Cherokee Track & Field Pictures, 2019, Page IV





The Spring Season Begins!


Snow Field


Leave your footprints in the snow when you pass by . . . and possibly on the team's record books!






Looking outside on March 1st, few would believe that Spring Track is upon us and practice will soon begin! Two or three inches of snow look worse than they are but the forecast for the next week offers little relief! More snow and very cold days . . . "March Comes in Like a Lion" . . . and, if the old folk wisdom prevails . . . "Out Like a Lamb!" So far, the first half is right!

So practice gets altered for a few days but, with the team's first scrimmage less than a month away, the Chiefs will be scrambling to get ready for an excitng season! Coach Dave Petruzzi takes over as Head Coach this season and will focus on Hurdles and Jumps; Coach Steve Shaklee will continue to focus on the Distance events; Coach Jeff Thompson will work with the Sprinters; and Coach Ed Kramer will focus on the Throws! The core of the team returned from a decent Winter Track season and everyone is looking forward to warmer weather and a highly-successful Spring campaign! GO CHEROKEE!









As always, the Early Spring Season is a time of continuing preparation for the season and especially for the championship meets at the end of the season! Gradually improving speed, strength, endurance, and skills are the keys to success! It begins with the scrimmage for all against Timber Creek and Haddon Heights (March 26th) at Cherokee. After that, the season officially opens with two new conference "batch meets," scheduled April 3rd and April 10th, one away at Timber Creek and the second at Cherokee. After that, the first of the invitational meets, the Moorestown Invitational, on April 13th; and the last of the batch meets at Seneca on April 17th. While those will be challenging and excellent experiences for everyone, veteran and novice, Cherokee's Night of Racing # 1 on April 18th is the first major event for the Distance Runners and a great opportunity to show off; and on the same day, the team, without the Distance Squad, will travel to the Eagle Relays at Central Regional High School!

GO CHEROKEE!






Adrenaline 5K

On March 16th, 2019, several members of the team traveled unofficially to Haddonfield for the 16th Annual Adrenaline 5K. The race goes way back, formerly a charity run for The Bancroft School, and in those days, Coach Shaklee "encouraged" his entire distance squad to race the event and demonstrate their condition before going into the Spring season. Recently, however, he allows team members to enter the event but does not encourage any "hard-core" performances.

This year, only two team members -- Ethan Wechlser and Tyler Jackson chose to press the pace while two others -- Brett Shea and David Jackson -- set lesser goals for themselves.

Ethan and Ty went out together fairly fast and ended their races divided by only 39 seconds. Ethan clocked 16:13 (5:12 pace) and finished in 32nd place, 3rd in the 15-19 age group; while Ty clocked 16:52 (5:25 pace) and finished in 44th place, 5th in the same age group!

Brett supposedly was not racing but, when he was first seen with a little over 650 yards to go, his feet were churning like a sprinter's! He crossed the line in 17:48 (5:43 pace), and finished in 70th place, 12th in his age group!

David, who has been fighting injuries all winter, chose a relaxed pace with family members, clocking 23:11 (pace 7:26) and finished in 274th place, 32nd in his age group.

This year, the pre-race entries numbered 1,000, the maximum allowed, and 984 finished the race! Further details at: Run Sign Up.


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Advanced Notice: Richard's Run

This year, on April 28, 2019, the Go 4 the Goal Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding research for pediatric cancers, will sponsor their 13th Annual Richard's Run, a 5K at Cooper River Park. The race is named after a young kid who died of childhood cancer but Cherokee distance has a special connection to the organization: Tim Frantz, one of our own, died in 2008 of Ewing's Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Indeed, a feature in the race is the Tim Frantz Award to the top finisher!

Though, perhaps, it should be, the race is NOT a District or even an official team event but the distance team always manages to make a significant showing and, most of the time, win the Tim Frantz Award!

It's a great opportunity to honor Tim's life and courage, and to meet Tim's parents and his twin brother (who teaches and coaches Track at Lenape)! If at all possible, mark your calendars to be there!

More on Tim can be found on our site at: Tim's Memorial Page.






Olympic Conference Batch Meet # 1

On April 3, 2019, Cherokee opened their 2019 season at a low-key meet at Timber Creek High School: Batch Meet # 1. "Batch Meets" are new replacements for the traditional Dual Meets. This year, there are three scheduled with about five schools competing at each. Yesterday, things were so "low key" that no official results were taken and coaches were responsible for keeping track of their own athletes.

Coach Shaklee left most of distance team home to train and brought three newcomers to the meet. He was especially impressed with the performance of Dom Gazarra who joined the distance squad only a month ago! Despite being pulled out way too fast for the first 400m (71 seconds!), he held it together and finished with a good Freshman time!

Head Coach Petruzzi also brought a small group of sprinter/jumpers to the meet and he mentioned a few of them in his summary. It was a windy day but Tyler Ortiz opened his Spring season with a respectable 60.9 in the 400m Intermediate Hurdles! That puts him in a great spot to break the dreaded 60-second barrier in the coming weeks! Will Delendik shook some rust off with an 11.3 in the 100m on his way to a much-anticipated successful senior season! In the 400m Dash, four sprinters opened their seasons with sub-56 times and that too suggests even more positive results in the future: Will Delendik, 55.6; Aatish Gupta, 55.7; Trevor Tubb, 55.9; and Kevin Hess, 55.9! Trey Cabbagestalk (16.3) and Ty Ortiz (17.8) both three-stepped their way to a great start in the 110HH!

