The Early Spring Season is over and the team has shaped-up well! Two successful Dual Meets and several respectable Invitational performances suggest a positive future for the team! Still, it is a time of continuing preparation for the smaller meets of the Mid-Season: Dual Meets against Lenape and Cherry Hill East, and the more-challenging Conference and County Championships in late May, while continuing to look forward to the major state championships in June!
Gradually improving speed, strength, endurance, and skills are the keys to success!
GO CHEROKEE!
Once again, the weather report was a bleak one, with showers and thundershowers forecast, but, as the day went on, the forecast improved and Cherokee traveled the short distance to our sister-school for the Cherokee-Lenape Dual Meet. Happily, team-members stepped-up again and recorded the third dual-meet win of the season: 88 - 50! That's a season record of 3 - 0, with only one Division dual meet to be contested!
Coach Thompson was pleased with a number of his Sprinters/Hurdlers/Jumpers performances! He highlighted Chima Opara's victories in the 100m and 200m, both recorded PR's, with his first sub-11 in the 100! Following Chima in the 100m, Brian Mitchell took 2nd while scoring his first recorded PR in the event and Varsity points! Tony Campbell finished the sweep with a recorded PR and taking 3rd! In the 200m, Chima was followed by Ryan Bender with a 2nd place PR, and Thomas Bland with his own PR in 3rd!
The 400m Dash looked good too! Kevin Hess dropped a few tenths-of-a-second for 1st and a new PR, followed by Tony Campbell in 2nd with a slight PR, and Thomas Bland in 3rd with a significant drop in his PR! The Coach also mentioned PR's set by Jayden Hewlett, Christian Sproesser, Jeremy Linden, Evan Pawlik and a phantom runner named "Banks" who isn't on the original team roster!
The Hurdlers did pretty well too! In the 400IH, Chris Brandreth took 1st and Wilson Leung took 3rd with his own an impressive PR! In the 110HH, Angelo Kyrtatas won the event with a major PR, and also is in the running for the meet's "Safe at Home Plate Award" after his spectacular fall at the last hurdle of the 400IH! Following Angelo, Chris Brandreth took a close 2nd in the event with an excellent PR!
In the Jumps, Zach Palfy won important points taking 1st in the Triple Jump and the Pole Vault! Also in the Triple Jump, Chris Brandreth picked-up a 2nd with a PR! In the Long Jump, Ryan Bender and Chima Opara took 2nd and 3rd for 4 points in that event! Also in the Pole Vault, Evan Aronow took 2nd for his first recorded PR in the event! Finally, in the High Jump, Andy Campbell won the event and is also in the running for the meet's "Safe at Home Plate Award" after his spectacular fall off the mat in the event!
All in all, the Sprinters/Hurdlers/Jumpers carried most of the weight in this meet, taking 66 of 84 available points!
Coach Shaklee was generally pleased with the performances of his distance crew! He summarized the day by breaking down each of the distance races:
"In the 1600, Nico Grilli, still only a few weeks back from an extended injury absence, ran his first 1600 of the year. Somehow ending up in the lead from the start [Ouch, here the Coach subtlely introduces some criticism of Nico's tactics in the race!], Nico had a tough time running against a strong Lenape athlete. Although he closed in 61.0, Nico was narrowly caught at the line and had to settle for 2nd. Still, a good first effort! Connor Jacob grabbed the 3rd spot with a new PR while other PR's were recorded by Bobby Poplau (his first sub-5!), Luke Reistle, Danny Hassall, Nate Meyers, Ethan Weisenberg, Brett Yagiello and Jack Delaney.
