The Early Spring Season, through April, 2012, starts in earnest with the Burlington County Hall of Fame Relays at Maple Shade H.S. (April 7th) and moves through the Pennsauken Dual Meet (Away, April 10th); a quick stop at Holmdel H.S. to run the Distance Medley (April 11th); the Moorestown Relays at Moorestown H.S. (April 14th); the Lenape Dual Meet (Home, April 18th); the Bishop Eustace Crusader Frosh-Novice Meet (April 20th); the Woodbury Relays at Woodbury H.S. (April 21st); and the Cherry Hill East Dual Meet (Home, April 24th). GO CHEROKEE! GO CHEROKEE!
Burlington County "Hall of Fame" Relays
On April 7, 2011, most the team took a short ride over to Maple Shade High School for their first real competition of the season: the Burlington County "Hall of Fame" Relays! Cool, sometimes windy conditions, did not encourage record- breaking times but several Freshmen on the Distance Squad deserve recognition! Rob Harper ran well as he started the JV Distance Medley Relay, handing off in 2nd place; Joe Lacey, PR'd in the 1600m on the anchor of that Distance Medley despite the strong winds; and James Transue tied his PR on the 800 leg!
Among the Sprinters, two Junior Varsity 4 X 100 teams placed 2nd and 3rd! On Team A: Scott Snieckus, Matt Jackson, Kyle Schmidt and Ronnie Oxendine; and on Team B: Marc Woodard, Eli Connor, Matt Rhodes, and Chaz Lee. The Varsity 4 X 100 team of Duane Johnson, Joey Havers, Brandon Rapp,and Shawn Tracey placed 3rd with a nice "early in the season" time! The Varsity 4 X 200, featuring the same guys who ran the 4 X 100m Relay, ran a very quick time and took 1st in their Division! Finally, the Varsity 4 X 400m Relay team of Colin Merrigan, Ross Staudt, Shawn Wilson and Drew Viscidy, who anchored in sub-49, ended the meet on a strong note when they ran an outdoor PR and took 2nd behind a very strong Timber Creek!
The official results at at MileSplit/ NJRunners and here are some pictures -- more than usual to introduce some new guys -- from the meet!
Dual Meet: Pennsauken High School
On April 10, 2011, during Spring Break, the team traveled to windswept Pennsauken High School for the first dual meet of the season. The schedule was already tight, with several of the team's top performers committed to run the following day and the entire team committed to run on the upcoming Saturday, so the coaches decided to focus on the newer members of the team at Pennsauken. Despite their efforts, the team lost to Pennsauken.
Highlights include Brandon "Bubba" McCleese's return to action and his victories in the Javelin and the Discus! His Throws teammate, Evan Rosenberg, took 2nd in the Javelin! On the track, Mike Gallo picked up valuable points in the 110HH, taking 2nd with a seasonal PR! Mike also ran a very solid 400IH despite the wind!
Dual Meet Record: 0 - 1. GO CHEROKEE!
Twilight Series at Holmdel
On April 11, 2011, Cherokee sent their top middle-distance runners to the Twilight Series at Holmdel, a "last chance" opportunity to qualify for the upcoming Penn Relays! Last month, the team of Colin Merrigan, Ross Staudt, Drew Viscidy and Shawn Wilson qualified for the 4 X 800m Relay at Penn but the coaches wanted a "backup" qualifier in the Distance Medley as well! Unfortunately, the situation was less-than-ideal because few teams showed-up and Cherokee found itself far out in front after the second lap in the race! Collin Merrigan, perhaps aided by "rabbits" from CBA in the first 600m, made a strong showing in the 1200m leg but, all alone after that, he, Drew Viscidy in the 400m, Ross Staudt in the 800m, and Shawn Wilson in the 1600m, had no one to compete against except themselves . . . an almost impossible situation for record-breaking!
Results at: MileSplit/NJRunners. There's a video of the race at: Track Show. The pictures were provided by Pat Montferrat of NJRunners.
Moorestown Invitational
On April 14, 2011, the team took the short trip over to the 6th Annual Moorestown Invitational, a relatively quick, all-boys relay meet. The coaches rested the team's top middle-distance runners -- Merrigan, Viscidy, Staudt and Wilson -- and turned their duties over to several highly-qualified upperclassmen and some of the newer members of the team! Among the Distance squad, the highlight of the day was the 4 X 800m Relay where all four runners -- three Freshmen and a Junior -- PR'd! Rob Harper started it off with a great 9-second PR; Justin DeTone, Jake Callan and Freddy Rasmussen followed with their own PR's! Another high point in the day was Aiden Lynch's performance in the 1500m: Aiden ran the equivalent of a 4:43 1600m -- a PR -- with his time of 4:24.5!
The major highlight of the day, however, came from Evan Rosenberg when they combined to break the school record in the Javelin by four feet! Among the Sprinters, the Super Sprint Medley Relay (100-100-200-400) of Duane Johnson, Shawn Tracey, Brandon Rapp and Drew Viscidy, despite having some handoff difficulties, ran a National Qualifier in that event! (The Outdoor Nationals are in Greensboro in June.)
