More so than in the past, the Winter Season served (1) as a time for over-all conditioning and foundation-building for the Spring Season, and (2) as a time for some impressive racing by members of the team! Young and older guys alike knocked off one Personal Record after another, several top guys actually knocked off a few Winter/Indoor School records, and one outstanding runner set a new ALL-TIME SCHOOL RECORD! Indeed, everyone who trained this past Winter should be ready for Spring competition and new PR's and School Records! GO CHIEFS!
On March 26th, 2024, most of the Lenape District participated in the 1st Annual LRHSD Track and Field Scrimmage at Cherokee HS -- Lenape, Seneca and Cherokee High Schools -- and both the weather and experience was good for all!
Assistant Coach Shaklee sent some remarks on how his Distance Squad handled the scrimmage:
"The Distance Team made a workout out of the District Scrimmage. Several of the varsity squad, did a threshold workout before reporting to the track for the last event of the meet, the 4 x 400 relay. Other members of the team raced the 1600m, then did some threshold work before returning to the track for the 4 x 400. The new runners were the only ones to simply warm-up, race, and cool-down.
Highlights in the 1600m: Logan Bromley showed that he is back after a lengthy time off due to injury. He looked great, winning with a fast 62-sec last lap to set a new 1600 PR! Other PR's were set by the freshman trio of Leo Vivian, Bruce Novoa and Gavin Danielewicz who all took big chunks off of their previous bests!
The 800m saw the first race (and technically, PR's) by four new freshmen, Noah Pirrrotta, Connor Staff, Max Hard and Jonathan Merkel. Watch how they improve!
In the 4 x 400 Relay, despite the wind picking-up and the temperature dropping, there were some pretty fast times run with five distance runners -- Bobby Poplau, Matteo Evola, Nick Kuenkel, Ben Realley, Tate Midora -- and one sprinter, Jack Couture, all running between 51.9 and 53.6! Other sub-60 times were recorded by Logan Bromley, Liam Tindall, Enzo Corona and Andrew Free!
All in all, some nice performances and a good practice for the Distance Team!"
No comments from the other coaches yet but there were some noteworthy efforts in other areas. Just skimming over the results, in the 110 HH, Kyle Perkins clipped his PR of last year; and, in the Pole Vault, the Horwath brothers, Tobin and Shawn, took 1st and 2nd, and Tobin set a new PR! In the High Jump, Sam Green and Noah Calderon also took 1st and 2nd but no PR's! In the Shot Put, Baron Hinson had a nice start in the event, taking 4th; and in the Javelin, Zach Ott threw a 3' PR to start his season in 2nd, and Brody Wolfert threw his own 4' PR and took 4th!
No specific comments are available from the coaches yet but details are available at: NJ.MileSplit.
By the way, GQ, aka Gentlemen's Quarterly Magazine, just announced a High School Sports fashion section for their magazine and asked local high schools to select athletes displaying outstanding sportswear in action! Our fashion committee quickly chose Senior Andrew Free! His cleverly designed two piece competition uniform, they argued, introduced a new era in imaginative men's sports clothing! For copyright purposes, the uniform has been named the "Cherokee Sports Clash!" (Get it?! . . . geeze.) Congratulations, Andrew!
Our photographer was available and he foolishly took 1,055 at the meet! Unfortunately, he's limited physically and he shot only the athletes near the track. He was unable to get pictures of our Field athletes! He's sorry and will get around better in the future!
Here are a few pictures from the meet and they and many more are posted on our Google site! The Google site provides better- quality pictures, if you chose to copy-and-paste to your own computers.
On April 1st, 2024, Coach Hoffman took a small group of our top Throwers to the Christian Brothers Academy's Penn Relays Qualifier, 2024, pretty-much a final opportunity to meet the standards for entrance into the upcoming Penn Relays Carnival on the last weekend of this month: Senior Brody Wolfert in the Discus and Javelin; Seniors Zach Ott and Austin Lenart in the Javelin!
Results are available at: NJ.MileSplit. They show Brody finishing 10th in the Discus (130' 05") and 12th in the Javelin (134' 08"); Zach finishing 4th in the Javelin (154' 05"); and Austin finishing 7th (150' 07")!
Tom Smith, photographer for MileSplit and friend of Cherokee, posted many excellent pictures of our athletes, several of which are copied below, and they and others are on our Google site!
(According to Coach Shaklee) "The Cherokee boys track & field team got off to a good start with a win over Eastern Regional High School on Thursday, April 4th at home. Although missing some point scorers over spring break, and not contesting the long jump and triple jump due to unsafe pit conditions created by the weather, the team still managed to outscore Eastern 86-36!
