The Early Championship Season is a time of sharpening for the Varsity members of the team and some last-chance opportunities for Junior Varsity and Freshmen to qualify for upcoming meets or to compete for the final time this season! This section includes comments on and pictures from the Championship Season, mid-to-late May, 2016, starting with the Cherry Hill H. S. East Dual Meet (postponed from April 26th to May 19th at Cherokee) for the Division Championship; followed by the Burlington County Championships, (May 21st at Rancocas Valley H.S.); Haddonfield Distance Night (May 24th at Haddonfield Memorial H.S.); and the Eustace Throwers Meet, May 25th at Bishop Eustace Preparatory H.S. GO CHIEFS!
On May 19, 2016, the team hosted the last of the Divisional dual meets with Cherry Hill High School East. Normally, the last of the dual meets would be hotly contested but not this season! Repeated rains and postponements compressed the schedule so much that some athletes simply could not compete effectively in all the meets. As a result, two dual meets became little more than training sessions for the team. One, the Lenape dual, and two, this dual meet against Cherry Hill East. However, that doesn't mean that those who competed just took it easy!
Most of the Distance guys who competed did well! In the 1600m Run, Joe Falk closed very well off of a slow tactical pace to set a new PR, and Pat Mahoney and Ben Rosenberg also set PRs in the race! In the 800m Dash, behind Matt Powell, who finished 2nd with a new PR, Mike Algarra ran under 2:15 for the first time; and Jake Hyzy, Aatish Gupta, Nik Kadirisani and George Villanueva also set PR's! In the 3200m Run, both Mike Iannotta and Jon Conn had very good races! Previously, neither had broken 11:00 but they ran 10:41 and 10:44 respectively to finish 2nd and 4th! In the 4 X 400, 7 of the 12 distance runners set new PR's! The most impressive performance came from Joe Thompson who made up a lot of ground on the anchor leg with a 2-second PR of 54.3! The added incentive of having a runner well out in front of him -- a runner who only minutes before completed a PR performance in the 3200 -- and the clamor from his teammates no doubt drove him to complete that feat!
The Jumpers and Sprinters gave the team some important highlights as well! Mark Kirby won the Vault with an awesome 12' PR but the day belonged to Terrance Graves who PR'd in all three events he entered: the 100m, 200m, and the 400m Dashes! Eric Jjemba and Jared Janowsky PR'd in both the 100m and 200m Dashes; Amir Epps set his own PR in the 400m Dash; and Matt Powell, a sprinter who always dreamed of being a distance man, dropped 3 seconds in the 800m Dash (normally reserved for distance runners)! Finally, for some time, hurdler Dave Osterhout tried and failed to break the legendary 60-second barrier but he accomplished that feat on this day. Still, not one to make false claims, Dave refuses to accept the hand-time record and looks forward to breaking the record when "fully automatic timing" is available! GO DAVE!
Among the Throwers, Andrew Kim in the Shot; and Matt Tilden and Dante Casella in the Javelin, all threw PR's! And Adonis Giovetis got special props from the coach as he had a consistently good day throwing well in the Shot, Javelin and Discus!
Many pictures from the meet! All Spring pictures will be distributed as prints at the Track banquet! In the meantime, here are some pictures selected randomly from the meet!
On May 21, 2016, the team traveled the short distance to Rancocas Valley Regional H.S. for the Burlington County Open Championship and it was definitely worth the trip!
The Distance squad continues to improve! In the 3200m Run, Jack Shea PR'd for 2nd place and took another big step forward in his return from injury this winter. He got a late start to the spring but appears to be rounding into shape at the right time. Brendan Falzone also PR'd by a few seconds to get 7th! Although he didn't PR, Mike Zurzolo finished 3rd overall with a solid race! In the 4 X 800m Relay, three of the guys -- Cam Wilburn, Joe Thompson and Mike Iannotta -- set PR's and, with Steve Gravlin, placed 5th and scored points for the team! Later, both Cam and Steve doubled back to run the Open 800m, where both guys ran solid times just off their PR's!
