As in years past, during "Winter" or "Indoor" Track, Cherokee focuses on preparing for the Spring season. Coaches concentrate on base and strength training for the distance athletes, and skills and conditioning for the sprinters, jumpers and throwers. Even so, the team participates in a number of meets -- some of which are not reported here -- for both experience and a change of pace.
Olympic Conference Relay Meet
On December 18, 2009, Cherokee opened the indoor season by traveling to the Bennett Center in Toms River, NJ for the first in a series of Olympic Conference Meets, this one the Olympic Conference Relay Meet. Highlights included the lead-off performance of Darren McCluskey in the 55m Shuttle Hurdles (split 7.7) to help the team take 3rd place in the conference competition! Colin Merrigan also had a nice split in the 800m segment of the Sprint Medley Relay, bringing the team home in 6th overall. And Ed Kramer cleared 6' 4" to win the High Jump competition by 4"! Complete results at: MileSplit.NJ.
SJ Coaches Meet
On December 29, 2009, Cherokee returned to the Bennett Center for the SJ Coaches Meet. While there were several excellent performances, the highlight of the meet was the indoor-school-record-breaking High Jump of 6' 6" by Ed Kramer! Ed won the competition by 6", and is now ranked second in the state this year! Darren McCluskey also impressed by winning the 55m High Hurdles in 7.89, the only hurdler to crack the 8 second barrier! Also, the Distance Medley of Steve Burkholder, Mike Palmieri, Matt McCarroll and Kyle Smith took 2nd in the event, with Burk running a fast 1200m lead-off leg. Jon Scott took 4th in the 55m Dash, and Ryan Bobb placed 5th in the 3200m Run. Finally, John Barr, Jon Scott, Darren McCluskey and Colin Merrigan won the unseeded heat of the 4 X 400m Relay after a torrid battle with Pennsauken, and took 4th overall in the event! Complete results at: MileSplit.NJ.
Track Universe High School Invitational
On January 2, 2010, Cherokee traveled to the Armory in New York City for the grandly-named Track Universe High School Invitational. The highlight here was the 1600m performance by Steve Burkholder! Burk led the race from start to finish, closing in 29.5 over the last 200m to clock a 4:25.1 in the race! Darren McCluskey won the 55m High Hurdles, setting a hand-time PR of 7.6! Jon Scott ran several PR's in the 55m and 200m Dashes. And Ed Kramer won the High Jump, this time clearing 6' 4"! Ryan Bobb and Ty Somers both PR'd in the 1600m, and Josh Perez PR'd in the 800m! Results through the top six finishers at: MileSplit.NJ.
SJTCA Relay Championships
On January 7, 2010, Cherokee returned to the Bennett Center in Toms River for the SJTCA Relay Championships. Highlights included a 2nd place performance by the the Sprint Medley team of Mike Palmieri, Jon Scott, Brandon Rapp, and Steve Burkholder, with a time that qualifies them for the Indoor Nationals in Boston! And Ed Kramer continued his winning ways, taking 1st in the individual competition, and, taking 3rd overall in relay competition with Darren McCluskey. The 4 X 55m Shuttle Hurdles team of Mike Palmieri, Andrew Wentzel, Ed Kramer, and Darren McCluskey took 5th; and the 4 X 400m team of Mike Palmieri, Steve Burkholder, Jon Scott and Cody McDonald took 5th in that competition as well. Official results at: MileSplit.NJ.
SJTCA's South Jersey Championships
On January 12, 2010, Cherokee again bussed to the Bennett Center in Toms River for another of those grandly-named but not so grand, SJTCA's South Jersey Championships. Coach Callinan certainly didn't treat it as a championship meet, leaving many members of the team at home and allowing those who came to enter events that were unusual for them. Of those, several were encouraging. Mike Palmieri did well in the 400m Dash, winning his heat and taking 5th overall; and the 4 X 400m Relay team of Colin Merrigan, John Barr, Darren McCluskey, and Alex Walker, though finishing "out of the money," did well too. Beyond that, neither McCluskey nor Palmieri killed themselves in the High Jump, and Barry Fitzgerald lived through a spectacular wreck in the High Hurdles, so all is good . . .! Further details at: MileSplit.NJ.
A few pictures from the early part of the meet. Not everyone who was at the meet is here but it's a long season . . .. Still, you might take a lesson from Senior Mike Palmieri who volunteers for everything to get his picture taken! He's throwing the javelin next week . . . yeah, indoors!
NJSIAA Relay Championships
On January 17, 2010, for a change of pace, Cherokee traveled to the Bennett Center in Toms River, New Jersey! This time it was for the NJSIAA Relay Championships, where they competed against other Group IV schools from around the state. The highlight of the meet was clearly the Sprint Medley Relay where Mike Palmieri, Brandon Rapp, Jon Scott, and Steve Burkholder combined to win their heat and take 3rd overall! And for those of you interested in the "odd but insignificant records" category, Cherokee had one going until the last event of the evening: Cherokee won each of the heats it ran in -- the DMR, Shuttle Hurdles, 2 X 200m, and SMR -- until the 4 X 400m Relay when the streak ended. The lesson here is obvious! Complete results at: MileSplit.NJ.
Olympic Conference Championships and Lavino Relays
On January 23, 2010, despite Clausewitz' dictum that leaders should never split their forces under stressful conditions -- ask Custer about this -- the coaches divided the team into two groups, one going to the Olympic Conference Championships at the Bennett Center in Toms River, New Jersey, while the other traveled to the Lavino Relays at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ. They did so to give more athletes the opportunity to perform under meet conditions.
At the Conference Championships, Cherokee won three major events! Ed Kramer cleared 6' 4" and won the High Jump; Darren McCluskey finished in 7.92 -- again, the only one to break 8 seconds! -- and won the 55m High Hurdles; and Steve Burkholder ran an even-paced 2:00.35 largely by himself and set a new Olympic Conference record in the event! In addition, Colin Merrigan and Mike Lowinger both showed nice improvement in the 800m Run, running 2:06.73 and 2:12.23 respectively. Ed Kramer had a nice PR of 9.19 in the 55m High hurdles; and Kyle Smith had a respectable time in the 3200m Run, finishing 6th in 10:14.29. Quote of the meet: Josh Perez to the photographer: "Make sure you get my good side!" Observation of the meet: With Mike Palmieri at Lavino, Darren McCluskey took over Mike's record for being in the most number of events and, thus, pictures! GO DARREN! For more Conference details, see: MileSplit.NJ.
At the Lavino Relays, Cherokee athletes were all over the place and several stood out. Mike Palmieri and Andrew Wenzel both split 8.47 in the 4 X 55m Shuttle Hurdles Relay, and Barry Fitzgerald's 9.05 was a PR for him! The 4 X 200m Relay team finished in 1:37.0 with Brandon Rapp running a nice 24.2 split. And in the 4 X 400m Relay, the team of Jon Scott, Mike Palmieri, Brandon Rapp and John Barr finshed in 6th place in 3:34.9. Among the distance performers, Matt Venanzi PR'd in the 1200m leg of the Distance Medley Relay, and all four legs of the B-team DMR -- Matt Decker, Danny Mintzer, John Procopio and Freddy Rasmussen -- PR'd in the event! In particular, Danny Mintzer dropped 20 seconds off his previous time run at the NYC Armory on January 2nd! Further details at: MileSplit.NJ.
These pictures are from the Conference Championships . . . sorry, you guys at Lavino!