"The Throws team did their job, sweeping the Shot Put, Discus and Javelin to score 27 of 27 possible points! Dylan Grau, Zack Ott and Austin Leonard took the first three spots in the Shot; Brody Wolfert, Alex Goode and Shane Sloan went 1-2-3 in the Discus; and Ott, Leonard and Wolfert did the same in the Javelin!
"In the Sprints, Ryan Bender and Jack Couture went 1st and 3rd in the 100m, with Bender running a quick 10.8 hand-timed! Couture came back to take 2nd in the 200m and run a leg on the winning 4 X 400 relay! Bobby Poplau and Tate Midora dropped down from their middle distance events to go 1-3 in the 400m with Poplau also anchoring the winning 4 X 400 after Couture, Matteo Evola and Nick Kuenkel carried the stick on the first three legs!
"Sam Green, running the 110m hurdles for the first time, made his debut a good one with a 1st place finish! Sam also came back later to win his specialty, the high jump, while Ryan Bender followed his victory in the 100m with a 3rd in the high jump!
"Like the throwers, the Distance team completed a perfect sweep of their three events. Nick Kuenkel, Ben Realleyand Logan Bromley went 1-2-3 in the 1600m! Sandwiched in-between his victory in the 400m and his anchor of the winning 4 X 400 Relay, Bobby Poplau also won the 800m with Kuenkel coming back from his 1600m win to finish 2nd, and Andrew Free taking the 3rd spot! In the 3200m, it was Anthony DiBatista, Sean Sooy and Silas Matteson taking 1-2-3 and completing the Distance sweep!
"Overall, a good team effort to start the season 1 & 0"!
Our photographer has slowed a bit but he got a good sampling from the Eastern Dual! Here are a few of many from the early part of the meet, and they and a lot more are posted on our Google site!
On April 6th, 2024, Cherokee traveled to Rancocas Valley Regional High School for the Don Danser Relays, the first official relay meet of the season and the first opportunity to see what the Spring team is becoming! As usual, some was good and some not so . . .. Some of the really big relay meets have Fully Automatic Timing all around so final times as well as individual splits are available. Here, we had the final results but the individual coaches had to do their best to get the individual (split) times. ; < )
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Coach Shaklee sent this review: "The distance team ran two races at the Don Danser Relays on Saturday, April 6th at Rancocas Valley High School, the JV Distance Medley Relay and the JV 4 x 800.
"Liam Deimler did a nice job leading off both relays and handing off in the lead in both! The times were greatly impacted by the high winds but Liam ran smart and tough in both races, and in both, Liam teamed with three freshmen. Ben Stillwagon ran the 400 on the DMR and extended the lead before giving the baton to Leo Vivian who ran a strong 800, maintaining a sizable lead when handing off to Gavin Danielewicz! Gavin ran a steady first three laps then closed well to bring the team home in first!
"In the 4 x800, Liam handed off to new frosh, Noah Pirrotta who held off a challenge by the second place team to maintain the lead, handing off to another new frosh, Max Harada. Max ran well to keep the team in second place before handing off to Jonathan Merkel who is just resuming his training after time off due to injury. Jonathan gave it his best but was running against the top runners from the other squads, and this made his task twice as difficult. All in all, a good outing in difficult conditions for the seven runners in the two races!"
No details from Coach Hoffman or Coach Thompson but Sprint details are especially difficult at Relay meets because true "splits" are tough to get. Results indicate in the Varsity A, 4 X 100m Relay, Jack Couture, Murad Campfield, Brian Magee and Ryan Bender took 2nd in 44.25, In a very unusual sitaution, the best starter on the team, Jack started late because he couldn't hear the starter's commands! He knows now that the race is his and not the starters; if something is wrong and not his fault, he can raise his hand and stop the starter! In the Varsity A, 4 X 200m Relay, Couture, Campfield and Magee anchored by Jaiden Quisbert took 2nd in 1:35.63!
Across the road, the Throwers seem to have done well! After a quick skim of the results, in the Discus, Brody Wolfert took Varsity 3rd with a PR throw of 139' 11". In the Javelin, Austin Lenart took Varsity 4th with a PR throw of 154' 03"; and Zach Ott (149' 0") took Varsity 5th; and Brody Walfert (137' 06") took Varsity 11th with another PR! In the JV competition, Francisco Sandoval (117' 11") took JV 4th; Brody Ludman (116' 02") took JV 5th; and Andrew Geisenheimer (101' 0") took JV 9th with a PR!
Our photographer was there most of the day and he photographed our boys near the start/finish lines and the Long Jump/Triple Jump area. He was unable to get across from the school for the Throwers who, by the way, looked like they had a pretty successful day! Here are a few of his pictures and they and others are available at our Google site!.
On April 12th, 2024. Cherokee sponsored its highly-unusual Night of 3200's, a chock-full evening of twenty-one heats of the 3200m Run, made all the more challenging by very strong winds and, late in the evening when the seeded heats were run, a nasty combination of rain and wind that made it all the "fun!"
