Cherokee Cross Country Pictures, 2010, Page III







The schedule from Mid-to-Late October continues to heat-up as the temperatures go down! It begins with the South Jersey Open, (Delsea High School, October 9th); and then the Burlington County Open Championships (Mill Creek Park, Willingboro, October 16th); the Olympic Conference Championships (GCC, October 23rd); and the Haddonfield Sub-Varsity Cross Country Invitational (Pennypacker Park, Haddonfield, October 29th).






South Jersey Open

On October 9, 2010, Cherokee traveled to Delsea High School for the South Jersey Open and, while the coaches did not enter any complete teams, those who did run acquitted themselves well! In the varsity race, Greg Malloy ran 34 seconds faster than his sectional race on the same course last year to place 5th in a very competitive field; and Billy Hornung ran his fastest time of the season to finish 24th!

In the JV race, Jeremy Morgan led the squad with a 14th place finish and his fastest non-Pennypacker time ever, while Jason Brockman ran his first sub-19 5K to take 29th! Matt Decker survived two nasty falls during the race to finish in 32nd. Phillip-Robert Cerria, from now on known as "PRC," knocked 1:32 off of his time from his first race and Freddy "Big Red" Rasmussen earned Athlete of the Meet honors while running his most competitive race to date and beating his previous 5K PR by 1:10! GO FREDDY! See results at: NJRunners.


Sankeerth Kondapalli at start Sankeerth Kondapalli at finish Jeremy Morgan at finish Jeremy Morgan at finish Jason Brockman at finish Jason Brockman at finish
Matt Decker at finish Matt Decker at finish PRC at finish PRC at finish Matt Adams at finish Matt Adams at finish
Lou DiGeambeardino at finish Lou DiGeambeardino at finish Freddy Rasmussen at finish Freddy Rasmussen at finish Malloy, Birkhead, Venanzi, Hornung at Varsity start Greg Malloy in 2 mile woods
Billy Hornung out of 2 mile woods Matt Venanzi out of 2 mile woods Eric Birkhead out of 2 mile woods Greg Malloy at about 2.5 miles Billy Hornung at about 2.5 miles Matt Venanzi at about 2.5 miles
Eric Birkhead at about 2.5 miles





Burlington County Open

On October 15, 2010, Cherokee took the short trip over to Mill Creek Park in Willingboro to compete in the 40th Annual Burlington County Open. The team is struggling this year against some very strong cross country competition. Still, they hoped to add to Cherokee's outstanding record of ten county victories over the past twelve years, but that was not to be. For only the second time since 1996, Cherokee failed to win the county championship!

As usual, our relatively short Senior Greg Malloy came up very "big" in the race! He and five others took over the race after the first mile and they battled all the way to the finish line, with Greg finishing a close 3rd in the event! As a result, the coaches named Greg the Runner of the Meet for his awesome effort!

Greg was closely followed by Aiden Lynch (6th) and Ryan Bobb (10th) among the top ten but they, and Matt Venanzi (21st) and Billy Hornung (23rd) who followed later, weren't enough to offset the scoring by the runners from sister-school Lenape High School, who won the meet by only four points!

In the Open race, Jeremy Morgan was the first Junior in the class meet and 3rd overall; Matt Decker, 5th Sophomore, and Sankeerth Kondapalli, 12th Freshman, both medaled; and Freshman Bryan Kwok cut over 90 minutes off his previous 5K performance!

The official results can be found at: NJRunners.


Open Race

Matt Adams at start Brockman, Decker, Morgan at 1st pond PRC at 1st pond Freddy Rasmussen at 1st pond Morgan and Decker approach 2nd hill Jason Brockman approaches 2nd hill
PRC approaches 2nd hill Geambeardino and Kondapalli approach 2nd hill Lou DiGeambeardino approaches 2nd hill Kondapalli and Adams approach 2nd hill Matt Adams approaches 2nd hill Freddy Rasmussen approaches 2nd hill

Varsity Race

Greg Malloy at 1st pond Aiden Lynch at 1st pond Eric Birkhead at 1st pond Bobb and Venanzi at 1st pond Hornung, Bobb, Venanzi at 1st pond Greg Malloy coming off 1st hill
Aiden Lynch coming off 1st hill Bobb and Hornung coming off 1st hill Aiden Lynch approaches 2nd hill Ryan Bobb approaches 2nd hill Matt Venanzi appraoches 2nd hill Greg Malloy at 2nd pond
Ryan Bobb at 2nd pond Bill Hornung at 2nd pond Matt Venanzi at 2nd pond Eric Birkhead at 2nd pond





Olympic Conference Championship

On October 22, 2010, Cherokee returned to Gloucester County College for the Olympic Conference Championship and competed on both the Varsity and Junior Varsity levels.