"The 800 was an awesome race with four runners going sub-2:00! That is extremely rare in a dual meet. Fortunately, three of the four were Cherokee athletes: Senior Brett Shea - 1st in 1:56.6; Sophomore, Patrick Ditmars - 3rd in 1:59.3; and Freshman, Nick Kuenkel - 4th in 1:59.8! That was a non-relay PR for Brett and flat out PR's for Patrick and Nick! It puts them at 14th, 24th and 26th respectively on the All-Time Cherokee List and it was a new Freshman School Record for Nick, breaking the 2:00.8 set by Tyler Jackson in 2017! Aiden Dickinson, Bradley Popler and Benny Hackney all PR'd as well with Aiden showing terrific improvement, knocking 6 seconds off of his previous best!
"In the 3200, Andrew Free, Joe Hough, Jameson Crozier and Joe Natoli represented Cherokee. Andrew stayed with the leader from Lenape for most of the race but had to settle for 2nd with Joe Hough taking 3rd. No PR's were set in the warm conditions."
A quick review of the Top-3 in each of the Throwing events shows some positive results there as well! Newcomer Brandon Boria launched the Discus 107' 5", far enough to take 2nd in the event! DJ Mondile and Steve Mondile took important 2nd and 3rd places in the Shot, both with PR's! DJ put it 41' 11.75" and Steve was close behind in 38' 5.75". In the Javelin, Aidan King took 3rd at 122', only a foot behind a Lenape thrower and only a few inches off his all-time Javelin PR set last year!
Safe at Home Plate Award . . . . The candidates are Angelo Kyrtatas and his fall in the 400IH, and Andy Campbell and his fall in the High Jump! Witness statements are in and the voting is complete! This meet, the Award goes to Andy Campbell for his sliding fall off the mat in the High Jump! Our photographer missed both events! He did capture a shot of Kyrtatas' bruised shoulder after the event but, since Campbell fell on his back and butt, he rejected the idea of photographing the damage parts of his body! Congratulations to Mr. Campbell for his award!
Limited results available at: NJ.MileSplit
Reuben Frank reported on the super 800m race featuring three Cherokee stars in his SJTCA Blog. As usual, we've copied the article on our server at: Four Half-Milers under 2:00 in a Dual Meet? It happened at Cherokee v Lenape!.
All the pictures from the meet are available at: Lenape.
Here are a few random shots from the meet!
On May 7, 2021, the team welcomed "the world" again to the Cherokee Invitational # 2, Relays, an evening filled with "relay" events, including the usual on the track and a variety of "relay" events in the Field!
Coach Shaklee sent this upbeat summary of the Distance Team's performances:
"The distance team turned in some very nice efforts at the Cherokee Relay Meet on Friday evening!
"Things got started for us with the Distance Medley Relay! Two Cherokee squads took the line and both came away with some nice performances! The A team of Conor Jacob (1200), Danny Boria (400), Tommy Bromley (800) and Aiden Dickinson (1600), ran well to take 4th place in a field of 21 teams book-ended by the PR runs of Conor on the first leg and Aiden on the last leg! Aiden's run was particularly impressive as he ran very aggressively and then held on, despite being overextended, to break his previous 1600 PR by over 4 seconds! The B team also ran well! All four athletes set PR's for their respective distances - Bobby Poplau (1200), Joe Natoli (400), Jameson Crozier (800) and Joe Hough (1600) - and finished 12th overall!
"The 4 X 800 was another exceptional event for the two Cherokee teams entered as they finished 1st and 8th in the 19-team field! The A team of Nico Grilli, Nick Kuenkel, Patrick Ditmars and Brett Shea was simply dominating! Not only did they win the race by a full half-minute over the 2nd place team, they also went under 8:00, recording the 2nd fastest time in the state this year! This is the first Cherokee team to run under 8:00 since 2012 when the team of Colin Merrigan, Shawn Wilson, Ross Staudt and current sprint coach, Drew Viscidy, set the existing school record of 7:43.64 at the New Balance Indoor Nationals! While all four athletes ran well, it was Brett Shea anchoring the squad with yet another new PR (a fully automatic split time of 1:55.59) who propelled the team to the sub-8:00 performance! The B team also ran well with all four athletes - Matteo Evola, Andrew Free, Benny Hackney and Bradley Popler - setting new Personal Records!