Throws Coach Kramer suggested naming the Wind God (Njord in Norse mythology) the MVP for many of the Javelin throwers on the team! With huge wind gusts at their backs, several throwers had a rough time adjusting but others, like Nathan Chang, Jeremy Krementz, Chris Chin, Chika Omeronye, Krish Patel and Jack Heron, all managed to throw PR's at the meet! That said, sometimes the wind is not your friend and those throwing the Disc straight into it did not do so well! Add to that the shinny new and slick circle and no one managed to throw PR's in that event!

Here are a few of the 140 pictures taken at, and edited and saved from the meet!


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Distance 800m Time-Trial

So far the early season has been a little rough on the training schedule as both the Timber Creek Scrimmage and the Metuchen Invitational were cancelled due to weather. As a result, Coach Shaklee scheduled his own 800m Time-Trial on Saturday, April 6th. Even then, the weather was unusually cool and, for our photographer, annoyingly hazy! Come on . . . boo hoo! Get to work!

Coach Shaklee sent his own report on the day!

"Of the fifteen runners participating in the Time-Trial, ten set PR's despite the early hour and the cool temperature!

In Heat 1, Coach Petruzzi set a perfect pace for the first 400m before stepping off and letting Mike Moraschi lead the way. Mike ran strong over the 2nd lap to PR by over a second! Behind him, Matt Campbell was running a tough race of his own and not only did he PR but he went under 2:20 for the first time! Behind Matt, PR's were set by Dom Gazarra, Bradley Popler, Kieran Doerr, Christian Bennett and Dylan Korte! Popler beat his time from the Winter season while the others were running the first 800m of their high school careers! Overall it was a nice start for the newcomers!

Heat 2 was paced by Aatish Gupta who took the group through about a second ahead of pace which set them up well. Bobby Hackney took the lead and ran aggressively over the next 200m. He tightened up just a bit in the final 200m and Chase Miller passed him in the homestretch with both runners setting PR's! Following them, Mike Gavio set a big PR of his own in 3rd!

Heat 3 was a two-man affair with Tyler Ortiz leading the first lap for Tyler Jackson and Ethan Wechsler, bringing them through in 58 seconds before pulling off to leave Jackson in the lead. Saturday was not Tyler's day as he struggled over the final lap while Ethan held strong to just dip under the 2 minute barrier with a new PR! In doing so, Ethan joins a small group of Cherokee runners (Jeff Storch, 1998; Mike Caputi, 1998; Aaron Boucher, 1999; Josh Joseph, 2001; Marc Pelerin, 2002; Steve Burkholder, 2010 and Shawn Wilson, 2013) who are on all three distance lists - Sub-2:00, 800m; Sub-4:30, 1600m; and Sub-10:00, 3200m!"

Here are some pictures from the day, the first group show some Sprinters at practice.


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Olympic Conference Batch Meet # 2

On April 10, 2019, the team hosted Batch Meet # 2, the second of three, essentially, practice meets sponsored by the Olympic Conference. This time, Cherokee, Cherry Hill High Schools East and West, and Woodrow Wilson and Camden Catholic High Schools competed in this limited-event, non-scoring meet.

Head Coach Dave Petruzzi was especially impressed by his hurdlers! "Tyler Ortiz, Joey Carroll, Tray Cabbagestalk and Chris Brandreth showed they are capable of putting together some exciting hurdle relays in the upcoming weeks! Tyler, Joey and Trey are lined up to break 60 seconds in the 400m Hurdles very soon, and all four are already clocking PR's in the 100m Highs! Also, NewcomerMike Andes running 52.4 in the Open 400m, and a quick 23.6 in the Open 200m Dash, were both nice to see, and it will be fun to see what he does later in the season . . . and Team Captain Will Delendik's 23.2 in the 200 set another nice example for the team! In general, the sprinters have been working hard and it is showing! It seems they're hungry to run and compete after such a long preseason!"

Coach Ed Kramer followed this with some positive comments on his Throwers! "The Throwers we had in competition had a really good day. About 2/3rds of the throws were PR's and that's a great way to come out of a meet, even a practice one! In the Javelin, PR's came from JP Aimone, Max Fisher, Krish Patel, Chris Chin, Joey Fuhs, Dalton Salerno, Brian Stillwagon and Aiden King, who had the top throw on the team of 115" 9". In the Shot Put, there were PR's from Max Fisher, Jack Heron, Justin Miller, Chika Omeronye and Jake Mesey, who had the top throw on the team of 36' 3.5"!

Distance Coach Shaklee had his guys doing a workout instead of competing in the meet. His younger guys will compete soon at the upcoming Frosh-Soph Meet at Eustace, and his Varsity will compete with the rest of the Varsity at the upcoming meet at Moorestown.

No official results are available.


