OK, a different approach: "Crap! (Yes, crap again!), what is Finley doing? It's just the start but he's flying! "Easy, Jack, easy . . . it's 5K!"
Usually, guys who go out much faster than they are capable (to run a complete race well!), go out much faster and they pay the price as they tire faster in the race. It's like the efficiency of a car: drive sensibly - don't burn gas very fast in the beginning - and you'll go farther on the same tank of gas! Foot racing is like that, go out sensibly (what you are capable of or trained for) and you'll do better in the race!
Here's an example! The picture shows Jack going out fast but another kid, Jeremiah Jackson of Triton, went out even faster! Neither was ready for that fast a start but Jack was better able to withstand the loss of energy in his start than Jeremiah: Jack finished 4th and Jeremiah finished 44th! Scientifically, neither ran the best race they could but Jack was certainly better able to overcome that start than Jeremiah! And, as the pictures will show, he looked great! GO JACK . . . sensibly next time and run even faster!
On the other hand, there's always a "On the Other Hand," at this point we (that's all of us, including Jack) don't know what Jack can run if he goes out very fast! It was a South Jersey race, not Sectionals or Groups, so "take off" Jack and see! Seems like, he held up well, coming in with a PR and 1st, had not East entered Varsity runners in the race! GO JACK! . . . racing "sensibly" isn't always the key!
Coach Shaklee sent this summary of the action!
"Most of the boys cross country team traveled to Gloucester County's Dream Park for the South Jersey Open on Saturday, October 11th. The cool temperature and overcast skies made it pretty nice for racing, and the team took advantage by throwing down some strong performances!
"First up was the Freshman race, and a chance for the five Cherokee freshmen to finally race as a team! The result, was a big victory, with Cherokee scoring half the points (that's good in XC!) of the runner-up team! Leading the way was Hamza Salahuddin who took the individual victory by a half a minute with a quick 12:55 finish time over the 2.4 mile lay-out! In his three freshmen races this season, Hamza now has two firsts and a second, showing that he is one of the top freshmen in the state! Colton Harbold was next for Cherokee, in second place, passing two athletes in the late stages of the race to give the squad a strong start in the team scoring with a 1-2 finish! JJ Duncan, continued his fine season with a fifth place finish in the field of 74 runners! Ryan Neiderberger and Dawson Talbot finished the scoring for Cherokee, both running strong races to take 19th and 28th respectively! It was a great way to finish the last freshman race of the year! Now it's time to find out what these guys can do against upperclass competition over the 5k distance!
"The Junior Varsity squad was down a couple of men but, those in the race, ran well! Jack Finley ran aggressively from the start and it paid off as he finished a strong 4th (behind three of CH East's top 7 varsity runners) and set a new 5k PR of 17:12! Bruce Novoa (5th), Evan Amato (7th) and Carlo Brown (9th) all set new 5K PR's as well to give the team 4 of the top 10 finishers overall in the field of 187! Dylan Weiner was 30th to complete the scoring for the team which finished 2nd to a CH East team that (incorrectly) ran some of their varsity athletes in the race (for reasons unknown). In addition to those five, Brayden Pedersen, Jonathan Merkel, Fletcher D'Alessandro and Nick Carpineto all set new 5K PRs!
"The coaches selected Jack Finley as "Athlete of the Meet" for his aggressive, focused racing! GO JACK!
"Next up, the team travels to the new site of the Burlington County Championship Meet - Crystal Lake Park - this Friday to extend their streak of county championships, which now stands at 11 in a row!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Our photographer was there and has posted some of his pictures here and they and the rest will be on the Google site soon.
Blood and snot . . . bring them on!
OK, we'll let Coach Shaklee start off this time!
"The Cherokee boys had a good day at the Burlington County Championships on the new course at Crystal Lake Park in Mansfield Township, winning our 12th championship in a row!
"It was a beautiful day for racing with temperatures in the mid-60s and bright sunshine. The new course was mostly on grass trails surrounding the park area and was quite spread out, making it difficult for spectators (and old coaches) to see much of the race. The one big complaint with the course was the start, which was horribly inadequate. The starting line was not long enough to hold all the participants and, less than 100 meters into the race, the course narrowed onto the trail and then took a hard right turn. Once through the first 200 meters of the race, it opened up and was fine the rest of the way.
"The JV team went first and, since we were holding runners out of the varsity race and moving others up, our first athlete was actually our 11th man. Despite that, and the fact that Riverside ran their varsity team in the JV race, Cherokee runners took the first five places to shut out the rest of Burlington County! That group was led by individual champion, Bruce Novoa, who ran up-front the entire way and made a strong move to open up a gap in the last mile of the race. Bruce's time of 17:46 put him six seconds ahead of runner up, freshman, Colton Harbold. Colton was followed closely by senior, Carlo Brown and sophomores, Trayce Slumsky and Evan Amato. In addition to those five, freshman, JJ Duncan, sophomore, Dylan Weiner, and junior, Matt Muschek took places eight through ten, giving Cherokee eight of the first ten finishers! Other strong races were run by Brayden Pedersen, 19th, Ryan Neiderberger, 37th, Fletcher D'Alessandro, 40th, Dawson Talbot, 41st, Jonathan Merkel, 42nd and Nick Carpineto, 151st!