"With no meets on the schedule for this week, the team will get back to some serious training in preparation for the championship season to come!"
Thought for today! A math teacher will tell you there's only a tiny difference between 1:55.59 and 1:56.00 but a distance runner will tell you the one is w-a-a-a-a-y better than the other!
Reuben Frank reported on the super 4 X 800m Relay race in his SJTCA Blog. Again, so it won't disappear into the cosmos, we've copied the article on our server at: Brett Shea's anchor gets Cherokee under 8:00 with #2 N.J. 4-by-800!.
A quick review of the results and PR's recorded at NJ.MileSplit shows some decent efforts by the Hurdlers! In the 110HH, three of four clocked PR's: Chris Brandreth, Wilson Leung and Ben Brandreth while in the 400IH, four of the four hurdlers clocked new PR's: Chris Brandreth, Wilson Leung, Ben Brandreth and Andy Kyrtatas! Very impressive efforts!
In the Field, three athletes set new PR's! DJ Mondile threw a significant PR in the Discus and Evan Aronow matched the PR Vault that he set just a few days earlier at Lenape! In addition, talented Freshmen, like Ryan Bender, are still trying to "focus" as they enter a number of events and make significant advances! He, for example, entered the High Jump but "No Heighted;" then he set new PR's in both the Javelin and the Long Jump! Next, he'll be trying the 3200m and come out for Cross Country next year! Ah . . . nah!
The real weakness in reporting the results of a "Relay Meet" from the recorded results is the lack of a any real detail. Individual splits are not provided and comparing team results is often inaccurate because team members are often switched as the season progresses. Maybe we'll get greater detail soon?
Only two days before, Andy Campbell received the coveted Safe at Home Plate Award for his thumping fall off the mat in the High Jump but at this meet he seemed to be going for something else. Any suggestions? . . . "Meet the Trainer Award?"
Results at: NJ.MileSplit.
It was a tough time for our photographer because taking pictures at late evening and night meets on a poorly lit track are iffy at best. (Maybe the athletes can compete with flashlights?!) Anyway, the pictures -- some good, some not so -- from the meet are at Cherokee Invitational # 2. Yeah, the Throwers got ripped again!
On April 19, 2021, the team traveled to the last of the Dual Meets, Cherry Hill High School East. On paper, the team at East was superior to our Cherokee squad but very often the lesser team prevails! That didn't happen this time -- Conference Record: 3 - 1 -- but not because of a lack of effort: a significant number of team members did everything they could to bring home a victory!
More on that later but first a quick listen to a subject pursued by parents on the side-line: haircuts! Our photographer did a quick scan of pictures: you decide who was the subject of the conversation . . . and maybe they can get some help from Coach Shaklee?
The meet itself was very exciting all the way to the end! Reviewing the overall results -- the meet was even closer than the 73 - 67 score suggests -- Cherokee got unexpectedly swept in the first track event and that increased the team's desire to succeed! The Jumps group took 13 out of 36 points with Chima Opara, Ryan Bender and Zach Palfy sweeping the Long Jump; Chris Brandreth and Stephen Trombetta taking 2nd and 3rd in the Triple Jump; and Zach Palfy returning to take 3rd in the Pole Vault! Cherokee got swept in the High Jump but Chima Opara set a PR in the effort!
In the Throws, the team took 11 out of 27 points with DJ Mondile took in the Shot and Steve Mondile in 3rd, both with PR's! In the Javelin, Dan Boria took 2nd and Aiden King took 3rd, both PR's; and in the Discus, Brandon Boria threw far enough, a PR, to take 3rd in the event!
