Cherokee looked good early on at the short, 2 mile Cherokee Challenge and another shorter race looms, the RVA Relays in Virginia! After that, two Batch Meets which the Coach will probably ignore and the first of "The Bigs": Shore Coaches in early October! Now is the time to "step up!" GO CHIEFS!
That's an odd question! It seems obvious . . . when the official fires the gun!
BANG! . . . and off you go . . . eager, optimistic, excited and, yes, filled with strength and adrenaline! You feel like you're flying and could easily rocket away from the pack!
But that's not where the race begins . . . not even close!
It really begins in that last half of the race, or maybe the last mile, when everything is hurting! Oh Mama! Your arms and legs ache, your chest heaves . . . your will is breaking! You tell yourself you can't go on, you feel like slowing down, even walking, you dream of a quick release, like maybe a tree falling on your head and ending it all? . . .
It's an internal battle between you and your body and spirit! You fight to continue, to even win, but your body tells you it's hurting badly and your spirit begs you to quit!
It's so easy to listen to those internal voices begging you to quit but you're a CHAMPION! You've developed an unbreakable mentality deep within your body that says, "I'm not quitting!" every time those other voices say otherwise!
GO! . . . GO! . . . GO!
That night after the race, look in that mirror again . . . There's a real CHAMPION!
GO CHIEFS!
In 2013, Patrick Bendzick first published a short article on the importance of the 5th man on the team and, since then, it has been repeatedly re-printed and continues to be admired and debated by Cross Country runners and coaches. Check it out and see what you think!
Patrick Bendzick, I Am the Most Important Person on Your Team.
It's an interesting perspective and praiseworthy but it's somewhat "static." It assumes the 5th man will always be "the 5th Man," and the 1st man will always be 1st, the 2nd man will always be 2nd, etc. In fact, the roles change frequently. Often, one of the top guys has a bad day and falls off the pace, maybe the 3rd man. That's when the traditionally 4th man steps up and passes him, and the others do the same! The 5th man is now 4th and, by the end of the race, he may be 3rd and the 7th man may be 5th!
Here's a perspective to take into race day! You're not the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th man! You are RACING, and you are a CHAMPION! Plan on having a great day and plan on beating everyone in front of you! Yeah, it's unlikely but it's a bad thing to think you're doing OK when you see the expectant "Number whatever" guy in front of you! Some athletes see the appropriate-numbered guy in front of them and they pace themselves off of him instead of RACING, instead of working to beat him and the guys around him! Don't just "cover the course" satisfied you're in "your right place" . . . RACE LIKE A CHAMPION!
GO CHIEFS!
After several years when the Board of Education required both a nurse (when a team member required any medicine) and an Ass't Principal to accompany any overnight, out-of-state athletic event, the Board removed the Ass't Principal requirement and, once again, Cherokee Cross Country scheduled an overnight meet, this time in Mechanicsburg, Virginia! With a reported population of 81 in Bland County (really), it's a hotbed for Civil War historians, Moonshine Distilleries, and the location of the iconic and oft-used Pole Green Park!
Back in 2019, the team competed in the RVA and the results were a mixed bag with the A Team Championship lost to Virginia powerhouse, Deep Creek, by a hair and Cherokee taking second! (Look back on this site for additional information!) Now in its 13th year, the RVA Relays is a highly unusual event for Cross Country as each of five team members race 2500m and, by the last championship race, they run under the lights!
The bus trip back from Mechanicsburg is a long one and Coach Shaklee took advantage of the time to write his meet summary for us!
"The trip to Virginia for the RVA Relays was a successful one for the Cherokee Boys team! Our last overnight trip, which was pre-covid in 2019, was to this same event! That year, the B team placed 3rd in their race with a time of 40:35 and the A team was nipped at the line by Deep Creek High School (the Virginia 5A state champions). With both teams timed in 36:59 to establish a new course record, that held up for the next four years . . . but not for a fifth . . .!"