That said, the 1600m was probably the distance team's highlight for the meet: Nick Falk, Justin Kelly and Brandon Marks took 1st, 2nd and 5th to score 20 team points! Brandon set a new PR while Nick and Justin raced well but were slowed by a tactical 2nd lap run in 72 seconds. Both guys ran the last 800m very well and put the rest of the field away!
In the Throws and Jumps, the Javelin throwers started the day with several very nice performances. Matt Gross missed his PR by a few feet but launched a nice "Big-Meet PR" that took 3rd, only a foot behind 2nd place, in the competition! Eli Mitchell had a slightly "off" day but still managed to place and score a point for the team! Steve Huber threw the only PR on the team and, although he missed placing by one spot, it was a great day for him! Over in the vaulting area, Mark Kirby tied his PR of 12' in the event and took 4th in the competition!
Among the Sprinters, Amir Epps clocked a PR in the 400m Dash, and Al Panaccio clocked his own PR in the 400IH!
Overall, it was the Distance team's day to shine! Cherokee scored 51 points in the meet and finished 5th overall, only 2 points behind Lenape and Burlington Township High Schools who tied for 3rd. The Distance guys accounted for 36 of those points (70% but who's counting?!): six different guys in the 1600m and 3200m and FIVE of them placed . . . and the 6th, Brendan Falzone took 7th in the 3200m and just missed placing! Above all, Cherokee had only one Burlington County Champion and that's Nick Falk, winner of the 1600m Run!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Performances aside, the next time Coach Shaklee complains because one of his athletes forgot his sweats, his water, his sunscreen, whatever, you might point to the following pictures of a car left in the Rancocas Valley parking lot on the day of the meet. Anyone see Coach Shaklee minding his belongings? He's probably somewhere talking to his wrist. (Thanks to Coach McMichael for the picture!)
On May 24, 2016, the distance squad traveled to Haddonfield High School for the Haddonfield Distance Night. Generally looked on as a "last-chance meet," the event provides fast conditions for those sharpening for the up-coming Sectionals and for those seeking to end their seasons on a positive note!
In the 800m Dash, Cherokee had four personal records set. Brandon Marks and Matt Powell knocked 2 seconds off of their previous bests . . . and Brandon did that even though he had to lead the majority of the race. Steve Gravlin took 3 seconds off of his previous best with a very well-paced race and Aatish Gupta negative split his way to a 5 second PR and a 5th place finish in the freshman 800!
In the 1600m Dash, eight of our twelve competitors set new personal records. Cam Wilburn, Matt Smith, Mike Moraschi and Pat Mahoney all took a second or two off while Mike Iannotta, Jon Conn, Mike Algarra and George Villanueva all took big chunks off of their previous best times! Mike Iannotta worked his way down into the 4:40s with a 7 second improvement, and George Villanueva improved the same to get below 5:40! Meanwhile, Jon Conn and Mike Algarra became the newest members of the sub-5 club! Jon moved from 5:02 down to 4:57 while Mike improved by 12 seconds to go from 5:11 to 4:59!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On May 25, 2016, the Throws guys bussed to Bishop Eustace Prep for their annual Eustace Throwing Invitational. This is another of those "last chance meets" where athletes get a final opportunity to either sharpen for the upcoming Sectionals or end their seasons on a positive note!
Most of the guys threw the Discus. John Hemple threw a PR in the event and placed 4th! Mike O'Malley had a big day with an 11' PR in the same event, as did Jake McAvaddy, Alec Mowad, and Dante Casella!
Mike O'Malley came back and threw a second PR in the Shot Put -- this one by a foot and a half; and Jake McAvaddy and Collin Mahoney returned with PR's in the Javelin!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Following the crowd, the photographer stayed at the Discus!