In the Sprint/Hurdles, the group took 20 out of 50 points. In the 100m Dash, Chima Opara took 1st (1/10th of a second off his PR) and Brian Mitchell and Kevin Pacan split the 3rd place point! In the 200m Dash, Chima Opara returned to take 2nd; and in the 400m Dash, Kevin Hess took 1st and Lucas Hatch took 3rd, both with significant PR's! In the 4 X 400m Relay, a mixed team of Sprinters, Kevin Hess and Lucas Hatch, and Distance guys, Patrick Ditmars and Brett Shea won convincingly!
In the Distance events, the team ran very well against a highly-rated East team, taking 22 of the 27 points available! Coach Shaklee sent the following comment on his group:
"Cherokee boys track came into the last dual meet of the year, against Cherry Hill East, with an opportunity to win the Division. Both teams were undefeated so this meet would decide the championship. To win, we needed big points from the distance team which was going against a very strong Cherry Hill East distance squad (Olympic Conference Champions in XC and had the individual winner of the race as well)! It was also a very hot day which was going to make doubling even more difficult!
"The first distance event on the track was the 1600m Run and Brett Shea and Patrick Ditmars got us off to a great start! Brett and Patrick trailed the two Cherry Hill East runners through the first 1400 meters before sprinting away to take 1st and 2nd, earning 8 of 9 possible points in the event! Both athletes set new personal records in the process! Behind the scorers, Aiden Dickinson, Bradley Popler and Benny Hackney all ran new PR's as well!
"Next up was the 800m Run and it went even better! Brett Shea doubled back from the 1600m to win the race and was he followed by fellow senior, Nico Grilli in 2nd, and sophomore, Tommy Bromley, in 3rd! Both Nico and Tommy set sizable PR's for the event with Nico going under 2:00 for the first time! Other PR's were set by Danny Boria, Luke Reistle, Nate Meyer, Brett Yagiello and Ethan Weisenberg!
"With the score looking very close, we came to the last distance event of the meet, the 3200m Run. East was doubling back their top two runners from the 1600 (including the cross country conference champion) and we were running with freshman, Nick Kuenkel, and sophomore, Conor Jacob. The race went out very slowly but our runners stayed patient. Little by little, the East runners dialed-up the pace but the time through the halfway point was still pretty slow. Things started moving over the second 1600m and soon it was the two East runners with Nick Kuenkel hanging on as best he could. Finishing the event with only one point would have put the team victory out of reach so it was up to Nick to get us more. That he did! He passed both runners on the backstretch of the last lap and it looked like he was going to run away to a victory1 However, East's top man came back by Nick and started pulling away around the last turn. Entering the homestretch, Nick was down by about 10 meters and the East runner was kicking hard. In a show of great poise and determination, Nick kept coming on him and slowly closed the gap1 It wasn't until the last couple of strides that he caught him and edged in front at the line to get us five points instead of one!
"The distance team had done its job, scoring 22 of 27 possible points in the 800/1600/3200, but our work was still not done. Brett Shea and Patrick Ditmars were scheduled to run the 3rd and 4th legs on the 4 X 400 Meter Relay. To have any chance of winning the meet, we had to win the relay. When Patrick got the baton, he was a step ahead of the East runner, a lead he extended to 10 meters by the time he handed off to Brett! Brett then laid down an impressive 50.4 anchor leg to widen the lead and give us the relay victory and a team lead of 67 to 63 with only the High Jump remaining. Unfortunately, it was not to be as East swept the final event to earn a narrow 73-67 victory and take the division title. Still, an impressive display by the Cherokee distance squad against one of the top distance teams in South Jersey!"
Score sheet available at: Google Docs. Here are some of the meet pictures and these plus others are available at: Lenape Google Drive
You one of those guys who got caught in one of those "fight til you drop" situations racing to the finish line? It's almost routine in the 100 and the 200 --that's what those events require and it's great -- but, when you get to the longer races, it becomes almost spectacular! This meet, our photographer mentioned Kevin Hess in the 400, and Nick Kuenkel in the 3200! Glorious side-by-side battles, all along the final straightaway, each athlete exhausted from the race, hoping they wouldn't falter and the other would, but each battling to the finish line! Amazing! Thrilling! Glorious! Track at its best! (If you don't get that, you might consider golf. ; < )
On April 22, 2021, the team traveled to nearby Rancocas Valley High School for the Burlington County Open Championships -- the first of the "big" championship meets as they head for the upcoming State Championships -- and finished a respectable 2nd in the County!
