The Late Spring Season: late-April when the weather and the season begin to heat up! It starts with the Penn Relays, and includes the dual meet against Eastern Regional High School; the South Jersey Invitational and the South Jersey Relays; the Lenape District Championships; and the Cherokee Invitational. GO CHEROKEE!
Penn Relays
On April 24 and 25, 2009, Cherokee sent two relay teams to the Penn Relays this past weekend in Philadelphia. On Friday, Jon Scott, Major Mobley, Chris Jackson and Will Rapp finished 3rd in their heat of the 4 X 100m Relay, running their fastest time of the year and recording the 7th fastest time of the day by a team from South Jersey. On Saturday, Will Rapp teamed with AJ Valentine, Mike Palmieri and Josh Ungerleider to finish 5th out of 17 teams in the South Jersey Large School 4 X 400m Relay event. Results at: Penn Relays Results. Check out the list of days on the right side.
Dual Meet: Eastern Regional High School
On April 28, 2009, the team traveled to Eastern Regional High School where they swept five events and won by a score of 80 - 60! The victory was led by senior, Will Rapp, who tied the school record in the 100m Dash and, with teammates Jon Scott and Chris Jackson, led a sweep of both the 100m and 200m races! Senior Major Mobley picked-up two wins with season-best performances in the 110m High Hurdles and Triple Jump, while sophomore, Darren McCluskey, ran his fastest race to date to finish second in the High Hurdle event! Mike Palmieri, AJ Valentine and Mike Brocco swept the first 3 places in the 400m IH!
In addition to the sprints and hurdles, the team recorded two other 1-2-3 sweeps with Ed Kramer, Justin Turner and Brian Regensberg in the High Jump -- Kramer cleared a PR of 6' 4" -- and Sean Hartnett, Steve Burkholder and Josh Perez in the 3200m Run! Chris Applegate and Kyle Miller finished 1-2 in the 800m Run!
Other strong performances were turned in by Tyler Bothel who PRed in the Shot Put for 3rd place; freshman, Brandon McCleese who picked up a 3rd place in the Discus; and Matt Maze who equaled his personal best in the Pole Vault to finish 2nd.
Record: 3 - 1.
Go 4 the Goal Foundation 5K Run
On May 3, 2009, a group of Cherokee runners did their Sunday training run at Cooper River Park in support of Richard's River Run, a 5K race sponsored by the Go4the Goal Foundation! Cherokee distance runners have a special connection to the foundation as it helps children affected by cancer. Our own Tim Frantz, who died last September of Ewing's Sarcoma, was remembered in the race by having the 1st Place Men's Award named after him!
Cherokee's current athletes participated but did not "race" the 5K. However, one of our Alums did: Matt Dolan ('05), who reported he was in no shape to race against Cherokee's 2009 stars, won the race and the first Tim Frantz Memorial Award! Also there was Ted Schickling ('08), who walked the distance because he had just raced in the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships for TCNJ! See Alums Page.
Race results at: LM Sports.
Make a donation in Tim's name at: Go4theGoal Foundation!
Pictures provided by Mrs. M. Devine.
Lenape Regional District Championships
On May 7, 2009, despite a week of clouds and rain, and a deluge just before the meet was scheduled to begin, the 3rd Annual Lenape District Track and Field Championships -- with Lenape, Shawnee, Senaca and Cherokee High Schools in the mix -- were contested at Cherokee's newly-renovated facility! And, judging from the final score and many individual performances, this was the best Cherokee showing of the year!
A brief look at the Meet, School, and Personal Records set suggests the competitiveness of the team at this meet! Sprinter Will Rapp set two Meet Records and one School Record in winning the 100m Dash in 11.07 (MR) and the 200m Dash in 22.14 -- breaking Kevin Merrigan's 2008 Meet and School record of 22.15). Jon Scott and Chris Jackson both ran well to finish 3rd and 4th in the 100m Dash! Sprinters Jon Scott, Major Mobley, Chris Jackson and Brandon Rapp teamed up to win the 4 X 100m Relay!
Thrower Justin Nykiel set a Meet Record in winning the Javelin by almost ten feet!
Distance runner Marc Saccomanno set a Meet Record in winning the 5000m Run, with Ryan Bobb setting a PR to finish 4th!
Middle Distance runner Josh Ungerleider split 50.7 on the anchor leg of the 4 X 400m Relay to help the team of AJ Valentine, Mike Palmieri, and Will Rapp take first place with a new Meet Record in the event; and it was a PR by 1.5 seconds for Josh! AJ Valentine also stepped-up in the 800m Run by clocking the fastest 800m by a Cherokee runner in the last three years with his 1:58.90, and taking 2nd place!
In addition to being on the winning 4 X 100m Relay, Sprinter/Hurdler Major Mobley picked up three 2nd place finishes in the 110HH, the Long Jump and the Triple Jump! And Mike Palmieri and Mike Brocco took 1st and 2nd in the 400IH, with Tim Brill almost making it a sweep when he took a close 4th!
Distance performers did well too! Steve Burkholder had a good double setting a new PR in the Mile Run and running strong in his second race, the 800m Run. Steve finished 3rd in both. Chris Applegate and Sean Hartnett both PR'd in the 2 Mile to finish 2nd and 3rd! Ryan McNair leaned at the line to edge out Corey Holloway from Lenape for 4th in the 800m Run with another new PR! And Kyle Muench PR'd by over 2 seconds on his lead-off leg of the 4 X 800m Relay!
These and other solid performances added up to the third consecutive Cherokee victory in the District Championships, with Cherokee scoring 121; a much-improved Lenape at 102; Seneca at 49; and Shawnee with 20. GO CHEROKEE!
Cherokee Invitational
On May 12, 2009, the team hosted the Cherokee Invitational - a novice meet for those not expected to qualify for the up-coming Sectional and State championships - that brought together hundreds of athletes from around the state.
In the competition, Cherokee had a number of medalists. Kyle Smith won the 1600m Run and was followed closely by Frankie Devine in 2nd, Josh Perez in 4th, and Greg Malloy in 5th. Malloy came back later to win the 3200m Run with Adam Henriksen finishing 3rd. In the 800m Run, freshman Mike Lowinger finished 4th with Eric Birkhead right behind him in 5th.
In the Throwing events, freshman Brandon McCleese finished 2nd in the Discus and also picked up a 4th place medal in the Shot Put. Frankie Wall, Brett Schules and Tom Marzilli finished 3rd, 5th and 6th in the Javelin. Among the jumpers, Drake Rodgers placed 3rd in the High Jump and 4th in the Long Jump, with Drew Viscidy taking the 5th place medal in the Triple Jump.
In the Sprints, Will Piedra finished 6th in the 200m Dash, while freshmen Brandon Rapp and Ross Staudt, each took 6th in the 100m and 400m Dash respectively. Staudt also teamed with Alex Walker, Dan Basoff and Cody McDonald to place 2nd in the 4 X 400m Relay.
Complete results from the meet at: Cherokee Invitational Main Page, or at Mile Split, NJ Runner.
Thanks to Pat Montferrat, formerly of NJ Runners.com, and a good friend of Cherokee Track and Field, for the following pictures! And, sorry, you throwers and jumpers, Pat was stuck at the track the whole day!