Meet results at: MileSplit/NJRunners.
Dual Meet: Cherokee V. Lenape
On April 18, 2011, the team -- with no one on vacation or being held out -- traveled to our sister-school, Lenape High School for a dual meet and scored impressive points in all areas of competition! In the jumping events, Matt Rhodes and Aakash Patel took 1st and 3rd in the Long Jump; and then, in the Triple Jump, Chaz Lee stepped-up to help the Chiefs take 1st and 2nd! Also, in the Pole Vault, Eric Mudge took 1st!
On the Track, Cherokee won the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m, 3200m, and the 4 X 400m Relay! Yikes! In the 100m Dash, Duane Johnson took 1st; and then, in the 200m Dash, Duane doubled for the 1st, followed by Shawn Tracey and Drew Viscidy to sweep the event! In the 400m Dash, Brandon Rapp took 1st, closely followed by Viscidy! Shawn Wilson doubled in the 1600m Run and 3200m Run, winning both, with Mike Lowinger taking 2nd in the 1600m! In the 3200m Run, Matt Venanzi and Aiden Lynch provided the sweep when they took 2nd and 3rd! In the 800m Run, Colin Merrigan held off a late push by Lenape's Ryan Vance to win, and Ross Staudt took 3rd only .7 behind Merrigan! To close out the meet, the 4 X 400m Relay team of Colin Merrigan, Ross Staudt, Brendan Rapp and Drew Viscidy clocked a big PR and won the event!
Finally, among the Throwers, Brandon "Bubba" McCleese won all three events: the Shot, Javelin, and Discus! Evan Rosenberg took 2nd in the Javelin, and Zack Madden and Mike Conway joined Brandon to sweep the Shot!
Here are some exclusive pictures of Cherokee's throwers who scored important points at the meet!
Cherokee won the meet: 96 - 44! Dual Meet Record: 1 - 1. GO CHEROKEE!
Crusader Frosh-Novice Meet
On April 20, 2012, many of the team's Freshman and less-experienced members traveled to the Crusade Frosh-Novice Meet at Bishop Eustace Prep where lots of good things happened! Kaleb Burch had a nice day, winning the only "open" distance race of the day, the Novice 1600m! He set a new PR, and also PR'd on his 400m leg in the 4 X 400m Relay! Dan Mintzer finished 7th in the Novice 1600m with his own PR!
In the remaining relay events, Jake Callan, Justin DeTone, James Transue and Rob Harper won the Frosh 4 X 800m, while Zach Piatrowski, Freddy Rassmussen, Dan Forcier and Noah Gil placed 4th in the Novice 4 x 800m. In the 4 X 100m, Marc Woodard, Eli Conner, Kyle Schmidt and Scott Snieckus finished 3rd; Rob Harper, Marc Woodard, Jake Callan and James Transue placed 2nd in the 4 X 400m, with all of them running PR splits. And, finally, Eli Conner, Zach Piatrowski, Kaleb Burch and Mike Hare finished 2nd in the Novice 4 X 400m, with Hare running a huge PR on the anchor!
Results at: MileSplit/NJRunners.
40th Annual Woodbury Relays
On April 21, 2012, the top members of the team traveled to the 40th Annual Woodbury Relays and came home with the Division IV Championship!
The Sprint Medley Relay team of Ross Staudt, Colin Merrigan, Brandon Rapp and Drew Viscidy was Cherokee's lone winning relay but, combined with 4 runner-up finishes and one 5th place finish, it was enough to secure the team championship with 44 points! Matt Venanzi, John Barr, Brandon Ilagan and Mike Lowinger started things off, taking 2nd in the Distance Medley Relay, with Barr running his fastest 400 split ever. Barr came back, along with Duane Johnson, Shawn Tracey and Brandon Rapp, in the 4 X 200m Relay to run another excellent leg to help his team finish 2nd! Later, Venanzi, Ilagan an Lowinger were joined by Shawn Wilson to finish 2nd in the 4 X 800m Relay, with Venanzi running his best 800 of the year! Wilson also ran on the 2nd place 4 X 400m Relay team along with Colin Merrigan, Ross Staudt and Drew Viscidy. Finally, Brandon McCleese took 7th place in a very deep field in the Javelin.
Results at: MileSplit/NJRunners.
Dual Meet: Cherokee V. Cherry Hill H.S. East
On April 24, 2011, the team hosted a dual meet against Cherry Hill High School East and, perhaps looking forward to the up-coming Penn Relays, lost to East by ONE POINT! Yikes!
It was windy and cold -- which was a change from the 80 degree temperatures of last week - but Brandon Rapp won the 400m and, with Ross Staudt, Colin Merrigan and Drew Viscidy, won the 4 X 400m Relay; Colin Merrigan also won the 800m; Mike Lowinger took the 1600m; and Aiden Lynch won the 3200m! In addition, Brandon "Bubba" McCleese won both the Discus and the Javelin; and Eric Mudge won the Pole Vault! Still, Cherokee lost the meet: 70-1/2, Cherokee 69-1/2! Ouch!
Dual Meet Record: 1 - 2. GO CHEROKEE!