On October 28th, 2023, the team returned to DREAM Park for the NJSIAA South Jersey Sectional Championships and Coach Shaklee was quick to report on the team's performance!
"The Cherokee Boys Cross Country Team took home its fifth consecutive sectional championship, and its thirteenth overall, on Saturday at Dream Park! Thirteen is a South Jersey Group 4 record and almost double the number for the next closest team (Toms River North with seven)!
"At race time, it was 75 and sunny. The unseasonably warm weather made racing even more challenging, but the team stayed focused on the goal and did not let the conditions affect them.
"Nick Kuenkel led the team, running away from the pack over the last third of the race to win his second consecutive sectional title! Nick is the first Cherokee runner to win back-to-back sectional championships since Alex Yersak won three in a row from 2005-2007!
"Behind Nick, Bobby Poplau and Liam Tindall were both having great races of their own! With a strong kick over the last 600 meters, Bobby moved into second place while Liam ran a consistently strong race throughout to take fourth! Their times of 15:36 and 15:39 were the fourth and sixth fastest times of the day from all the races, and moved them to fourth and fifth on the All-Time Cherokee Dream Park List behind Ethan Wechsler - 15:13, Nick Kuenkel - 15:23 and Patrick Ditmars - also 15:23.
"With Logan Bromley out with a quad strain, Anthony DiBattista, our eighth man at the Olympic Conference Meet, was added to the Sectional line-up. He did not disappoint! Anthony ran an aggressive race from the start, stayed focused throughout, and ran tough over the last mile to finish as our fourth man (14th) with a new 5K PR despite the unseasonably warm conditions! Two seconds later, our fifth man, freshman Ben Realley, crossed the line one place behind Anthony (15th) to secure the win: a 33-point victory overall runner-up, Cherry Hill East! Sixth man, Ben Weiner, was only three places behind Realley and five spots in front of East's fifth man! Seventh man, Dom Pileri, went into the race with a strained patella tendon which hampered his racing. Although not his best race due to the knee issue, Dom stayed focused throughout and finished in 37th, one place behind East's seventh man and in front of the fifth man on all but three of the seventeen teams in the field (Cherokee, CH East, Toms River North)!
"Our five-man average time of 15:54.96 was the fourth fastest in course history (despite the heat!), behind our 15:48.06 average from last year and Haddonfield's 15:52.43 and 15:52.70 from the last two sectional meets!
"Selecting the Athlete of the Meet was a tough choice but the coaches went with Liam Tindall who made the leap to a new level of racing at Sectionals! Liam's time was a 31-second PR and he put himself into the conversation with the top runners in South Jersey!. He stayed calm and smooth throughout the race, never letting the strain show. Simply put, it was a lesson in how to race well! He did everything right, thus earning the Athlete of the Meet recognition! GO LIAM!
"The team now turns its focus to the Group 4 State Championship at Holmdel Park this Saturday, November 4th at 10:30 AM!"
~~ BE THERE OR BE SQUARE! ~~
Reuben Frank, TV Commentator for NBC Sports and SJTCA Blogger, wrote the following comments on Cherokee's Sectional victory at his SJTCA Blog.
Robert Kellert, Editor, MileSplit, article includes a generous section on Cherokee: Cherokee Boys and Girls Sweep Group 4.
Robert Kellert video of Sectional Group 4 race: Race Video.
Sectional Details: NJ.MileSplit.
Below, our photogragher posted a few pictures from Saturday's Sectional Championship and they and others are available on the District's Google site.
On October 28th, 2023, the entire team, except for our Varsity Sectional Champions, traveled to Pennypacker Park in neighboring Haddonfield for the annual Haddonfield JV Meet! It is the last chance for all to end their seasons with PR's on this fast course and, as has been the case in the past, it is also an opportunity to compete for intra-team bragging rights! This year, the coaches divided the group into two balanced teams for their final race of the season: Coach Shaklee's "Awesome Athletes" VS Coach Thompson's "We are Just Lucky" Runners!
Coach Shaklee reported the results as honestly as he can!
"The weather was the first indication of some kind of Thompson voodoo magic in the air. A day that was calm and seasonably warm turned cold and windy right before the meet. It was an indication that something bad was in the air!
"The meet was divided into two races - A & B - just as the Cherokee squad was split into two teams: Shak's Awesome Athletes and Thompson's "We Are Just Lucky" Runners. In an unfortunate (and simply wrong!) turn of events, luck would prevail over awesomeness . . . alas, life is not always fair.!
"That luck began even before the start of the race when one of Shak's Awesome Athletes, Leo Vyvyan, was unavailable to race due to illness. It would prove a decisive blow to the Awesome squad!
"It was decided, over the vehement objections of Coach Thompson, that Anthony DiBatista, Shak's first man, who was pulled from the competition to run in Sectionals -- where, by the way, he ran an Awesome (of course) race to finish as the varsity team's 4th man and helping them to a Sectional victory! -- would be awarded first place! GO ANTHONY! Although Coach Thompson did all he could to prevent this, the meet officials rejected his specious arguments and, rightfully, gave the first spot to Anthony -- who, by the way, ran 26 seconds faster at the more difficult Dream Park course than the winner of the Haddonfield race!