In the Varsity race, the team ran better than the previous week at the Burlington County Open. Unfortunately, so did Lenape who beat Cherokee by a mere 7 points! Senior Greg Malloy continued his outstanding season with a 5th place finish in a very strong field. Ryan Bobb had his best race yet to finish in 10th, one place in front of Aiden Lynch! As a result of their efforts, Greg, Ryan and Aiden were named to the Olympic Conference American Division First Team. Matt Venanzi and Billy Hornung both had their best races so far to finish 21st and 24th and earn Second Team honors; while Eric Birkhead and Ty Somers placed 47th and 59th.

In the JV race, Phillip-Robert Cerria, Lou DiGeambeardino, Sankeerth Kondapalli, Freddy Rasmussen and Bryan Kwok all improved on their times from last week's County Open. Bryan Kwok earned Runner of the Meet honors by knocking fifty seconds off of his previous best time, the most by anyone on the team. Bryan has now dropped his PR by almost two minutes in his last two races!

Further details at: NJRunners.


JV Race

Matt Decker at 1 mile Brockman, Decker, Morgan at 1 mile PRC at 1 mile DiGeambeardino and Kondapalli at 1 mile Matt Adams at 1 mile Freddy Rasmussen at 1 mile
Jeremy Morgan near finish Matt Decker near finish Jason Brockman near finish PRC near finish Lou DiGeambeardino near finish Sankeerth Kondapalli near finish
Matt Adams near finish Bryan Kwok near finish

Varsity Race

Start - Greg Malloy Start - Aiden Lynch Start - Matt Venanzi Start - Billy Hornung Start - Eric Birkhead Aiden Lynch at Mile
Ryan Bobb at Mile Ty Somers at Mile Greg Malloy near finish Aiden Lynch near finish Ryan Bobb near finish Matt Venanzi near finish
Billy Hornung near finish Eric Brikhead near finish Ty Somers near finish




Haddonfield Sub-Varsity Invitational

On October 28, 2010, pigs flew and Hell froze over!

The team traveled to Haddonfield for their annual Sub-Varsity Invitational, a last chance for runners who are not going to Sectionals to race on a fast, flat and dry course, and set PR's for the season! At the same time, the coaches routinely split the runners into two squads, each competing for bragging rights for the year!

In the individual competition, four Cherokee runners placed in the top 15 in a field of 133, led by Eric Birkhead in 8th with a 5K PR! He was closely followed by Ty Somers in 9th, Matt Decker in 13th, and Jeremy Morgan in 14th, all three recording their own 5K PR's! In fact, all of the Cherokee runners in the competition had their fastest races to date!

The battle for Runner of the Meet came down to six who had particularly strong races - Matt Decker and Jeremy Morgan both went under eighteen minutes for the first time; Lou DiGeambeardino and Phillip-Robert Cerria ran their first sub-20 minute races of the year; Matt Adams dropped a minute off his season PR; and Brian Kwok ran his first sub-21 minute race! A tough decision, the coaches selected Matt Decker who edged Jeremy Morgan and dropped his PR by forty seconds! GO MATT!

In the nine year team competition, the battles between Coaches Shaklee and Callinan are legendary. All have been close affairs but the Fates have routinely favored Coach Shaklee: the historical (hysterical?) record: Coach Shaklee, 8 wins; then-Coach Thompson, 1 win (a fluke back in 2007); and Coach Callinan, 0 wins! Zero!?

This year, Coach Callinan brought his own lucky charm to the meet -- Clare Marra -- and with the help of team members Birkhead, Morgan, Brockman, Cerria, Endicott, and Rasmussen, they scored a narrow 27 - 28 victory over Coach Shaklee's team of Somers, Decker, DiGeambeardino, Kondapalli, Adams, and Kwok! Callinan's top runner, Eric Birkhead, made all the difference when he edged Ty Somers and provided the margin of victory!

It's in the record books: Coach Shaklee, 8 wins; Coach Callinan, 1 win! Pigs fly and Hell freezes over in 2010!

Further details at: NJRunners.


Good luck charm, Clare Marra Callinan
Erik Brikhead starts Ty Somers starts Jeremy Morgan and Jason Brockman start DiGeambeardino, PRC, Lowinger start Matt Adams starts Freddy Rasmussen starts
Erik Brikhead at 2 miles Ty Somers at 2 miles Matt Decker at 2 miles Jeremy Morgan at 2 miles Jason Brockman at 2 miles Lou DiGeambeardino at 2 miles
PRC at 2 miles Kondapalli and Lowinger at 2 miles Matt Adams at 2 miles Angus Endicott at 2 miles Bryan Kwok at 2 miles Freddy Rasmussen at 2 miles
Erik Birkhead at finish Ty Somers at finish Matt Decker at finish Jeremy Morgan at finish Jason Brockman at finish Mike Lowinger at finish
PRC at finish Lou DiGeambeardino at finish Sanheerth Kondapalli at finish Matt Adams at finish Angus Endicott at finish Bryan Kwok at finish
Freddy Rasmussen at finish








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