This page marks the Late Spring Season highlighting the Frosh-Novice Meet at Bishop Eustace Prep (April 18th); the Woodbury Relays at Woodbury High School (April 19th); the dual meet with Cherry Hill HS East (April 22nd); the Penn Relays (April 25th and 26th); and the final dual meet with Pennsauken (April 28th). GO CHEROKEE!
Bishop Eustace Frosh-Novice Meet
On April 18th, 2008, the younger and less-experienced runners on the team bussed to Pennsauken for Bishop Eustace Prep's Frosh-Novice Meet, an opportunity to compete without top Varsity competition. Impressive performances came in the Open 200m where Cherokee's runners had a slew of PR times and JoJo White dropped a full 2 seconds off his best time! In the 1600m, Ryan Lutz and Kyle Miller finished 1st and 2nd, and Adam Henriksen dropped 16 seconds from his season best! And, finally, in the 4 X 400m relay, the team of Tim Brill, Scott Woodmansee, Will Piedra and Josh Ungerleider finished 2nd, with Piedra running his first sub-55 second PR; and the Frosh 4 x 400 Relay team of Ryan Merrigan, Jason Brockman, Sagatom Saha and Eric Birkhead ran a strong race to finish 5th!
Woodbury Relays
On April 19th, 2008, after missing this meet for a few years, the "Chiefs" returned to Woodbury High School's new stadium -- with its 8-lane, slightly rectangular track -- to compete in the 36th Annual Woodbury Relays. Though not winning any of the races, Cherokee placed in 6 of 7 events and finished 3rd in the Group IV Division!
While doing so, the sprint squad of Kevin Merrigan, Niraj Patel, Will Rapp, and Chris Steliga broke two school records, the 4 X 200m Relay (1:30.2) and the 4 X 100m Relay (43.0)! And the distance squad of Kevin Schickling, Mike Palmieri, Chris Applegate and Alex Yersak took 2nd in the Distance Medley Relay; and then Schickling, Applegate, and Yersak returned, and joined by Steve Burkholder, took 2nd again in the 4 X 800m Relay!
In the Invitational Field Events, Long Jumper Chris Steliga took 3rd in his event, while Triple Jumper Major Mobley took 8th in his. Both athletes later joined in a photo session with Olympic great Carl Lewis after Lewis was told that they had broken his 30-year-old Triple Jump Relay record at the Burlington County Hall of Fame Meet!
Dual Meet: Cherry Hill High School East
On April 22nd, 2008, Cherokee traveled the short distance to Cherry Hill High School East and came home victors! Highlights include the triple wins by Chris Steliga in the Long Jump, Triple Jump, and the 400m Dash; and a double win (for the 4th straight dual meet) by Kevin Merrigan in the 100m and 200m Dashes! In the field, Chris Velarides had a nice PR win in the Discus; while, in the distance events, Steve Burkholder had a strong finish to win the 1600m, and Kevin Schickling fought off an impressive challenge from an East runner to win the 800m! Final Score: 83 - 57!
Dual Meet Record for 2008: 4 - 0! GO CHEROKEE!
Penn Relays
The Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia are special, and everyone involved in Track and Field wants to tell their friends that they ran, and ran well, there! This year, the 114th, was as big as ever, with more than 20,000 entries and 425 races over the three days of competition, and Cherokee was eager to be a part of it!
Therefore, on April 25th and 26th, 2008, Cherokee entered two teams who dreamed of returning home with the laurels of victory! On Friday, Kevin Merrigan, Niraj Patel, Chris Steliga and Will Rapp competed in the 4 X 100m, hoping to at least set another school record in the event! Although they failed in that, they won their heat by a huge margin and ran the 3rd fastest time of all South Jersey teams at the Penn Relays!
On Saturday, Steliga, Merrigan and Rapp returned and, this time, teamed with AJ Valentine in the 4 X 400m. They, too, failed to set another record, but they established a season-best time of 3:26.02!
The meet also includes a number of "Invitational" field events where a small group of the best athletes "from all over" compete against each other. In the Long Jump, for example, 20 jumpers were selected and Chris Steliga was among that elite group! In the Trials, he qualified 5th overall with a season-best jump of 22' 8" but he was unable to improve on that performance in the Finals, finishing in a highly-respectable 8th overall!
The 4 X 100m from the Cherokee Skybox!
The 4 X 400m from ground level!
The Invitational Long Jump from both!
Highland Frosh-Soph Meet
On April 26, 2008, while the Penn Relays were going on in Philadelphia, many of the younger members of the team traveled to Highland High School for their Frosh-Soph Meet. No photographs are available but several significant performances deserve recognition. Drake Rodgers had two PR's in the meet: a 5' 8" performance in the High Jump, and 17.8 in the High Hurdles! Ed Kramer cleared 5' 10'' in the high jump, while Kyle Miller PR'd in the 1600m by what Coach Shaklee called "an inch!" Also, Ryan Bobb PR'd in the 3200m! Next year, look for these guys in "the bigs" . . . the Penn Relays!