On September 4th, 2026, the team hosted the 29th Annual Cherokee Challenge. (What's the technical answer here: it began in 1996 and would have been the 30th Annual but it was canceled in 2020 as a result of the COVID Pandemic?) Unlike previous years when the Challenge was held on a Saturday, this year it was scheduled for a regular school-day Friday afternoon because of a religious holyday on Saturday. I'm not sure how the business side of the operation faired but the races were run precisely on time on a beautiful afternoon in Marlton!
Coach Shaklee sent his own summary of the exercise:
"This year's Cherokee Challenge, the 30th edition, was slightly different than the previous twenty-nine. Circumstances required moving the meet to an earlier date to avoid putting it on "Rosh Hashanah," which this year falls on the Saturday after Labor Day, the traditional date of the Challenge. So, instead of a Saturday morning event, it was a Friday late afternoon meet with the last race, the senior boys, going off as the sun was beginning to set.
"The change to an afternoon meet seemed to suit the Cherokee boys team who, despite holding out the top six returning runners, ran impressively, finishing second in a field of 40 teams! The team scoring is based on the top finisher for each team, in each race. Drew Burdette got things started in a big way, finishing third in the freshman race! Drew's time of 10:49.8 was the third fastest time by a Cherokee runner on the day! Colton Harbold kept things going strong with a tenth place finish, out of 229 runners, in the sophomore race, in 10:57.3, a 37 second improvement from last year! The team's top junior, Evan Amato, placed thirteenth in his race, recording the second fastest Cherokee time of the day at 10:38.6! Finally, Bruce Novoa, running in his first Cherokee Challenge, finished off the team scoring in style, placing ninth in the senior race with the team's fastest time - 10:29.0, giving Cherokee a score of 35, second only to Germantown Friends Academy!
"In addition to the four scorers for the team, there were three other athletes who medaled by placing in the top thirty in their race: JJ Duncan - 28th in the sophomore race at 11:26, 71 seconds faster than last year, Trayce Slumsky - 24th in the junior race in 10:50.3, and Matt Muschek - 27th in the senior race in 10:52.9! Matt's run was particularly impressive as he ran 1:53 faster than last year! His strong summer of training is already paying off!
"While several other Cherokee athletes had good races, the two that were most notable were turned in by senior, Jonathan Merkel and junior, Nick Carpineto!
"Jonathan just keeps improving. It's not surprising as he is very dedicated to his training. Last year, Jonathan placed 213th in the junior race, running 14:29. This year he finished 112th in the senior race with a time over 2 minutes faster!
"Nick was very diligent with his summer training and, as a result, he has taken a big leap forward in performance. Even though cross country, with its hills, turns and uneven footing, is much slower to run on than the track, Nick ran 20 seconds faster on the Cherokee Challenge course than his best 3200 time on the track from last spring! That is a huge improvement!
"Two other notable stats deserve mention. First, the boys, with their team score of 35 points, combined with the Cherokee girls team, who scored 44, to win the co-ed competition with 79 points, 30 points ahead of second place Conestoga High School! Second, in the merged team results, which scores the meet in the traditional fashion from each team's top five runners overall, the Cherokee boys team placed third out of a field of 61, with 215 points! Not bad considering the runners who were held out!
"The choice for Athlete of the Meet was a tough one, so much so that we couldn't break the tie and went with two, both of whom earned this through their hard work this summer!
"Matt Muschek placed 144th last year in the junior race with a time of 12:46. This year, in the senior race, he placed 27th in 10:53, a time only four seconds off of what he ran on the track in the spring! That kind of improvement is definitely worth noting!
"Nick Carpineto ran his first season of cross country last fall after coming out for spring track as a freshman. In his first 5k, he ran 30:15. By the end of the 2025 XC season, he had knocked that down to 26:02. Last spring he PRed in the 3200 at 13:59. Only four months later he is now running 13:38 on the hills and trails of the Cherokee Challenge course, a time equivalent to 21:50 for 5k!
"Both Matt and Nick are to be commended for their commitment and determination. They have certainly earned the improvement they are now enjoying!
"Next up, the JV and freshman squads will race at the South Jersey Shootout at Dream Park on Saturday, September 12th!"
Meet details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Dennis, our photographer, shot 1600+ pictures of everyone in the meet for us and MileSplit (which he edited individually), and MileSplit engaged another photographer, Kristin, who shot 3000+ pictures (which are decent but she did not edit), and all are available on the MileSplit site. Pictures of our athletes by both photographers are at our Google site.