Reviewing the official results, there were a number of 1st place finishes and PR's at the meet!
In the 100m, for example, Freshman Kevin Pacan set his PR, while in the 200m, Freshman Ryan Bender and Sophomore Marcellus Malloy did the same! In the 400m, Junior Kevin Hess set an official FAT PR, and Senior Thomas Bland did too!
In the 800m, Senior Brett Shea won the event, and Sophomore Patrick Ditmars took 5th, while Sophomore Tommy Bromley set a PR in the race as he took 13th! In the 1600m, Senior Nico Grilli won the event, Freshman Nick Kuenkel, running his first official 1600, took 4th and (obviously) set a PR, and Brett Shea (doubling) took 7th in the race! In the 3200m, Patrick Ditmars (doubling) took 1st in the race and Nick Kuenkel (doubling) took 2nd!
Among the Hurdlers, in the 110HH, Senior Chris Brandreth set a PR as he took 8th, and he returned in the 400m Hurdles and set another PR when he went under the one-minute mark for the first time and finished 3rd! In addition, also in the 400m Hurdles, Junior Angelo Kyrtatas took 7th, setting his own PR; and Senior Ben Brandreth took 12th and set a PR!
Cherokee did well in the Relay portion of the meet but identifying the various team members will have to wait until the individual coaches share that information. The list is highlighted by several 1st place finishes! The 4 X 400m Relay took an impressive 1st in the event, and the 4 X 800m Relay did the same, with the JV 4 X 800m team taking 1st in their event too!
Among the Jumpers and Throwers, Sophomore Brian Mitchell established a PR in the Long Jump; and Steve Trombetta did the same in the Triple Jump! Senior Zach Palfy took 4th and matched his PR in the Pole Vault; and Junior Evan Aronow finished 9th and set a new PR in the same event! In the Shot, Senior Stephen Mondile took 4th and set a new PR; and in the Javelin, both Senior Dan Boria and Freshman Ryan Bender broke the 100' line for the first time and set new PR's!
Coach Shaklee sent his Distance-related comments on the meet:
"The Saturday of the Burlington County Meet was an extremely difficult day for distance runners with high heat and humidity. Because it was thought that we had an outside chance of winning the championship, some of the distance runners were being called upon to run multiple events, something that was next to impossible given the conditions!
"By the time the first distance event went off, the 3200m, it was already in the upper 80's and humid. Wisely, our three runners, Patrick Ditmars, Nick Kuenkel and Bradley Popler remained patient and just ran with the pack. This resulted in a slow pace and a kicker's race, which went well for Patrick and Nick who kicked well over the last lap to take the top two spots! Bradley also acquitted himself quite well, finishing 6th to score a point and establishing a new 3200 PR in the process!
"Next up was the JV and Varsity 4 X 800 events. In the JV race, the Cherokee team of Matteo Evola, Benny Hackney, Jameson Crozier and Andrew Free won the event by 24 seconds over runner-up, Lenape! Both Jameson and Andrew established new PR's in the process! The Varsity squad of Tommy Bromley, Aiden Dickinson, Dan Boria and Conor Jacobs also came away with a victory, winning by 18 seconds over 2nd place, Burlington City! Despite running from the front from start to finish, with no competition, all four runners ran well, with Aiden and Conor setting new PR's! Aiden ran a slight PR while Conor, running the first 800m of his high school career, marked it off impressively with a 2:00.70 anchor leg!
"Next up was the Open 800m Run and Brett Shea won as expected! Patrick Ditmars, doing a tough double back from the 3200m, managed to hold on for 5th place and give us a few more points!
