fifth with a new Millcreek Park frosh record of 16:42! Ben Weiner and Anthony DiBatista finished in 8th and 12th respectively as our 6th and 7th men! Our five man average of 16:21 was also a new record!
"All-in-all, a very good day for the Chiefs!"
The Coaches selected Silas Matteson as the Runner of the Meet! "He continued his excellent season with a 3rd place finish in the Open race and another new 5K PR! After missing almost all of last Cross Country season, Silas has returned repeatedly pressing for his best in each race!" GO SILAS
GO CHEROKEE! . . . ON TO CONFERENCE!
Before the races, our photographer mentioned to Bobby and Nick what he thought were Coach Shaklee's instructions . . . something about "moving so fast, you'll be racing on one leg from the 2nd hill to the finish!" Nick was so confident (was he bragging because his girlfriend was around?) that he promised to race so fast that his feet wouldn't touch the ground at all! Wow, gotta see that . . .. We did but was it Nick?!
At a previous meet, our photographer pointed out that his mother could lift more weight than a bragging Senior (M.E.). Indeed, to demonstrate her skills, she showed-up at Millcreek planning to challenge M.E. to a hill climb! Of course, M.E. is out for the season with an injury! Still, with M.E. watching, she raced to the top of the park's hill and, apparently, M.E. was struck dumb because no more was heard from him that day! Our photographer was caught unawares and was only able to get a somewhat blurred picture of her hill-climb! It looks like one of those "Sasquatch" sightings but M.E. will, no doubt, verify her run when he gets over his shock! GO MUM!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Reuben Frank of NBC Sports News, wrote an informative article on the BC Open at his blog: SJTCA.
Below, our photographer posted some pictures from today's two major races. They and the rest are posted on the District's Google site!
On October 18th, 2023, the team returned to DREAM Park for the Olympic Conference Championships and came home with the victory!
Another busy week for Coach Shaklee, including the funeral events for his friend -- one of the greatest Cross Country coaches in NJ history -- Haddonfield's Nick Baker. "Shak" was very proud of his boys' performance at the conference champs as he suggests in the following comments.
"Coming off a very good day at the Burlington County Open, the team went into the Olympic Conference Meet, knowing that the competition - particularly a much-improved Cherry Hill HS East - would be tougher. We could not afford to have a letdown, and we did not!
"The boys ran with purpose! They were focused and determined! The result was another conference championship, making it 18 of the last 25!
"Up front, Nick Kuenkel and Bobby Poplau took care of business, sticking with the lead runner before pulling away over the last 600 meters to go one-two!
"Liam Tindall and Logan Bromley were next, taking places five and six, both running course PR's! Freshman, Ben Realley completed the scoring for the team, placing tenth with a big PR! Behind Ben R, Ben Weiner and Dom Pileri both placed in the top twenty (16th and 19th) as our sixth and seventh men! Only two other teams had more than one runner in the top twenty - CH East, six, and Paul VI, two.
"Anthony DiBatista, Enzo Corona and Silas Matteson gave us three more athletes among the top 34 with Silas setting a new 5K PR!
"In the Junior Varsity race, the team came out on top in the field of ten teams, defeating a strong CH East squad by five points!
"Freshman, Sean Sooy, led the way in third with a big PR and a time that would have placed him 34th in the Varsity race! Behind Sean, Andrew Free, Tate Midora, Gavin Danielewicz, Rory Carroll, Luke Reistle and Leo Vyvyan all finished among the top twelve! In addition, new PR's were set by Sam Wright, Jack Finley (by two minutes!), Bruce Novoa and Ben Cerutti (by over three minutes!), Charlie Wasserott and Luke Beretta (by four minutes!).
"The Runner of the Meet was Sophomore Dom Pileri who has raced with determination and focus all season, and has improved each meet! Here at Conference, he finished as the team's 7th man and 19 seconds ahead of our 8th, giving him the nod for the last Varsity spot in the upcoming Sectional Championships! GO DOM!
"Next, the varsity squad will set its sights on winning the South Jersey Group 4 Sectional Championship on October 28th while the rest of the team will look to finish their season with all new PR's at the Haddonfield Frosh/JV Meet on October 30th."
GO CHEROKEE!
Meanwhile, Reuben Frank, TV Commentator for NBC Sports and SJTCA Blogger, wrote the following comments on his SJTCA Blog.
Meet details at: NJ.MileSplit. Also, MileSplit provided an up-to-date individual ranking for DREAM Park, the site of the upcoming Sectional Championships, at NJ.MileSplit.
Our photographer took quite a few pictures at the meet and, below, he has posted some of them. They and the others are available on the District's Google site!
On October 21st, Coach Shaklee and the Varsity team (sans Logan who was a tad sore) traveled north to Holmdel Park to enjoy the changing leaves! The coach sent a picture and, apparently, the temperature there was quite a bit warmer than it was here in South Jersey!
The picture is self-explanatory, except for freshman Sean Sooy. Sean came along to do his morning run in a "different" place and, apparently, he made some extra money as a moving billboard for RunningWorks Cross Country Camp! Hope he used some of that cash to pay for breakfast because those other boyos look like they're hungry! : < )