"In the Varsity championship, we rested three of our top athletes (Jack Tindall, Ben Realley and Logan Bromley) and we were facing a good Cinnaminson team that came into the meet as the eighth ranked team in South Jersey. We needed to get good races from everyone, and we did, giving us a comfortable win with 26 points, a score that would have won the meet even if the rest of Burlington County was combined into one team! Junior, Sean Sooy, led the way, finishing second behind Cinnaminson's top man (one of the top runners in South Jersey). It was great to see Sean run so well in his first race back after his difficult Shore Coaches race! Junior, Gavin Danielewicz, had another great race (something he has been doing consistently this season), to finish in third place! Junior, Max Harada, was our next finisher, only a few seconds behind Gavin, establishing a new 5K PR! A few seconds after Max, the trio of senior, Dom Pileri, junior, Leo Vyvyan, and Freshman, Hamza Salahuddin, came across the line in seventh, ninth and tenth, giving us six runners in before Cinnaminson's fourth! For good measure, junior, Jack Finley, running in a varsity championship for the first time, finished in 23rd place! Jack finished ahead of the third man from every team in the county other than Cinnaminson and he was only two places behind their 5th man!
"All-in-all, it was a full team effort, showcasing the strength of the Cherokee Cross Country program, and it was a tribute to the hard work this group has put in over the past couple of months! Next up, the team will attempt to win a fifth consecutive Olympic Conference Championship on Wednesday at Dream Park."
"For Runner of the Meet, the coaches struggled to cite just one but easily selected two because of their performances: Sean Sooy and Bruce Novoa!
"We went with "Co-Athletes of the Meet"! Sean, for the determined way he ran at the front with the Cinnaminson runner almost the whole way! After having heat-related issues at Shore Coaches, it was awesome to see Sean back to his old self just in time for the championships! Bruce, for the focused, determined way he ran his race, staying near the front until he made his move and then decisively pulling away from the field to win for the first time in his career! GO SEAN! GO BRUCE!"
Details at: NJ.MileSplit
Our photographer was there . . . Yes, he was, first, seen scanning the crowd for Taylor Swift who, he argued, was there to meet him, and then, seen scarfing-up the leftovers from the parent's food table! Anyway, finally, a few of his pics . . . these and others on the Google link.
Coach Shaklee is here already!
"A cool, windy day greeted the team at the Olympic Conference Championships at Dream Park on Wednesday, October 22nd. Coming off of a very successful county meet, the boys were determined to keep the momentum rolling!
"The JV race went off first at 3:30 and Cherokee immediately got things going in a big way, putting seven runners in the top ten to win the championship with a low score (again, that's good!) of eighteen points! Leading the way for the Chiefs were juniors, Bruce Novoa and Jack Finley, who swept the first two places! It was the second win in a row for Bruce, who took charge of the race midway through and never looked back! Jack was trailing Cherry Hill East's first runner until the last straightaway when he kicked past him for the runner-up spot! Sophomore, Trayce Slumsky, freshman, Colton Harbold and senior, Carlo Brown, swept places four through six and sophomores, Dylan Weiner and Evan Amato, took ninth and tenth! It was really strong racing from all, but special kudos go to Dylan who improved his season best by 71 seconds! For the confident, focused way he raced, Dylan earned Athlete of the Meet honors! Other 'Season Best Performances' were turned in by Matt Muschek -11, JJ Duncan -9, Brayden Pedersen -11, Ryan Neiderberger -9, Jonathan Merkel -11, Fletcher D'Alessandro -10, Dawson Talbot -9 and Nick Carpineto - 10!
"The Varsity Championship race was up next at 4:15. At the county meet, we held out Jack Tindall, Ben Realley and Logan Bromley. Jack and Ben were held out to rest up for future championship races while Logan was recovering from a foot injury. Unfortunately, his recovery was not complete and he ended up having to drop from the race due to a flair-up of the injury. Logan is one of our top runners and losing him was disappointing. However, others stepped up to help us win our fifth consecutive conference championship! As we did at the county meet, we scored well enough to beat the entire rest of the conference, if they were combined into one team! In that case, it would have been Cherokee 25 / The Rest of the Conference 30! Leading the way for the team was sophomore, Jack Tindall, who crossed the line in 15:21 (a six second course PR) to win his second consecutive conference title! Juniors, Ben Realley, Max Harada, Sean Sooy and Gavin Danielewicz, finished 3rd, 5th, 6th and 10th respectively to complete the team scoring! All four ran well with Max and Gavin establishing new 5k PR's (Max under 16:00 for the first time!). Behind those five, senior, Dom Pileri, junior, Leo Vyvyan and freshman, Hamza Salahuddin, were all having good races of their own, placing 12th, 13th and 17th in the field of 132 finishers!