Here is a sampling of Kristin Gauthier's pictures (with slight editing from Dennis) because they are better than his! She was at the finish line and he was 50 meters after the back hill, a much-less dramatic stage of the race! Good on her!
On September 12th, 2026, a portion of the team traveled to DREAM Park in Gloucester County, down near the Delaware River and the Commadore Barry Bridge. The Park was originally planned as simply an equestrian complex, but a number of far-sighted individuals, including then-Rowan Cross Country Coach Ringo Adamson, saw the area as a potential South Jersey Cross Country facility. As a result, in 2000, plans began and several years later, the course was designed and built.
At the Park, Coach Shaklee had his team compete in only two races: the Freshman 4K and the Open 5K. We'll leave the analysis of the teams' performances to the coach.
But, let's see. Who did what, while we wait.
The 4K. A weird race for high school with few comparisons. Cherokee had Freshman Deegan Klagholz in 22nd/111 overall, clocking 15:03, and well ahead of our #2, so you have to give him creds for that performance! A newcomer, we'll see how he does in the 5K this season! (Dennis messed up the pictures of that race and he's not sure Deegan is pictured!) GO DEEGAN!
The 5K. Wow! JJ Duncan, ahead of Jack Finley! Jack, who made quite a statement for the second year in a row, going out strongly and leading in the start of the race and holding 3rd in the last 1,000m of the race. Duncan made the sharp turn at around 200m to go, and ahead of a strong kid from Washington, DC and Jack! He ended up 2nd/192 overall in 17:39.30, and Jack finished in 3rd, 17:49.40. An exciting race by both Chiefs! GO JJ! GO JACK!
But, look, I can pick the Athlete of the Meet blindfolded! Well, I may have been blindfolded during the 4K because I swear I didn't see our top finisher, Deegan Klagholz, but I wasn't blindfolded when our top guy in the 5K raced by me with 200m to go! JJ Duncan was RACING, and it was great to watch! His first year in Cross Country, he's a competitor and a complement to the team! GO JJ
Now, let's see what Coach Shaklee says!
"With twelve of the team's top runners sitting out to, instead, train for the championship season, six freshmen and nine upperclassmen headed to Dream Park on Saturday, September 12th, for the South Jersey Shootout.
"The freshmen went first and were led by Deegan Klagholz who moved up over the last two miles to take 22nd place in the field of 111 runners! Kamari Black (37th), Graham Suplee (48th), Greyson Justice (50th), and Noah Miller (85th) completed the scoring for the squad which finished in sixth place.
"In the Open 5k race, JJ Duncan led the way, finishing in second place with a new 5K PR of 17:39! Ten seconds later, senior, Jack Finley, took third to give the group a good start on the team scoring! Gavin Quinn, in his first 5K, ran a very strong race to take 10th in 19:39, while Fletcher D'Alessandro and Ryan Niederberger placed 24th and 32nd to complete the scoring, Cherokee finished in third, ten points behind first place, St John's College Prep from Washington, DC, and only 2 points behind second place Haddonfield!
"JJ Duncan was named Athlete of the Meet by the coaches for the aggressive way he approached his race, moving up after the first half mile and challenging for the win over the last mile! In the process, he set a new 5k PR!"
Further details at: NJ.MileSplit
Dennis was there and was discombobulated for a time: "Which race? . . . What course? . . . Who's in it? , , , Where's my chair? . . . Where's my camera?" Still, he caught most of our runners in their races. If he missed you, he'll do better next time!
Did you see the pictures he scrounged from the Camp RunningWorks site? It was a real adventure just trying to find them! And some were never found! Go back a page and check them out.
Here are a few from the Shootout. The rest are at our Google site.
On September 22, 2026, Cherokee's guys who would not be racing at Holmdel on Friday returned to DREAM Park by the Bridge for the Batch Meet. It was a surprising race!
About 250m from the finish, a pack of Seneca runners dominated the course but they were followed by Sophomore Gavin Quinn, closely followed by Senior Jonathan Merkel! It was going to be a torrid finish for the two Cherokee runners!