"The first race of the day was the Boys B/C Race which had over 80 teams entered. Our B-team consisted of Sophomore, Sean Sooy; Sophomore, Gavin Danielewicz; Senior, Anthony DiBattista; Sophomore, Leo Vyvyan and Senior, Tate Midora. Sean got things going in a big way with his lead-off split of 7:19, faster than the average time of our 2019 A-team's course record! He handed off with a big lead, which continued to grow over the next four legs. Gavin - 8:05, Anthony - 7:42, Leo - 8:10, and Tate - 7:31, brought us home 35 seconds ahead of runner-up, Salesianum of Delaware! Our total time of 38:50 was a new B-race course record, topping the old record of 39:12 set by Deep Creek High School in 20:15! In the same race, our C team also ran well! Senior Liam Daimler; Freshman Evan Amato; Sophomore Max Harada; Freshman Trayce Slumsky and Sophomore Jack Finley finished 32nd out of 89 teams, 9th in the C-Division!
"Next up was the Open Race for individuals who were not on an A, B or C team. It was a huge field, so much so that they divided it into two races with teams A through L in the first race and M through Z in the second. Junior Charlie Wasserott was our top finisher, placing 46th in his race out of 217 runners, and 100th overall out of 417! Right behind Charlie was Senior Sam Wright, who placed 47th in his race and 103rd overall!
"At 7:50 PM, with the course lit by portable lights, the Championship Race went off, with 58 teams, including four of the top nine-ranked teams in Virginia. Senior Liam Tindall led off with a 7:17 split that put the team in eighth place at the hand-off, 16 seconds behind the leader. Sophomore Ben Realley, went out very aggressively and, 1200 meters in, was already in the lead! Although he was over-extended and hurting, Ben held on over the last half of the race to hand off in a tie for second, one tick behind the lead team, with a split of 7:15! Sophomore Logan Bromley ran a very controlled first mile which had him several seconds behind the leader. However, he finished with a super fast last 800, not only taking the lead but giving us a 13-second buffer on the second place team with a split of 7:14! Senior Enzo Corona ran the fourth leg and did a great job for keeping focused and pushing himself the whole way, even though he was running alone for all of it! With his split of 7:17, he extended the lead to 34 seconds when he handed off to our anchor leg, Freshman Jack Tindall! With the win already secured, the only question left was how much under the old course record the guys would run? The answer . . . 46 seconds! Splitting 7:09, Jack crossed the line in 36:13 to obliterate the record and lead four other teams under 37:00!
"To put this in perspective, it is notable that the 2019 Cherokee team, whose record they broke (by 46 seconds), went on to win the NJ Group 4 State Championship and finished fourth at the State Meet of Champions! The season is just getting started, and there is a long way to go, but this team is showing that they have what it takes to compete with the best teams out there!"
Finally, the Coaches selected Sean Sooy as The Athlete of the Meet! "He has always been very conscientious with his training, even before high school, and he has improved tremendously over the past year, closing the gap between himself and our top guys!" CONGRATULATIONS! GO SEAN!
Details available at the Virginia MileSplit site using your NJ credentials! VA MileSplit.
Reuben Frank of NBC Sports in Philadelphia and the SJTCA Blog reported on the team's performance at the RVA Relays: SJTCA BLOG.
Our photographer was unable to attend the meet but he searched the pictures provided by Mary Anne Magnant, VA.MileSplit's photographer. Her pictures of the B/C race are decent but, obviously she was unprepared/unaware of the "under the lights" idea and blew almost all of the pictures from the Championship race! She posted them anyway and our photographer used a lot of time and several Photoshop filters to rescue a bunch!
Here are a few and they and the rest of the pictures from coaches and VA.MileSplit are available on our Google site!
On September 17th, 2024, Coach Shaklee followed his earlier thinking and sent Coach Thompson and a small team of five Freshmen to represent Cherokee at Batch Meet # 2 in Moorestown while he continued to train the rest of the team back at school!
