The Championship Season began with last month's County and Conference Championships and now the team moves into a series of state championship races where they need to qualify in the race to move on. The first is the South Jersey Sectional Championships at Delsea Regional High School (November 9th) where, if they finish among the top five teams in their Group IV race, they advance to the New Jersey State Group Championship at Holmdel Park (November 16th)! At Groups, again they need to finish among the top five schools in their race to advance to the Meet of Champions (November 23rd)! GO CHEROKEE!
Last year, while two of Cherokee's finest -- Shawn Wilson and Kaleb Burch -- qualified for the New Jersey State Group Championships by finishing 1st and 9th at the South Jersey Sectionals, the team failed to qualify for the first time in 19 years! Really . . . sadness in Mudville! This year, after impressive performances at both County and Conference Championships, and with Kaleb in the front, hopes are very high! ON TO HOLMDEL, CHEROKEE!
On November 9, 2013, Cherokee's "Varsity 7" returned to Delsea Regional High School for NJSIAA's South Jersey Sectional Championships, the first of two races before the team qualifies for the State Meet of Champions!
Last year at Sectionals, the team failed to advance to the State Group Championships for the first time since 1994, finishing in 6th place. This year, returning only two runners from that team - Kaleb Burch, 9th in 16:33 and Justin DeTone, 83rd in 18:29 - Cherokee's prospects for returning to the State Group meet looked bleak when the year began. However, thanks to Kaleb's solid leadership and steady improvement, Justin's huge improvement, and the addition of two outstanding freshmen, Jack Shea and Nick Falk, as well as a strong first year senior, Nick Maccariella, Cherokee felt much better about its chances. Add in a much improved senior, Anthony Marrazzo and a new and improving sophomore, Steve Gravlin, and the outlook was very positive, especially after the recent conference meet where everyone PR'd! With that line-up, Cherokee's Varsity felt confident that they could compete with any team in the field with the possible exception of a very tough Cherry Hill East.
As it turned out, the guys proved that they could, indeed, race with the best but the results were somewhat mixed. They finished 3rd behind Cherry Hill East and Kingsway Regional and qualified the team for the State Group Championships but the overall team performance was slightly disappointing: indeed, had the team run races similar to those run in the previous Olympic Conference Meet, Cherokee would have easily finished ahead of Kingsway. But there were still some good individual performances. Anthony Marrazzo and Steve Gravlin cut significant time off of their previous best times on the Delsea course (Anthony dropped 61 seconds, Steve dropped 56 seconds)! In addition, both Nick Falk and Kaleb Burch improved their Delsea bests by 9 seconds (and Kaleb did that despite hitting a post and taking a fall in the last mile). Most impressive, however, was the aggressive racing of senior, Nick Maccariella, who not only knocked 44 seconds off of his Delsea time but also improved by 21 seconds over the excellent race he ran at the Olympic Conference Meet! Given this big improvement and the focus and determination he showed throughout the race, Nick earned Runner of the Meet honors. GO LIKE THAT ANYTIME, NICK!
Details at: NJRunners/MileSplit.
Last weekend, Cherokee's "Varsity 7" qualified for the State Group Championships at Holmdel Park by taking 3rd place in the South Jersey Sectional Championships and since then the statisticians at NJRunners have updated a number of records related to individual and team performances at the park. One record, updated through 2012, the "Holmdel Park All-Time Team Performances" list has 113 team performances with Cherokee making the list four times!
Let's see how much these records change after this year's Group States Championships! GO CHEROKEE!
On November 16, 2013, Cherokee's "Varsity 7" toed the line at the State Group IV Championships with high hopes but some very practical expectations! Doing the math from the previous Sectional Championships around the state, Cherokee was seeded 14th in the race but that didn't stop some individuals from running impressive times! Leading the way for the team, as he has all year, was senior Captain, Kaleb Burch who finished 24th in the race! His time of 16:47 was a PR on the course by 27 seconds and made him the 16th fastest Cherokee runner on the championship course since the state first moved the meet to Holmdel 36 years ago, and made him a leader on the Cherokee D Team, Holmdel Park All-Time Team Performances list! Senior, Nick Maccariella, was next for the team, clocking 17:09 and finishing in 53rd! In only his first season of cross country, and the first time he had ever seen the highly-demanding Holmdel course, Nick is now Cherokee's 29th fastest performer on the state championship course! Close behind him was Freshman, Nick Falk whose time of 17:17 put him 39th on the Cherokee Holmdel list and only 2 seconds off of the school's freshman record! Finishing off the scoring for Cherokee were Junior Justin DeTone; Freshman Jack Shea, Sophomore Steve Gravlin, and Senior Anthony Marazzo.
Odds and Ends. (1) Last week, Keleb Burch ran into an "invisible" post on the Delsea course and knocked himself down. That didn't help his overall performance but he persevered and finished in the top-10! This week, Jack Shea, already slowed by the mob of runners, tripped on a root not far into the first woods and hit the ground hard but he was up and running within seconds! (2) Just to give you some idea of how the competition has improved over the years, Keith Krieger set the Cherokee Freshman record of 17:15 at Holmdel in 1999 and he finished 28th. This year, Nick Falk came within 2 seconds of that record and he finished 61st! (3) It was the first time five of Cherokee's "Varsity 7" actually raced the championship course at Holmdel! Welcome to "the bigs" boys! (4) Last year was the first time since 1994 that a Cherokee team failed to qualify for the State Group IV Championship (Shawn Wilson won the race and advanced), and this was the first year since 1994 that Cherokee did not send a team or at least one runner to the Meet of Champions! That said, the new streak begins next year!
The Coach selected Nick Falk as the Runner of the Meet. While noting that Nick and four others on the "Varsity 7" never ran the championship course (and three never even saw it . . . but that's a story for another day!), he pointed to Nick's fearless attack on the Freshman Course Record and the aggressive way he competed through the final mile of the race! GO NICK!
Details at: NJRunners/MileSplit.
On December 2, 2013, Coach Shaklee was honored with the NJSIAA/NJSCA Cross Country Award because of his "distinguished background, experience, service, and promotion of cross country at the state and national levels." Already selected in 2009 by the New Jersey Scholastic Coach's Association as a member of their Hall of Fame, Coach Shaklee usually doesn't miss school for these awards but, since they included a free lunch, he made the trip to Edison, New Jersey for the NJSIAA/NJSCA Awards Banquet! GO SHAK! (Photo source unidentified.)
On Tuesday, December 3, 2013, Cherokee's Cross Country team held its annual awards dinner at the school. There the team, coaches, families and friends, enjoyed a meal together, applauded the accomplishments of the team this season, and bid farewell to the graduating seniors. Highlights included the great meal provided by the parents and the Coaches' awards, including the Most Valuable, Most Improved, and the Unsung Hero. Coach Shaklee's remarks are recounted in Coach's Message.
--- The following Coaches' awards were announced by Coaches Shaklee and Callinan:
--- In addition, Kaleb Burch was named to the All-County Team by the Burlington County Times, and to the All-Conference, 1st Team; and Jack Shea, Justin DeTone, Nick Maccariella and Nick Falk were named to the All-Conference, 2nd Team.
Here are a couple pictures taken by a volunteer at the banquet:
~ ~ Congratulations to everyone, and thanks for all your efforts this season! ~ ~
GO CHEROKEE!