Merkel was obviously working as he tracked the young Sophomore! By the finish line, it was almost a "neck and neck" finish with Merkel clocking 19:27.48 and Gavin in 19:28.96, 6th/59 overall and 9th! The times are striking! Only three days before, in the same 5K race on the same course, Jonathan crossed the line in 20:49.60. In the Batch Meet, he dropped 1:22 and change, in three days! While Gavin's improvement wasn't as spectacular, he raced three days before in 19:39.80 and did it again in 19:28.96, a drop of 10 seconds or so! Good job by both! GO JONATHAN! GO GAVIN!
Recognition for Athlete of the Week must go to Jonathan Merkel for his tough racing and his spectacular improvement over his previous PR performance! GO JONATHAN!
Here's Coach Shaklee's take on the meet
"Three days after the SJ Shootout, thirteen members of the team returned to Dream Park for the Olympic Conference Batch Meet. Although the temperature was in the mid-70s and the humidity was relatively low, it felt hot on the bright sunny day.
"Despite the sunny conditions, there were some nice performances, most notably by the first four Cherokee finishers. Jonathan Merkel, in particular, ran an excellent race finishing in sixth place in 19:27! That time was 82 seconds faster than his SJ Shootout race and a new PR by 42 seconds! For his efforts, the coaches named Jonathan the Athlete of the Meet! Gavin Quinn continued his strong racing, setting another PR to take ninth in 19:29! Fletcher D'Alessandro was next in twelfth place, running 19:42, a 27 second improvement over his Shootout race, and Brayden Pedersen was fourteenth with a time over two minutes faster than Saturday's race! The other notable result was recorded by Nick Carpineto who knocked another minute off of his 5k PR in 31st place!" [Editor's note: Yikes! You Go!
"Next up, the team will travel north for the initial Holmdel Opener meet. It will mark the opening race of the season for the team's top runners."
Details at: NJ.MileSplit
Here are the pictures at our Google site. Thank Dennis! Enjoy!
HOLMDEL
A HALLOWED PLACE
Holmdel is a hallowed place, not like a Civil War Cemetery, but because many young athletes have "died" there.
In 1976, back in the days when your fathers and mothers were much younger, Dennis, an Assistant Coach of CC and Track at Cherry Hill H.S.East, was confronted with the opening of Holmdel Park as the State Cross Country Championship Course. It was a magnificent venue for Cross Country that far outshone every other course in New Jersey! (And, later on, great for pictures!)
Early on, he and Head Coach Don Witzig (later, Ass't Track Coach at Cherokee!) recognized the challenge it offered: the Start up over open land to a narrow entrance in the front Woods; the "roller coaster" in the woods; and then an open trail by the Tennis Courts and up into the Meadow (all of this generally uphill) until it turns down to the Mile mark, and a flat Plateau to the top of the Bowl! Circling the bottom of the Bowl and after ascending it, the course returns along the Plateau to the Two Mile mark. At that point, the course continues along an open trail, around the Tennis Courts and into the Back Woods, where it descends until it opens onto a wide field with the finish line ahead!
Originally, he thought the key to winning the race was to stay strong in the start, get to the woods close to the front, hook on to the leaders and steady your pace through the Mile. Some will take-off after the mile along the Plateau and through the Bowl, others will remain steady passing those who falter, and after ascending the Bowl, speed up to create space between themselves and those who tired after the ascent! Most will get caught-up with the race itself and increase, or at least steady their pace, along the course through to the Back Woods and down to the opening and the dash to the finish line! Easy Peasy!
Coach Shaklee, who came back to East as an Assistant Coach after graduating from Drexel, and who raced the course himself in the past, studied it carefully and had an almost immediate impact on the program! In 1981, he worked with Bruce Miller as he set the meet record and won the Shore Coaches Invitational! And then, Track State Champion, Bill Stewart . . .. Today, the Coach has his own ideas on how to master the course and we'll leave it up to him to advise his athletes as they accept the challenge of Holmdel!
From the Coach:
"On Friday, September 18th, a warm and humid day, thirteen Cherokee athletes made the trip to Holmdel Park to open the season fittingly at the inaugural Holmdel Opener Invitational.
"The JV Group was up first and got things started in style, going 1-2-3-4-6-7-8! Moreover, Trevor Johnston, in fifth, is Northern Burlington's top varsity runner! Had Cherokee been allowed to run a second team in the varsity race, this group would have finished in fourth place and would have put four runners in before third place Kingsway's fourth man, and six in before Kingsway's fifth! Quite a nice show of depth.