"That winner, BTW, was another Awesome runner, Senior, Silas Matteson, who finished his Cherokee Cross Country career on a high note with a victory, a new PR, and a first-time sub 17:00 5K!
GO SILAS!"Freshman, Sean Sooy, had another strong race (coming off his excellent Olympic Conference performance) to finish in fifth place and lead the "We Are Just Lucky runners" and set a new 5k PR! A step behind him came Awesome's third man, Andrew Free, in sixth place!
"It was there that the Lucky's began to spin their evil magic! Taking advantage of the missing Awesome Athlete, Leo, a slightly off day by Awesome Athlete, Rory Carroll -- who was, no doubt, hexed by the Lucky team's Coach -- and the fact that Awesome Athlete, Liam Daimler, was returning from illness and was not at 100%, the Lucky's went on a five man streak: Tate Midora - 10th (PR), Enzo Corona - 12th (despite his quad strain), Luke Reistle - 16th (with a season best), Gavin Danielewicz - 18th (PR), Myron Paes - 23rd (PR) took intersquad places five through nine, to put the Awesome in a deficit from which they would not recover, despite their heroic racing!
"The competition was all but decided when the B race began. However, that did not stop Shak's Awesome Athletes from running some great races!
"Alright . . . some of Thompson's We Are Just Luckys also ran some pretty darn good races!"
"Of the nine Cherokee runners in the B race (five Luckys and four Awesomes), seven set new 5K PR's -- Sam Wright, Bruce Novoa, Josh Lowery, Colin McHale, Jack Finley, Charlie Wasserott and Ben Cerutti -- and one, Tyler Newton, made a return to racing with a new season best!
"The Cherokee team as a whole finished a close second to a very good Cherry Hill East squad despite not being at full strength!
"Overall, despite Thompson's chicanery and underhandedness, it was a positive day for the Cherokee team. Coach Shak, of course, showed great sportsmanship and graciousness in accepting the results despite the cloud of suspicion hanging over the We Are Just Lucky team's coach.
"Now the Luckys and the Awesomes will come together to support the varsity squad as they take on some of the best teams in New Jersey at the Group 4 State Meet this Saturday!
"Congratulations to all Cherokee athletes (and even Coach Thompson) on another great season for this storied program!"
Ah, as expected, Coach Shaklee, magnanimous, gracious and sportsmanlike in defeat . . ..
For the record, since Coach Shaklee and former Coach Callinan, now using his talents over at Central Administration -- WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE, CHRIS, THAT'S MORE IMPORTANT THAN COACHING? -- instituted this competition years ago, the record stands at:
Coach Shaklee - 13 wins
Coach Thompson - 5 wins
Coach Callinan - 2 wins (forever)
GO SHAK!
Meet details: NJ.MileSplit.
Coach Thompson's cat captures his mood: "My work is done!"
Our photographer was there for this historic event! He posted some of his pictures below and they and others are available on the District's Google site.
For a mere $25.00, he'll remove this picture of Coach Thompson's winning squad from public view and destroy all evidence! Do you really want your future girlfriend, prom date, wife, children . . . see this?! Think about it but not too long!
On November 4th, 2023, the entire extended team returned to Holmdel Park for the NJSIAA Group Championships . . . the Varsity Seven, their coaches, a supporting cast of JV and Freshmen runners, and a loud group of parents and friends , all thinking, GO CHEROKEE! . . . ADVANCE!
Coach Shaklee was quick to report on the day's adventures:
"The boys cross country team knew that winning a State Group 4 title would be a long shot at best! After all, Westfield put six runners in front of our second man at the Shore Coaches Invitational, and a seventh in front of our third. Even with a good race, closing that gap was unlikely, especially since we were still missing our fourth man, Logan Bromley. And so, our focus was more on running the best race we could. If so, we would accept the results.
"There were ten teams in our race ranked in the top twenty in the state so, just qualifying for the Meet of Champions would be challenging. Looking back, we are happy to report that the boys were up to the challenge! Cherokee placed third with 110 points, behind Westfield - 54 and Ridgewood - 104. With the new qualifying procedure for MOC's, only the winners of each race qualify automatically along with eight wildcard teams (based on five-man average times). We were the second fastest non-winning team (behind Ridgewood) to easily gain a wildcard spot!
"Of the seven Cherokee runners who raced, six of them established new Holmdel PR's!
"First man, Nick Kuenkel, while not setting a new PR, still managed a very fast 15:47 on the tough Holmdel course to finish fifth in, far-and-away, the strongest field of the day! Out of the other five races, only two other runners managed to run faster. Going into next week's Meet of Champions, Nick is focused on improving his performance and challenging the top runners in the state!