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Cherokee Batch 2

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Crusader Frosh-Novice Meet

On April 12, 2019, several members of the Distance squad traveled to Bishop Eustace Prep in Pennsauken for the Crusader Frosh-Novice Invitational and, while the rain was supposed to hold off until after 7 PM, it didn't! But the weather forecasters were only off by THREE HOURS! As Queen Victoria often remarked, "We are not amused!"


Wet angry bird


Coach Shaklee reported that "the conditions were less than ideal but several Cherokee runners still managed to record personal best times at the Crusader Invitational at Bishop Eustace on Friday. The freshman 1600m was highlighted by Dom Gazzara's 9th place finish while knocking 6 seconds off of his previous best time! Bradley Popler also set a new personal record while finishing 11th and Dylan Korte also set a new PR! Mike Moraschi was our top finisher in the Novice division in 13th, while Bryan Lafferty placed 15th, and Matt Campbell was 18th, setting a new PR. Other PR's were recorded by Kiernan Doerr and Christian Bennett!"

Official details at: NJ.MileSplit.


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Eustace Fr-Novice Eustace Fr-Novice Eustace Fr-Novice Eustace Fr-Novice Eustace Fr-Novice Eustace Fr-Novice





Moorestown Invitational

On April 13, 2019, many of those on the Varsity team traveled to the near-by Moorestown Invitational for a relatively small but convenient Saturday "rust-buster." More on the meet soon but, as you can see from the lack of pictures posted lately, our photographer is having trouble catching up with all the action and he wondered whom to ask for help? Should he ask the "in-your-face" super hero or the less obvious, more subtle "Clark Kent" character standing behind him? Hmmmmm? Who's the real Superman?!


Superman


Moving as fast as Superman, Coach Shaklee sent the following report on the action by the Distance squad! "The weather was good for the Moorestown Invitational on Saturday and the distance team was quite successful! (Yes, he did say, "quite successful.") Mike Gavio started things off with a convincing win in the 5000m run, setting a new PR! Later, the Cherokee trio of Ethan Wechsler, Chase Miller and Tyler Jackson went 1-2-3 in the 1500m with Tyler establishing a new PR with a converted 1600m time of 4:33.46 in 3rd! Finally, Ethan and Tyler came back in the Distance Medley, on the 1600m and 400m legs respectively, and teamed with Brett Shea in the 1200m and Bobby Hackney in the 800m, to win the event!"

Coach Kramer reported that "the Throws had a great showing at the Moorestown Invitational! Starting the day, Luch Pizarro opened his outdoor season with a huge PR of 55' 2"! That is the best throw for a Cherokee Shot Putter since the school record was set by Gary Roskowski in 1999 . . . 20 years . . . and that throw moves Luch to Number 5 on the 2019 New Jersey Shot Put list! In addition, Luch teamed with Jake Mesey to take first in the Shot Put Relay! In the Javelin, Nathan Chang threw a PR of 131' 3" as he teamed with Jack Vick to take second in the event! In the Discus, Luch and Darien Massimino didn't throw their best but still did enough to take second in the event, only three inches from first! The guys in the Throws Medley -- combine the places of 1 Shot, 1 Discus, 1 Javelin -- threw well, including a big PR from Spencer Floyd in the Discus with a throw of 85' 0"! Aiden King threw the Javelin, and Darien Massimino put the Shot, but the official results of the Medley were not posted."

Head Coach Petruzzi was generally happy with his Sprinters' performances but he was "especially impressed by how well they executed the Sprint Medley Relay, with the entire team running great! Andrew Elsey led off in 23.5, and Will Delendik followed with 23.0 on the second 200m, Mike Andes clocked his best 400m leg at 51.5 and Aatish Gupta finished the relay with his best 800m at 2:07.3! Just a great race to watch! The 4 X 100 Relay had some positive legs as well! Splits in this race are tough to get but Andrew Elsey started well and passed the baton to two new guys, Mike Andes and Christian Mathis, who in turn passed the baton in a good position for Will Delendik to anchor and take a close second in the event! Also worth noting was the performance of Chima Opara, Trevor Tubb, Lucas Hatch and Kevin Hess who took 1st over all Large and Small entries in the JV Sprint Medley Relay!"

The full meet report is available at: NJ.MileSplit.

Our photographer was at the start/finish line all day. The last three pictures, however, were shot by Cherokee parent Mr Andrew King. Thanks!



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Olympic Conference Batch Meet # 3

On April 17, 2019, a number of Cherokee's youngest performers traveled to Seneca High School for the Olympic Conference Batch Meet # 3! Many members of the team, however, were unavailable because of the Senior trip and the up-coming "Night of 3200's" at Cherokee!

There are no published results from this meet.

Here are some pictures of the action on the track. As usual, the throwers and jumpers were missed. Honestly, the events were too dispersed, they ran too slowly, and the location by the woods was darker than the track on this cloudy day. We'll work on this issue!


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Seneca Batch Meet 3 Seneca Batch Meet 3 Seneca Batch Meet 3 Seneca Batch Meet 3 Seneca Batch Meet 3 Seneca Batch Meet 3
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