"Leading the way for the team was junior, Evan Amato, who took the individual victory in 17:35 (a 35 second Holmdel PR)! He was followed closely by sophomore, Colton Harbold, 2nd in 17:49 (a much faster pace than he averaged for the 2 mile race at Holmdel last year!); freshman, Drew Burdette, 3rd in 18:01 (an outstanding first run on the very challenging Holmdel course!), and junior, Trayce Slumsky, 4th in 18:07 (a 28 second Holmdel PR)! After Northen Burlington's top varsity runner took the fifth spot, seniors, Matt Muschek and Jack Finley, along with sophomore, JJ Duncan, secured the dominant victory as they swept places six through eight! Matt's time was 1:46 faster than his previous Holmdel PR!
"The Varsity squad, ran with just six athletes, as senior, Bruce Novoa, was out with an injured toe. This was the opening race of the season for all six runners and, while the varsity team was not as dominant as the JV squad had been, they still got the job done with a score of 39 and a commanding 22 point victory over runner-up, Bergen Catholic, the 17th ranked team in the state!
"Senior, Ben Realley, running his first race in five months, shook off the cobwebs to take fourth place in 16:44! Senior, Gavin Danielewicz, was next in sixth place with a new Holmdel PR of 16:48! Senior, Sean Sooy, was next in eighth even with a race that was not his best and was followed by sophomore, Hamza Salahuddin, in ninth at 17:10! Senior, Max Harada, was our fifth scorer in thirteenth place despite a severe abdominal cramp sustained shortly before the two mile mark which forced him to slow up over the final mile. The team's sixth man was senior, Leo Vyvyan, who finished sixteenth in 17:28, just five seconds off his Holmdel best from last year's Meet of Champions. Leo finished ahead of every other team's fourth man and ahead of the second runner from all other teams except second place, Bergen Catholic, and third place, Kingsway.
"After this opening race (after a day of school and a long bus ride to Holmdel) we are still left with the realization that, while we have the talent and the depth to compete at the highest levels, we need to keep working and improving if we want to make a big impact on the state level in November.
"Coaches had another tough one selecting the Athlete of the Meet. Impressive runners included Evan Amato, Colton Harbold and Gavin Denielewicz, who all had good races and were deserving! In the end, they selected Evan Amato and focused on the "aggressive way he ran the last half of the race, pulling away from the field and pushing to the finish for a 35 second course PR!"
Further details at: NJ.MIleSplit.
NJ.MileSplit wrote a short article on the race: Kellert.
Our photographer was there and his pictures at available on our Google site. For grins, here are a few:
The team looked forward to racing the Ray Hoagland Invitational at RV's flat field outside of Mt Holly but strange things happened! They received notice from Coach Shaklee that the meet was canceled or postponed because of fierce rain but, apparently, no one told Coach Thompson! He, in turn, failed to notify Dennis, our loyal photographer!
For the record, Cross Country meets are not canceled or postponed because of rain! It just doesn't happen! Yeah, when there's lightening, it may be but not for a simple rainstorm!
Professionals, and never having a meet canceled or postponed simply because of rain, Coach Thompson and Dennis were the only ones to show up, and I think this is a picture of Coach Thompson taken by Dennis at the site on this bleak and rainy Saturday morning. Still a great day for Cross Country! Ask Thompson!
Most photographers hate "Team Picture Day!" (I won't mention weddings here.) We had a decent day. The team was perfectly dressed, lined-up like a platoon of soldiers (thank you, Major Thompson), and, as sensible XC guys, cooperative as can be! So what's wrong?
Well, they're teenagers and they figit and they blink! So, photographers take a dozen of each and hope to find one where the odd things don't overpower the picture.
Odd things? Happy guys, unhappy guys; then there's sleepy, blinky, the dreamer, the searcher . . ..
And then Team Captains Sean Sooy, Leo Vyvyan, Ben Realley and Gavin Danielewicz
And Seniors!
Usually, Dennis selects one of many picture choices for the annual team picture but this time he played around with his two regular programs (PhotoShop and inPixio), AND some AI stuff, to get the best pictures. AI is a hoot: Dennis had you standing in rain, snow, leaf shadows, etc but, generally, it costs extra money so he stayed with the regular boring stuff. You're still beautiful! Take a look at our Google site for a bunch of similar choices.