Coach Shaklee sent some remarks that make the evening sound positively delightful, both in terms of running performances and weather, so we'll let him take over from here!
"The Cherokee Night of 3200s was a successful event for the distance squad! Although the weather could have been better [significently better, Pollyanna . . . I mean, Coach!] . . . it was not as awful as the forecast and it allowed for some fast running all around, with 16 of 21 athletes setting new personal records!
"The night started off on a good note as freshman, Jonathan Merkel, won Heat 1 and ran over a minute faster than his seed time!
"In Heat 2, new freshmen, Connor Staff and Max Harada, both ran very well and ended up 2nd and 3rd in the heat with times much faster than their seeds! Heat 3 featured another new freshman, Noah Pirrotta, who also exceeded his seed time and clearly can go even faster based on how he finished, sprinting the last 50!
"Each successive heat with Cherokee runners seemed to go equally well with Sam Wright setting a new PR in his race! Then, Liam Daimler, Leo Vyvyan and Gavin Danielewicz did the same in their race, and Enzo Corona, coming off incomplete training (due to a cross country injury) still knocked a good junk off of his previous best!
"Sean Sooy, Silas Matteson and Andrew Free all ran PRs in their race with Sean knocking a big chunk off with his 10:07.93 time (the 7th fastest on the team)!
"In the 3rd to last heat, Logan Bromley showed that he is fully back from injury as he knocked almost a minute off of his best time from last year to win the heat, closing in under 63 seconds on the last lap to finish in 9:36.40!
"In the next heat, freshman, Ben Realley, put on a repeat of Logan's race, closing in 62.6 to win the heat in 9:32.85, making him the fastest freshman of the night and placing him 12th overall out of 493 finishers!
"In the final heat, Nick Kuenkel and Bobby Poplau placed 3rd and 4th respectively with Bobby knocking 35 seconds off of his previous best with a 9:18.62, right behind Nick's 9:16.54. Liam Tindall, was also in the heat and, although he did not PR, he still ran a fast 9:34.15!"
Further details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Lots of issues for our photographer, including his arrival at the stadium with everything designed for shooting in harsh weather except his cameras! A quick trip home to Moorestown got him back to Cherokee in time for the 3rd Heat -- sorry Jonathan, Connor and Max -- with no traffic tickets! Below are a few of his pictures and they and the rest are posted on our Google site!
On April 13th, 2024, less than ten hours after Cherokee's "Night of 3200's" ended, the team sponsored another well-attended track meet, Fast Times at Cherokee High!
Most of the distance athletes raced the previous evening in the 3200's and Coach Shaklee reminded us of the only two who raced today: "The nest day, Matteo Evola and Tate Midora both ran the 400m at the Fast Times at Cherokee High meet in extreme conditions (winds of 20+ mph!)! Both ran well with Matteo winning his heat and taking 13th overall, while Tate finished in 15th!"
Coach Hoffman reported on PR's set by several of the team's athletes. All-around performer, Senior Ryan Bender clocked 10.94 in the 100m Dash; Senior Brody Wolert had a nice day, setting a PR throw of 147' 02" in the Javelin, placing 3rd, and threw to 6th place in the Discus; and Junior Tobin Horwath vaulted 10' 6" and set another PR!
Many others competed and their performances are listed on the comprehensive results page at NJ.MileSplit
Our photographer is handicapped and pretty-much limited to one area during a meet. This weekend he hammered his trigger finger shooting over 3300 pictures during the two days and then editing them. As a result, he'll have to slow down on the number of pictures he shoots in the future! Here are some of Saturday's pictures and they and the rest are posted on our Google site!
On April 19th, 2024, Lenape Regional High School sponsored the Lenape Field Day at their campus in Medford. Featuring Vault, Jumps and Throws, Cherokee sent only a part of their Field athletes because they had already committed to the Blue Devils Classic in Westfield, NJ on the following day. There were several PR's, however!
In the Discus, Steve Sloan had the best throw for Cherokee, a PR 113' 05" for 8th/70 overall, Alex Goode followed in 11th/70 overall at 107' 02", and Jordan Stone followed in 19th/70 overall with his own PR of 91' 03"! Finally, beginners Matt Greski and Justin Louick both threw PR;s: Matt with 72' 08" and taking 62nd/70 overall, and Justin with 58' 10" and taking 62nd/70 overall!
In the Shot Put, Dylan Grau took 12th/78 overall and had Cherokee's best with a PR 43' 08.5"! Alex Goode threw his own PR 37' 3.5" for 24th/78 overall; Edward Firstenburg followed the PR trend throwing 35' 04" for 31st/70 overall; and Anthony Maszlanka took 36th/70 overall with his own PR 34' 10"! Finally, Max Ingram took 42nd/70 overall with a beginner's PR 32' 11.05" and Omar Rana took 78th/78 overall with a throw of 16' 07".