"Soon after, the Open 1600m was up and Brett Shea, Nico Grilli and Nick Kuenkel were scheduled to race! With very little rest between the 800m and 1600m, it would have been a tough double on any day but, with the temperature in the low 90's and high humidity, it was next to impossible for Brett to run as he is normally capable and he finished 7th as a result! However, Nico was able to take the top spot and Nick, doubling back from the 3200m still managed to hang in there for 4th!
"All together, the distance team accounted for 55 team points in the 800/1600/3200/4 X 800 in addition to winning the JV 4 X 800! But they weren't entirely finished!
"Indeed, in the most exciting race of the day, Patrick Ditmars was called upon to run, yet again, as the anchor of the 4 X 400! He got the baton just behind the leader from Rancocas Valley who proceeded to go out fast and increase his lead. However, down the homestretch, Patrick kept coming and he managed to pass the RV runner before the line to give Cherokee the victory! His teammates, who were super excited, raced out in front of the timing camera to congratulate Patrick and almost get the team DQ'ed! Lesson learned . . . yes, be excited when great things happen . . . but also be smart!"
Head Coach Hoffman reviewed the successes at the meet and highlighting the various PR's and performances mentioned above but he focused mainly on the Distance Squad:
"Our distance team carried us and scored 55 out of our total 86 points! We left the Burlington County Championship with the Champion in the 800, 1600 and 3200 [Brett Shea, Nico Grilli, Patrick Ditmars]! We can't say enough about these gentlemen and Coach Shaklee who has prepared them to be the best in not only the County but possibly the state of NJ! Indeed, it was a distance team member who helped us finish the day on a high note when Sophomore Patrick Ditmars chased down RV's final leg of the 4 X 400m Relay in dramatic fashion to win the event by 4/10ths of a second! The final score had Cherokee the closest it has been in years to the team championship and we hope to close that gap even further next season!"
Official results at: NJ. MileSplit. In addition, Reuben Frank provided an extensive program, that includes numerous details and records from the BC Open, including Shawn Wilson's 3200m meet record of 9:17.65 in 2013, Justin Finkelstein's Pole Vault meet record of 14' 6" in 1995, Dennis Norman's Discus meet record of 172' 9" in 1997, and Cherokee's Team Championships in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012, at: Tomahawk Timing.
Our photographer was unavailable for this meet.
On April 24, 2021, many of the distance squad traveled to the Haddonfield Distance Night where they competed in one of three events: the 800m, the 1600m, or the 3200m! Coach Shaklee sent this review of his team's performance:
"It was a good night all-around for the Cherokee distance squad at the Haddonfield Distance Night! Of the twenty-one Cherokee runners who raced, seventeen established new PR's and two others had season best times!
"Jack Delaney was up first in the Freshman 800 and, despite dealing with a difficult case of patella tendinitis, he still managed to take 9 seconds off of his previous best time!
"The Varsity 800 featured an incredibly deep field with fifteen runners finishing under 2:00 and another sixteen under 2:05! In that field, the Cherokee runners had a good showing led by Brett Shea finishing 3rd with a new PR (not counting relay splits) of 1:55.8! Fellow Senior, Nico Grilli, also PR'ed with a 1:58.14, while Sophomore, Conor Jacob, recorded a 1:58.86 PR in only his second 800 of the season! Additionally, both Nick Kuenkel and Tommy Bromley finished close to their PR's.
"The Frosh 1600 featured five Cherokee runners who all managed to set new PR's, led by Matteo Evola, Bobby Poplau and Andrew Free who finished 3rd, 4th and 7th in the field of thirty-seven runners! Luke Reistle and Nate Meyer also recorded new PR's!
