Last year, an excellent group of Seniors led the team through the season, winning the Seeded Invitational Race at Great American, the SJ Shootout, the Burlington County Open, and the eighth straight American Division title for Cherokee. Then, despite a series of injuries and mishaps, they helped the team take second in Sectionals, third in Groups, and fifth in the State Meet of Champions. Now they have moved on, and a new generation of Cherokee runners has stepped up to continue the tradition of excellence.
Led by Seniors Vin Marziano, Greg Bredeck, Rich Nelson, and Will Andes, the new group accepted the challenge and worked diligently throughout the summer to meet its demands. Following the training regimen established by Coach Shaklee, they worked with the rest of the team to build the physical endurance and the fraternal bonds that they would need through the long Cross Country season.
In late August, for the seventh year in a row, Cherokee's Cross
Country team attended the extraordinary
RunningWorks Cross Country Camp in Canadensis, Pennsylvania. There
they participated in a week-long program of training with top coaches and
athletes from the Northeastern United States, and learned from special guest
speaker, Adidas star Tiffany McWilliams.
The following pictures are of Cherokee parents, coaches and athletes taken at camp.
Some of the guys are not shown but you'll get to see them in the days that follow.
Also, a wider selection of pictures from camp is available at
RunningWorks Cross Country Camp Pictures, 2005.
Top coaches throughout America regularly test their athletes to monitor their
general endurance, identify lactate threshold levels, and shape the efficiency of their
training. This is, however, rarely done on the high school level. But Cherokee boys
have been tested for several years and the results are used to shape the training program.
Basically, the test consists of repeat 800s -- generally 6 at progressively increasing pace
with litte rest -- until the athlete is exhausted. The target times in the 800s are based
on the athlete's previous tests or race results. After each 800, an Exercise Physiologist gathers
information: a blood sample, the athlete's heart rate, and the athlete's speed in the exercise.
All of this while allowing less than a minute between 800s.
On August 30, 2005, the team met at Cherokee's track to be tested. Coach Shaklee took the test
himself and then paced many of the runners through the first parts of their exercises to insure
the test was done properly. The results were available within a week of the test and future
workouts will be charted with those results in mind.
Here are some pictures from the early part of the session.
On September 13th, Cherokee ran its first dual meet of the season. Since
relatively little is known about opposing teams in the beginning of the season,
the first dual meets can be unnerving. But this time, Pennsauken failed to muster a
complete team and, although they ran a small group, they were forced to forfeit
before the race began. Even before the forfeit, however, Cherokee planned to
train through the meet, running a "threshold" workout in groups unless something
more demanding was required to win the meet.
The coaches named newcomer, Sophomore Ryan Lutz as the "Runner of the Meet" in
recognition of his impressive first performance as a Cross Country athlete. GO RYAN!
The following pictures were taken during the event:
On Saturday, September 17th, Cherokee hosted The Tenth Annual Cross Country Cherokee Challenge on the high school campus. In a repeat of last year, the staff worried all week about an approaching tropical storm but it passed to the west and left only a hot and humid day!
Many on the team did well and, with the able assistance of the Girls Team, Cherokee won the Co-Ed Team Championship! In addition, Alex Yersak won the Sophomore race in a strong 10:22! Other class leaders included Senior Greg Bredeck's 4th place finish in his race (10:12); Junior Mike Medvec's 25th place in his race (10:56); and Freshman Marc Saccomanno's 12th place finish in his race (11:41)!
The coaches named Sophomore Alex Yersak as the "Runner of the Meet" for his outstanding win in the Sophomore race! GO ALEX!
Kevin Cranston of the Courier-Post reported on the results: Cherokee Coach Does Have Something to Build On
Complete results and hundreds of pictures from the meet are available on this website at: Cherokee Challenge
The following pictures show many of the Cherokee athletes in action:
On September 17th, Cherokee competed against Eastern Regional High School and cross-district rival Senaca High School in its first "double-dual" meet of the season. Cherokee again used the meet as a "threshold" workout day and easily defeated both the Eastern Vikings and the Senaca Golden Eagles. Greg Bredeck, Alex Yersak, Rich Nelson, Will Andes and Kevin Schickling were the top scorers.
The coaches named Freshman Graham Davis as the "Runner of the Meet" to recognize the tremendous improvement he made in his race time at Gloucester County College. Graham dropped an incredible 3:19 off his previous time on the course! GO GRAHAM!
Pictures provided by team member Ryan Elliott.
On September 24th, Cherokee competed in the 2nd Annual SJ Shootout at Gloucester County College and, for the second year, came home the victor. The scoring for this meet was unusual with three separate races for the varsity teams. The first race was for the 5th, 6th and 7th men on each team: for Cherokee, they were Kevin Schickling, Mike Medvec and Matt Applegate. The second race was for the 3rd and 4th runners: Will Andes and Rich Nelson. And the third race, the "stud race," was for the 1st and 2nd runners: Greg Bredeck and Alex Yersak. Team scoring was based on a combination of results from the three races. Team Captain, Vin Marziano, sat this one out while nursing a small injury.
Cherokee set the standard early in the "5th, 6th, and 7th man race:" Schickling (17:35) took 3rd and counted as the fifth man in the overall scoring. Medvec (18:00) took 4th, and Applegate (18:04) took 5th! The second race, with the 3rd and 4th men, went even better with Andes (16:55) and Nelson (16:58) taking 1st and 2nd, and keeping the overall score at an impressively low 6! The final "Stud" race, with the 1st and 2nd runners, was a great battle among most of the top runners in SJ, with Greg Bredeck taking 3rd (16:26) and Alex Yersak coming in 7th! Overall score: 16!
JV and Freshman Races were also contested with Steve McCarroll (2nd) as the top finisher among the Cherokee JV runners, and Rob Roselli (4th) finishing first among the Freshmen.
The coaches named Will Andes and Rich Nelson as "Runners of the Meet," pointing to their outstanding performances in the "3rd and 4th man race!" GO WILL! GO RICH!
Complete results (at least temporarily): South Jersey Track Coaches Association
On September 25th, while his athletes were training for their own races, Coach Shaklee illustrated his life-long commitment to the sport by competing in Cherry Hill's JCC 5K Road Race. The coach won the race in 16:57! Coach Callinan also ran in the race but he was pacing a friend and not actually competing.