Finally, in the Javlin, Brody Ludman had the best throw for Cherokee, 120' 04" for 10th/59 overall! Micah Diaz threw a PR 97' 0" to take 28th/59 overall, and Anthony Maszlanka threw 83' 06" to take 39th/59 overall. Baron Hinson stepped up with a PR to throw 80' 08" and took 44th/59 overall, while John Pagano threw 70' 01" and took 53rd/overall, just ahead of Dominic Eleftheriou who threw 69' 10" and took 54th/59 overall. Finally, Rebel Johnson threw 46' 04" and finished in 58th/59 overall place.
Further details at NJ.MileSplit.
Sorry, our photographer was unavailable.
On April 20th, 2024, a good part of the team traveled to Westfield, NJ for the Blue Devil Classic! The meet has been around for a long time and is considered an excellent prep, and competition, for the upcoming Penn Relays!
Coach Shaklee, our reliable reporter for all things Distance at a meet, sent the following information on the events!
"The team traveled to Westfield, NJ on March 20th for the annual Blue Devil Classic. The weather was a bit wet and cool when the meet began at 8:30 but improved throughout the morning. On the plus side, there was little to no wind and some of the athletes took advantage of that!
"The highlight of the meet occurred early in the Jack Martin Invitational Mile which featured a strong field with 6 runners seeded under 4:20! Westfield's Avery Keith decided to race aggressively from the front and pulled the field out fast. By the half, Keith had a 4-second lead on the chase pack which included Bobby Poplau and Nick Kuenkel. Freshman, Ben Realley, was trailing the field. With one lap to go, Keith's lead was at 5 seconds and it appeared to be a race for second. However, Keith began to feel the strain of his aggressive start and both Bobby and Nick began to pick it up. Going into the last turn, Bobby really opened it up and with 30 meters to go he went by Keith to take the win in a meet record time of 4:15.12, which converts to a 4:13.64 for 1600 (making Bobby now the 3rd fastest Cherokee miler ever behind Shawn Wilson - 4:11.69 in 2013 and Mark Pelerin - 4:11.86 in 2002)! Nick finished in 3rd at 4:18.11 (converts to 4:16.61 for 1600) a new outdoor PR! Ben Realley kept his focus over the last lap and finished well, passing several runners and recording a new Cherokee Freshman record with his time of 4:27.45, which converts to 4:25.90 for 1600!
"Next up, the Distance Medley team of Liam Tindall, Carlo Brown, Enzo Corona and Ben Realley took 4th, thanks to a strong 1200 lead-off leg by Liam and a sizable 1600 PR leg on the anchor by Ben (7 seconds faster than his previous best)!
"Tindall, Corona and Weiner all came back in the 4 x 800, teaming with freshman, Sean Sooy, for 2nd place with Sean anchoring in a new PR of 2:07.8 to hold off a pack of challengers in the last 100 meters!
"Logan Bromley and Tate Midora both set new PR's in the Open 800 to take 6th & 7th! Logan's time was especially impressive as he was doubling back from the mile!
"Finally, Ben Realley, Nick Kuenkel, Tate Midora and Bobby Poplau placed 4th in the last event of the meet, the 4 X 400m Relay! Ben (52.9 lead-off), Nick (51.3 2nd leg) and Bobby (50.5 anchor) all set PR splits, while Tate, who was doubling back from the 800 on 15 minutes rest, was within a tenth of a second of his PR, splitting 52.9 Their time of 3:27.71 is impressive, especially considering it is four distance runners in a sprint event!"
Skimming through the raw results published at NJ.MileSplit, it's tough to comment on the short sprint relays with no recorded splits but several of the Field teams did well against the competition! Skim through and check them out! The High Jump team of Sam Green, Ryan Bender and Brian Magee took 5th/11 overall; the Pole Vault team of Tobin and Shamus Horwath took 7th/8th; the Long Jump team of Ryan Bender, Noah Calderone and Carlo Brownplaced 9th/15 overall; and the Triple Jump team of Sam Green (34' 9.5" PR!), Carlo Brown and Noah Calderon were DQ'd because Noah fouled out! Among the Throwers, the Shot Put team of Dylan Grau, Andrew Geisenheimer and Max Ingram placed 15th/22 overall; the Discus team of Brody Wolfert; Shane Sloan and Alex Goode combined to place 5th/21 overall; and the Javelin team of Zach Ott; Brody Wolfert and Austin Lenart combined and took 4th/22 overall!
Our photographer was there but had to stay around the Start/Finish line through most of the meet. Here are a few of his pictures from the early races and they and the rest are on our Google site!
