On September 17, 2018, the team traveled to Dream Park in Gloucester for Batch Meet # 1. Today's two Conference Batch Meets represent a years-long effort to replace an old "dual meet" system that had the teams race as many as eleven week-day meets over the season while still doing weekend invitationals and the state championship meets! The thinking behind this was (1) to determine the Conference championship through the "Dual Meets;" (2) to give younger, less-experienced runners far more opportunities to compete against comparable runners; and (3) because they had always done it that way! ; < )
It was, however, nuts and finally disposed of! Coach Shaklee still finds them an unnecessary and annoying disruption to the training schedule and, as a result, often has the team practice at the site instead of actually racing. This year, only the Freshmen actually raced and the results were somewhat disheartening! Added to that was the unavailability of our photographer! Geeze. See details at NJ.MileSplit.
On September 15, 2018, a report was sent to our publication noting that the team enjoyed some recreational bowling after their successful racing at the Suffern Invitational. Included in that was a report that Coach Shaklee had rolled the highest score of the evening! On the surface, this seemed unlikely as the Coach is older than most of the athletes' grandfathers and somewhat enfeebled but a picture of the official scoreboard was provided!
Several days later, a reporter from our investigative division received evidence of illegal doings at the bowling event that led us to question the original version of this story! Indeed, further pictorial evidence was provided to show the earlier report was, indeed, "FAKE NEWS!" Apparently, Coach Shaklee's alley was provided with illegal bumper rails so the coach could amass such a high score! Sad!
This evidence also led us to investigate the 133 reportedly scored by Coach Thompson! More on that later!
On September 19, 2018, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association again selected Cherokee XC as the # 2 team in South Jersey (after Haddonfield Memorial) in their second weekly poll! No "sneaking up" on the competition this year! Let's continue to earn their respect! GO CHIEFS!
The poll is available at: SJTCA Poll.
On September 25, 2018, someone convinced Coach Shaklee that allowing the younger guys to race the Olympic Conference Batch Meet # 2 was a cool idea especially since early weather forecasts suggested that it would be warm and humid but dry afternoon! (Note to self: don't believe the early weather reports!).
The coach was impressed by the positive attitudes shown by his athletes, even though it was, indeed, an especially lousy day with rain, mud and standing water! "The Freshmen and one Sophomore, Brian Stillwagon, fared well at Tuesday's scrimmage at Dream Park. Two, in particular, stood out! Aiden Dickinson dropped a minute and 35 seconds off his last race at the Park and took 9th in the race; and Kevin Hess knocked almost 3 minutes off of his previous time!" Nice work, boys!
Official results at: NJ.MileSplit.com.
On September 26, 2018, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association again selected Cherokee XC as the # 2 team in South Jersey (after Haddonfield Memorial) in their third weekly poll! Since Varsity and Junior Varsity didn't compete this week, we assume this vote was based on the performance of the Freshmen at Batch Meet # 2 and the really cool Cherokee uniforms! GO CHIEFS!
The poll is available at: SJTCA Poll.
On September 27, 2018, NJ.MileSplit updated their Boys NJ Rankings Poll and Cherokee moved up two places! All of this is a bit speculative as neither Varsity nor Junior Varsity raced this past week -- ya think those Freshmen at the Batch Meet influenced the vote?! -- but no one is complaining! The original poll, posted before the season began, had Cherokee in 10th place and the current one ranks the Chiefs in 8th! All of this "speculation" disappears at Shore Coaches at Holmdel in two weeks! GET READY FOR THE REAL WORLD, BOYOS!
This poll is available at: NJ.MileSplit Poll.
On September 29, 2018, most of the team traveled to the SJTCA South Jersey Open at Delsea Regional High School, the site of the upcoming NJSIAA South Jersey Sectional Championships. Coach Shaklee reported the following:
"The Freshmen team got things started off well! Aiden Dickinson led the team running a very aggressive race to finish in 13th in a field of 151! Behind him, the next six Cherokee runners (Kevin Hess, 30th; Lucas Hatch, 38th; Joe Natoli, 39th; Jameson Crozier, 42nd; Matt Ambrose, 44th, and Bradley Popler, 47th) finished within 13 seconds of each other to give Cherokee a 2-point victory over 2nd place Cherry Hill East! Cherokee's 8th man, Tyler Bradley, also ran well, finishing in 70th!