"Next up, much of the team will run on Tuesday at the Baker Sub-Varsity Meet in Haddonfield, while the top seven will compete next Saturday at the SJ Sectional Championships back at Dream Park!"
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Our photographer was there and, despite being pushed over a barbed-wired. electrified fence by some mentally disordered person (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!), shot the meet. He has finally finished the pics for Cherokee and NJ.MileSplit! Here are a few, and they and the rest are posted at our Google link!
Who set-up this team shot? Don't blame our photographer because he just happened on the scene and did a "hip shot" of what was already set-up! Someone teach that first person "background" and teach our photographer "layers!" While you're at it, who is next to Jack Finley looking at the toilets?
Reports on the Baker Sub-Varsity Invitational are slowly trickling in but one picture, said to depict Assistant Coach Thompson's "Exceptional Eight" is available:
Some say "the whole thing is sad, as two aging coaches relive their racing days by dividing the JV squad into two racing teams - did they have names this year? -- 'the Bunnies' and 'the Squirrels'? -- and have them race for bragging rights!" That may be a bit harsh. Generally, team members, who are unlikely to race at Sectionals this year, have an opportunity to race one more time on what is considered a "flat, firm, fast course" for their best PR's of the season! We've been TOLD Coach Thompson's 'Bunnies' won, and they appeared for the pictures, but no evidence has been offered.
For the record (and you compulsive ones can go back over the years on this site!), since Coach Shaklee and former Coach Callinan, now at Central Administration, instituted this intra-squad competition years ago, the record stands at:
Coach Shaklee - 13 wins
Coach Callinan - 2 wins (forever)
Coach Thompson - most recent addition to the coaching staff - 7 wins
"The last regular season meet each year for much of the team is the Baker Sun-Varsity Invitational (named for legendary Haddonfield Coach, Nick Baker), a race for those on the team who are not in the top seven and, therefore, not racing at Sectionals. It is really the unofficial South Jersey Sub-Varsity Championship and a chance to compare our team depth to others. Going in, we knew that we were one of the three deepest teams in the area and we also knew the other two - Haddonfield and Cherry Hill East - would be there as well. We came in motivated and focused, and the results reflect that!
"There are two divisions with two separate races. The A race is for those athletes who have run a previous 5K under 20:00 and the B race is for those whose best is over 20:00.
"The highlight for us in the B race was putting three athletes in the top thirteen, in a field of 133 runners, all under 20:00! Sophomore, Fletcher D'Alessandro, led the way with his sixth place finish in 19:38, over three and a half minutes faster than he ran last year! Freshman, Ryan Neiderberger, was next in ninth with a time of 19:44, while fellow frosh, Dawson Talbot, was thirteenth in 19:53! Next was junior, Jonathan Merkel, who did not have his best race but completed a season in which he was consistently two to three minutes faster than he ran at any race last year! Finally, first year sophomore, Nick Carpineto, knocked a full 74 seconds off of his previous best time to end the season on a high note!
"The A race was equally impressive, led by individual champion, freshman, Hamza Salahuddin, who ran a very savvy race, staying with the lead runners from Haddonfield until the last mile when he took control and pulled away for a convincing win in 16:38, only four seconds off of the meet record! Behind Hamza, our next six athletes were junior, Bruce Novoa 4th, senior, Carlo Brown 5th, frosh, Colton Harbold -9th, Sophomore, Trayce Slumsky 12th, junior, Jack Finley 16th, and sophomore, Evan Amato 18th! With seven runners among the top eighteen finishers, it was a convincing win with 33 points (Haddonfield 2nd w/ 60 and CH East 3rd w/ 66)! The win showed that the depth of our program this year is second to none! Behind our top seven, two other athletes were having their best races to date as well! Junior, Matt Muschek and Freshman, JJ Duncan, both broke 18:00 for the first time with Matt taking 23rd in 17:43 and JJ running 17:57 for 32nd! That made eighteen runners under 18:00 this season. THAT is depth!
The other element that makes this meet a little different is the tradition we have of dividing the team into two - Team Thompson and Team Shak (years ago, there was also a Team Cal). According to Coach Shak, this year's version followed a disturbing trend of the Thompson Team inexplicably winning. That makes three in a row for Coach Thompson who, as always, was a very gracious winner, even playing Queen's 'We are the Champions', the next day when Coach Shak walked into the room for the team meeting. How thoughtful!
Next up, the team will return to Dream Park on Saturday for the SJ Group 4 Sectionals. Having won the last seven sectional championships, we will be looking to add an eight consecutive win! We will need good races from the seven, and, if we get that, a win is definitely in the cards!
Our photographer has edited and posted several pictures below, and the rest are available through our Google link.
Details at: NJ.MileSplit