A large group of six or seven teams raced, most represented by their top Varsity runners and not all went well for our boys! Perhaps the most disappointing was the disqualification of our top runner for "cutting the course." Colin Dickinson raced pretty well but somewhere along the course an official declared a DQ and he was removed from the results. Following Colin was Ethan Amato, who finished 12th in 19:22; Dylan Weiner was 21st in 20:05; Jonathan Merkel was 60th in 23:50; and Fletcher D'Alessandro was 81st in 26:39. There were more than 100 athletes in the race but not all coaches recorded their team's performances, which is not required at Batch Meets.
Our photographer was there and he posted some of his pictures below and they and the rest are on our Google site!
"Just don't drink the Kool-Aide!"
Despite not highlighting the stellar results from the RVA Relays, MileSplit moved up Cherokee a position (passed Haddonfield) in this week's rankings. Unlike in previous years, MileSplit used to provide some justification for placing the teams where they did but not this year. Shore Coaches will weed-out the riff-raft and give us a clearer picture of where we (and the rest of NJ) belong! Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
The SJ Coaches also vote each week based on recent performances and the long-term reputation of Coach Shaklee and his teams, and again they ranked Cherokee #1 in the SJ Pole. Details a: SJ.Track.
Too much emphasis is placed on the results of Shore Coaches -- it's way too early in the season! -- but haven't you been working months to make an impression there?!
On October 5th, 2024, the team traveled to New Jersey's State Cross Country Championship Course at Holmdel Park and competed in the highly-competitive Shore Coaches Run. There, lots of good things (and a few not-so-hot things) happened, and here is what Coach Shaklee had to say about the outing:
"The meet did not go as we had hoped but it was the first 5K race of the season for the team . . . still, there definitely were some highlights:
"In the Freshman Race, both Colin Dickinson and Evan Amato medaled with Colin in 20th and Evan in 28th in a field of 216! Trayce Slumsky and Dylan Weiner finished close behind in 32nd and 40th to give us four in the top 40!
"In the Varsity A Race, the highlight was definitely the performance of freshman, Jack Tindall, who lit up the Holmdel course! Jack's time of 15:55 knocked twenty seconds off the old freshman record set by Craig Forys in 2003! It was also 44 seconds faster than the previous Cherokee freshman record of 16:39 set last year by Ben Realley (who recorded a one-second PR of 16:38 for ninth). The rest of the Varsity seven struggled to find their rhythm and will undoubtedly run much faster when they return to Holmdel in November! Still, the team managed to finish Second behind 2023 State Group 4 Champs, Westfield!
"The JV Race saw some very good peRformances from the team! Tate Midora ran an aggressive race and finished second in the field of 204 with a sizable Holmdel PR of 17:34! Anthony DiBattista - 4th, Leo Vyvyan - 6th, Gavin Danielewicz - 12th and Max Harada - 30th gave us a team score of 54, good enough for a twenty point victory over runner-up, North Hunterdon!"
After a lengthy debate, the coaches selected Jack Tindall as the "Athlete of the Meet"! An insane time on an insane course, if you need more detail see above and below! CONGRATULATIONS! GO JACK!
Reuben Frank provided a detailed look at the team's race, focusing on Jack: SJ Track Blog.
Official details: NJ.MileSplit.
Meanwhile, our photographer (who had quite a few problems this time) and his professional friend, Tom Smith, took hundreds of pictures of the team in action! Here are a few of the hundred or so they saved and they and the rest of their saved pictures are posted on our Google site.
In the Third MileSplit Poll, Cherokee dropped from 3rd to 4th in the rankings, largely because the Varsity was inactive during that week. CBA and Haddonfield remained the same and Ridgewood became the third ranked team ahead of Cherokee! Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
The Fourth MileSplit Poll included the results of the Shore Coaches Run and Cherokee dropped from 4th to 5th behind CBA, Haddonfield, Colts Neck and Westfield! So many things happen through each week that the results often change but, as the weeks continue, the best rise to the top! GO CHEROKEE! Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
The Fourth SJTCA Poll continues to list Cherokee at 1st because of the timing of their poll. Details at: SJTCA.
Finally, the Fourth NJ.com Poll lists Cherokee at 4th behind CBA, Haddonfield and Westfield. Details at: NJ.com.