In the Junior Varsity field of 165 runners, Ty Ortiz placed a respectable 22nd to lead the team! Behind him, Mylo Barkow ran very well, moving up steadily throughout the race to finish 32nd, while Aatish Gupta also ran well to place 57th!
While Coach Thompson took Cherokee's top-7 Varsity up to Holmdel Park for a workout -- the Shore Coaches Invitational will be there next week -- Cherokee looked to see how our 8 to 13 runners would fare in a Varsity race. The results were not what we had hoped for, largely due to an overaggressive start by Bobby Hackney and Tyler Jackson who led the field through the first 800m and paid the price for that mistake over the 2nd half of the race. Dylan Odud went out more intelligently and moved up throughout the race to led the team with his 25th place finish!
Of the ten Cherokee runners in the Varsity and JV races, only three managed to run a time faster than what they had run at the Suffren Invite - Dylan Odud, Milo Barkow and Aatish Gupta! Milo showed the largest improvement - 48 seconds - to earn the Runner of the Meet award! GO MILO!"
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On October 3, 2018, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association again selected Cherokee XC as the # 2 team in South Jersey (after Haddonfield Memorial) in their fourth weekly poll! Since Varsity didn't compete this week, we assume this vote was based on the performance of the Freshmen at the SJ Open and those really cool Cherokee uniforms!? Obviously, the upcoming Shore Coaches Invitational will sort out the tough guys from all the pretty faces! GO CHIEFS!
The poll is available at: SJTCA Poll.
On October 6, 2018, the team traveled to Holmdel Park, the state's championship course, for the Shore Coaches Invitational. For the Varsity, Shore is very important because it (1) tests their conditioning on a very difficult 5K course; and (2) allows them to "send a message" - something like CHEROKEE IS HERE! -- to the entire state!
For the Freshmen, it's often a rude awakening for young South Jersey runners who believe the "Flat Earth" argument! Yes, South Jersey IS flat! Holmdel IS NOT flat! The Freshman race is 3200m, the first mile of which is the same as the Varsity races, generally uphill! Probably as a result, our Freshmen didn't do as well as desired, only managing to finish 13th in the 27-team field! As Coach Shaklee reported, "We have some nice Freshmen runners but the lone bright spot at Shore was the performance of Jameson Crozier who ran well to lead Cherokee, finishing in 46th place in the field of 263 runners!"
Fortunately, Coach Shaklee had better things to say about the Varsity squad! "The Varsity team had a pretty good day as they placed 2nd in a field of 26 teams in the A race! In the merged results, Cherokee was also 2nd out of all the teams that ran in the seven varsity boys races! Ethan Wechsler has his best race ever, becoming the 5th fastest Cherokee runner of all-time on the Holmdel course with his 4th place finish in 16:06! Only Shawn Wilson (2012), Marc Pelerin (2001), Keith Krieger (2002) and Jack Shea (2015) have run faster, and all their races were run at the end of the season when they were at their peak, not the beginning! Chris Spisak and Chase Miller were next, both finishing in the top-20, while Mike Gavio ran a very strong race, PRing on the course by 71 seconds to finish 35th, 4th on the team! Brett Shea was next, 5th on the team, 37th overall, with a solid race in his first go on the Holmdel 5k course! David Jackson beat his previous best from his sophomore year by 85 seconds to finish 6th for the team in 49th place, while Nico Grilli ran an overly aggressive race which caught up to him in the last mile and saw him collapse before the line, eventually crawling across in 56th place! With a more controlled start, Nico should be able to improve quite a bit when we return for the state meet.
While it was a good first run of the course for the team, we know that we have to step it up if we want to contend with Westfield for the Group IV State Championship in November."
