Surely not all of the questions he has about his team have been answered
after only one meet. But after last weekend's Cherokee Challenge, Cherokee boys'
cross country coach Steve Shaklee does have some things to build on.
Prior to the season beginning, Shaklee was uncertain about the makeup of
his team as he would have to deal with losing six out his top eight runners from
2004. Would dependable four and five runners step up? Would the Chiefs have
their usual tight pack? These were some of the questions that had to be
answered.
Last Saturday, Shaklee got a glimpse of what his guys can do. In the
senior race, Greg Bredeck finished the 3,200-meter course in 10:12 for fourth
place. He was followed in that race by Vinny Marziano (ninth, 10:27), Will Andes
(14th, 10:32) and Rich Nelson (15th, 10:33). And in the sophomore race, Alex
Yersak, who is the younger brother of 2004 Courier-Post Runner of the Year Tom
Yersak, ran 10:22 to win by 15 seconds.
"It's still too early to tell how we'll be," Shaklee said. "It was the
first race and it was only two miles. But it feels good that we ran well.
"I thought Will and Rich ran well. They kept the gap from one to five
(which was 22 seconds) smaller than I expected. If we can get a gap for a 5K
that's about twice that, we will be in good shape."
So now that Cherokee, No. 3 in the Courier-Post Top 20, has its top five
guys pretty much set, the main thing now is to fend off injuries which got in
the way of last year's team running to their true potential.
Marziano is already a little banged up with a calf strain. So to prevent
it from getting worse, Shaklee will hold him out of this week's South Jersey
Cross Country Shootout. He should be back next Saturday for Shore Coaches.
Although he sees his team starting to shake out, Shaklee knows there is work for his team to do.
"I still think we have to prove over a 5K that we can run with Triton and
Washington Township," he said.
And once Marziano is back in the lineup, and the Chiefs bring a healthy
seven to the line, the team will be able to do that.
"As a team, if we work hard and stay healthy, we can show a lot of people
that although we lost a lot, we're not that weak," Yersak said. "I still think
we can compete with any team in South Jersey."