"The Varsity 1600 saw five of seven Cherokee runners establish new PR's -- Jameson Crozier, Joe Hough, Danny Hassall, Brett Yagiello and Ethan Weisenberg -- while the other two -- Danny Boria and Joe Natoli -- set new season bests! The highlight came from Jameson who won the award for the "Kick of the Meet" as he blasted a 64.9 final 400 to knock 9 seconds off of his previous best time! It was also a big night for Joe Hough who broke 5:00 for the first time . . by 5 seconds!
"The final event of the night, the 3200, was worth the wait! Aiden Dickinson dropped a huge 32-second PR to finish 4th and break 10:00 for the first time! Behind Aiden, Bradley Popler and Benny Hackney both set new PR's as well, finishing 7th and 10th in the field of fifty-six runners!"
Details available at: NJ.MileSplit.
Reuben Frank reported on this fantastic night of racing in Haddonfield and, in passing, mentioned several of Cherokee's stars in his SJTCA Blog. His particular article is at: Three under 1:56, FIFTEEN under 2:00 in wild 800 at Haddonfield Distance Night!!!!!. Yeah, 5 exclamation marks . . . Roob is back! As usual, we've copied the article on our server at: Three under 1:56 . . ..
Here are some pics from the night. Like Cherokee, it'd be nice if they would aim just one of the stadium bulbs at the track . . .! Maybe if the runners wore football uniforms?! All of the pictures from the meet are available at: Google Drive.
On April 26, 2021, the team traveled to Washington Township for the Olympic Conference Championships -- the second of the "big" championship meets as they head for the upcoming State Championships!
Coach Shaklee sent the following message on his Distance squad:
"The distance team came into the Olympic Conference Meet a bit worn out after two difficult meets in the last week in addition to the Haddonfield Distance Night two days earlier. With that in mind, we held out some runners and raced only the 4 X 800 and the 1600.
"The 4 X 800 Relay team of Danny Boria, Tommy Bromley, Aiden Dickinson and Conor Jacob knew they had their work cut out for them given that Lenape, who went 2-3-4 in the 800 at the County Meet on Saturday, was loading the event. On top of that, our runners were all coming off of a race on Monday and were still a bit fatigued, especially Tommy who would be lining up for his 6th race in the last 8 days! Lenape led off their top man and he opened a lead over Danny who ran very well to hand-off in 2nd place with a time right around his PR despite the hot, humid and windy conditions! Tommy did the best he could on very tired legs. Although not his best race, he still ran well enough to keep us in 2nd! Aiden ran a PR on his leg which kept us well out in front of the rest of the field with Lenape still leading! Conor closed out the race with a decent anchor leg despite, like Tommy and Aiden, running the entire way alone, behind Lenape and in front of the rest of the field. All-in-all, a good effort under difficult circumstances!
"Brett Shea and Patrick Ditmars were our only other distance athletes competing in the meet. Both were entered in the 1600 and both had raced a lot over the past week. They were here for only one reason . . . to get a seed time for Sectionals since their dual meet hand times could not be used. We knew that anything under 4:30 would put them safely in the seeded heat for Sectionals. With a strong wind, it was not a great day for pushing the pace so Brett and Patrick both remained patient knowing that they both have the ability to finish fast. That they did! After a tactical 1200 which saw eight runners still within a second of each other, Brett and Patrick broke it open on the final lap, closing in 58.37 and 59.75 respectively! By doing so, they turned a relatively slow race for three laps into two safe seed times for Sectionals! Mission accomplished."
Reviewing the Official results sheet, there were several PR's beyond the officially recorded ones set by Brett Shea and Patrick Ditmars in the 1600m Run! In the 400m Dash, Kevin Hess (51.66) and Lucas Hatch (53.09) both set PR's; and in the 400m IH, Ben Brandreth set another PR (1:04.74)! In the Field, Antonio Campbell set an official/recorded PR in the High Jump (5' 6"); Zach Palfy cleared 37' 1.5" in the Triple Jump to PR; and Steve Mondile put the Shot 39' 10" to PR!
The pictures from the meet are available at: Google Drive.
Official results at: NJ.MileSplit