"Liam Tindall continued his outstanding season with another strong race, placing fifteenth and knocking 35 seconds off of his previous Holmdel best set at this year's Shore Coaches Invitational. Liam's time of 16:15 puts him at number twelve on the All-Time Cherokee Holmdel Park List. Bobby Poplau finished a few spots behind Liam in 21st place, knocking eighteen seconds off of his previous Holmdel best set last year at the Meet of Champions! His time of 16:21 ties him for sixteenth on the All-Time Cherokee Holmdel list! Freshman, Ben Realley, was next for the team with an excellent race to finish in 28th place. Ben's time of 16:39 was the second fastest freshman time of the meet and established a new Cherokee Freshman Record (Keith Krieger - 17:15, 1999) while putting Ben 27th on the All-Time Cherokee Holmdel List! Rounding out the scoring for the team was junior, Ben Weiner, who knocked 28 seconds off of his previous best Holmdel time from this year's Shore Coaches Invitational to finish 48th! Ben's time of 17:05 ties him for 49th on the All-Time Cherokee Holmdel List! Behind Ben, our sixth and seventh runners, Silas Matteson and Anthony DiBatista, both set new Holmdel PR's! Silas knocked 31 seconds off of his previous best at Holmdel, while Anthony saw a small improvement of two seconds over his time from last year's state meet. Silas and Anthony's times put them at 88th and 93rd on the All-Time Cherokee Holmdel List!
The team is now focused on a good week of preparation for the season's last competition, the State Meet of Champions.
An incredible amount of details, photos, videos, interviews, etc at: NJ.MileSplit.com.
Reuben Frank, columnist for the SJTCA, wrote the following on Cherokee's performance at Groups: Cherokee Takes 3rd in Group 4 for its 19th top 5 finish at States in the last 26 years!!!!!!.
Below, our photographger posted a sample of his pictures and he posted the entire collection, plus some from our friends at NJ.MileSplit -- divided into 4 sections: Doublee at top of bowl, Mae at mile/two mile mark, Dennis near tennis courts, and Tom at finish -- on the District's Google site!.
On November 8th, 2023, The Moorestown Historical Society released pictures from their early sports archive where at least one has been identified as today's Cherokee Cross Country Assistant Coach!
The archive released hundreds of pictures from the past and their senior researcher identified Assistant Coach Thompson, frequently called "The Redoubtable Red!", as a high school/college wrestler decades ago!
The picture shows the young wrestler earning extra money while testing early wrestling and/or football helmets! GO RED!
On November 11th, 2023, the extended team of runners and supporters, including coaches, parents, other relatives and friends, returned to Holmdel Park's championship course for the final team challenge of the season, the NJSIAA Meet of Champions! Unfortunately, it was a great day for racing but not so much for our guys!
Let's hear what Coach Shaklee has to say:
"When a team makes it to the New Jersey State Meet of Champions, the competition is so intense that even a slightly off day can spell disaster. The Cherokee boys had an off day and, while it wasn't a total disaster, it was a far cry from the outcome we hoped for.
"Despite the ideal conditions, the entire race went out relatively slowly through the first mile. In a field that size it is hard to know for sure how a team is running until things start to spread out through the middle of the race. Still, even at the mile, we appeared to have bigger gaps between our scorers than what we had last week at the Group 4 Meet.
"The lead runner from CBA made a big push on the stretch from the mile to the bowl and strung out the field. Nick Kuenkel attempted to cover the move but, instead, found himself leading the chase pack and having to work hard just to do so. Despite that, Nick was able to stay near the front and he came across the line in sixth place, beating two of the Group 4 runners who finished in front of him last week! It was one bright spot for the team!
"Behind Nick, Liam Tindall and Bobby Poplau were both out appropriately and were mixed in with the front group through the mile. From there to the finish, both runners struggled and lost ground. Liam held on the best, finishing in 30th (a huge improvement over his 2022 finish - 126th), while Bobby fell back to 59th place. At that point, we were still winning the "race within the race" against Haddonfield for the South Jersey Team of the Year title. However, it would be 43 seconds and 63 places later before our fourth man, freshman, Ben Realley, would cross the line. Ben had run a fantastic race at the Group 4 Meet but, unfortunately, was not 100% healthy for the Meet of Champs (in fact he missed several days of school the next week due to illness). Six seconds later, Ben Weiner crossed the line to complete the scoring for the team, with Silas Matteson and Anthony DiBatista coming in as our sixth and seventh runners. Although we were well in front of Haddonfield through three runners, they put seven in before our fourth and finished in seventh place while we were fifteen points and two places behind them in the final results.
"Although it was not the end of the season we hoped for, it does not take away from the intensity they brought to the program and the great job these guys did all year - County Champions! . . . Conference Champions! . . . SJ Group 4 Champions! We are especially grateful to our seniors for all they contributed to the program and we wish them the best in the future! For those returning, we look forward to see what they accomplish next year! Thanks to all for another great season of Cherokee Cross Country! GO CHEROKEE!"
An insane amount of meet details at NJ.MileSplit.
Here are a number of our photographer's pictures from the meet; and they and other pictures taken by Cherokee's friends at NJ.MileSPlit -- Tom Smith, Mae Kellert and "Doublee" -- are linked here on our Google site!