Although Ethan Wechsler's incredible race deserves recognition --- go ethan! ; < ) --- the coaches selected Mike Gavio for Runner of the Meet award "for the confident, focused way he raced! Mike has made tremendous progress since last year. He is working even harder in practice and it is showing in his race performances, especially Saturday's!" GO MIKE!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On October 10, 2018, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association again selected Cherokee XC as the # 2 team in South Jersey (after Haddonfield Memorial) in their fifth weekly poll! This week the coaches looked at more than "expected performances" by the Cherokee Varsity, seeing them perform at the Shore Coaches Invitational! Two other significant events are scheduled -- the Burlington County XC Open and the Olympic Conference Championships before the state championship cycle begins! GO CHIEFS!
The poll is available at: SJTCA Poll.
On October 10, 2018, NJ.MileSplit updated their NJ Ranking Poll and Cherokee moved up to 4th place behind powerhouses CBA, Haddonfield Memorial, and Westfield High School! The committee said the following: "Cherokee took 2nd in the "A" Race at SCI and were 2nd overall with a 16:46 avg. Junior Ethan Wechsler stepped into the top spot for The Chiefs with his 4th place finish (16:06 PR). The duo of Wechsler & Spisak (11th) make The Chiefs a potent threat going into "Title Time." / Next: Burlington Co. Open 10/12 @ Mill Creek Pk. (Willingboro)." GO CHIEFS!
Further details at: NJ.MileSplit Poll.
On October 12, 2018, the team traveled to the Burlington County XC Open at Mill Creek Park in Willingboro for the first of the championship meets this season! Historically, the team has done well there, winning the championship for the last four years in a row and seventeen times in the past twenty- three years!
Before getting into that, did anyone notice some weird goings-on there at the park? 1) There's that broken-down space ship, perhaps signaling to friends in space? 2) There's a Cherokee athlete alone on his knees in the middle of the park . . . waiting for some alien ship to beam him up? 3) There's that unnatural hill, perhaps a secret burial ground for ancient aliens? 4) There's Coach Shaklee, who many think is some kind of alien, apparently attaching an antenna to his head. 5) There are some odd things showing up on a cell phone: a message purportedly from "Siri" advising on the altitude at the park . . . perhaps for a landing; and a picture of several smug, smiling athletes, again perhaps waiting for the mother ship? All of this was sent to President Trump's new Space Command for investigation.
If all of that at the park doesn't concern you, what on earth . . . or in space . . . are these things?!
Coach Shaklee expressed appreciation for the team's performance noting that it was Cherokee's 5th Burlington County Championship in a row and the 18th victory over the past 24 years!
He continued by reviewing some of the details of the win! "Despite running without Chris Spisak and David Jackson from Cherokee's Top 7, we were still able to win the meet with a low score of 27 points! It's the 3rd lowest point total in meet history behind the 1999 Cherokee team which scored 20 and the 2004 Cherokee team which scored 22! Ethan Wechsler ran a really tough, competitive race narrowly losing to Cinnaminson's Austin Gabay. His time was the 5th fastest ever recorded on the Mill Creek Park course! Chase Miller in 3rd, Brett Shea in 5th, and Nico Grilli in 6th . . . all ran well to give us four in before anyone else's 2nd man! Lenape's first four ran really well to make the race interesting but Mike Gavio in 11th and Dylan Odud in 14th sealed the win, with both finishing in front of Lenape's 5th man!
We were also impressed by the way the guys ran in the class race with Bobby Hackney, Tyler Jackson, Mike Moraschi, Tyler Ortiz and Matt Campbell taking 5 of the first 6 spots! Like Ethan Wechsler in the Varsity race, Bobby was confident enough to take the lead from the 'git-go' and, while Ethan was beaten by a second at the finish line, Bobby held it throughout the race and finished in 1st! Indeed, his race time would have gotten him 18th in the Varsity race!"
The coaches selected Brett Shea as the Runner of the Meet for his focused racing and his strong finish! It was his most complete race this season and a great sign of things to come! GO BRETT!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Much as we admired the courageous race tactics of Ethan Wechsler in his past two races, we were somewhat disappointed to read the recent Ryan Lawrence article in The Marlton Sun where his courage vanished! When asked who his favorite teacher is, "Captain Courageous" took the safe route and chose his Physics teacher, COACH Thompson! Really? Oh, how the mighty have fallen! See article at: Marlton Sun. Article also available (without pictures) at: Ethan chats with The Marlton Sun.
The Open Race
The Varsity Race
