"Enquiring Minds Want To Know!"
. . . And back to the meet!
For the most part, this has been the warmest winter on record and training, both indoors and outdoors, has progressed well! That said, the worst blizzard on record looms and disruptions -- lost class and training days, postponed or cancelled meets, etc. -- seem inevitable. Even with that, the "indoor season" will continue to focus on base and strength training for the distance athletes, and skills and conditioning for the sprinters, jumpers and throwers . . . and to provide a number of meets to add a challenge and to check on how things are going. GO CHIEFS!
On January 19, 2016, Cherokee hosted the 7th Annual South Jersey Cherokee Throwdown # 1 in the school's gymnasium. About 190 throwers competed in three divisions -- Freshmen, JV and Varsity -- and Cherokee team highlights include John Hemple's 3rd in the Varsity Division and Lucciano Pizarro's 1st place in the Freshman Division!
In addition, Matt Gross, Dante Casella, and Dagan Massmino PR'd in the JV Division, while Collin Mahoney set his own PR in the Freshman Division!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit
Our photographer was at the Bennett Center this week but he'll be present on January 28th for Throwdown # 2 and for the long anticipated Mano a Mano throwing contest between Coach Kramer and Junior Sprinter Matt Powell!
Blood Will Be Spilled!
Well . . . OK . . . we made that up. Blood will be spilled only if one of the contestants drops a Shot on his foot -- not outside the realm of possibility -- but we're playing it up! Be there or be square! . . . Anyone know some cheerleaders? Anyone play the drums?! . . . trumpet?! . . . violin?!
On January 21, 2016, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association sponsored another meet at the Bennett Center -- SJTCA Meet # 8 -- and Cherokee brought along several of their top performers to establish seed times for the upcoming Sectional Championships!
Among the Distance runners, for example, in the 3200m, Nick Falk led almost the entire race and won the event with a new Indoor PR, and Jack Shea, in his first race of the season after returning from injury, set an Indoor 3200m PR of his own to place 4th! In addition, Mike Zurzolo set an Indoor 800m PR to finish 7th; and Matt Powell also ran his fastest Indoor 800m!
Among the Sprinters, Daulton Hopkins ran his fastest FAT PR in the 55m Dash; while Becker Elbanna set his own PR in the Open 55 High Hurdles (the Open has five hurdles instead of the four found in the 55m Shuttle Hurdles). In the 400m Dash, Kevin Milligan ran one of his best times of the season, while some weird stuff happened to our other 400m Dash runners: Terrance Graves was slowed by an untied shoelace in the second lap (really?!) and Dave Osterhout was credited with a very quick time by the official timers but every staff member with a watch clocked him at least three seconds slower (really?!). Weird stuff, indeed!
Terrance was assigned detention for cutting Coach Lynn's class "Shoe-Tying 101: the Importance of the Double Knot," and Dave will have an opportunity to prove the coaches have really slow watch fingers at the next meet!
In the Field, Mark Kirby tied his PR with an unusually lucky vault at 11' when he bounced the bar off the standard but it landed back on the upright and stayed! He took 3rd in the event!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Probably the most unusual thing to happen at a meet was the discovery of a pole vaulter from Seneca High School who appears to be the female version of Cherokee's sprinter, Matt Powell . . . twins separated at birth?! Members of the team turned this puzzle over to the National Enquirer and The Maury Povich Show for serious analysis and the results of DNA tests should be available soon! If they're not related, Matt is expected to ask the young lady for a date!
"Enquiring Minds Want To Know!"
. . . And back to the meet!
On January 28, 2016, newspapers were filled with reports of an earthquake -- "Tremors in the US Northeast thought to be an Earthquake" . . . "US Geological Survey reports earthquake in Marlton Region" . . . "Bizarre, sudden tremors shake up US Northeast" . . . but those who were in the Cherokee South gym know the cause of the disturbance: the much-anticipated clash between two sports titans, Junior Sprinter Matt Powell and Coach Ed Kramer!
Titans, you say? Well yes, in ancient myths, the Titans were a race of extremely powerful and physically huge deities who ruled the world and when you see the pictures you will tremble at the possibility that they returned to conquer the world! Fortunately, it was a clash between only these two and only one survived the battle!
Who, you ask? The answer is plain: ALL HAIL, COACH KRAMER, THE CONQUERER! WE BOW BEFORE YOUR MIGHTINESS!
On January 28, 2016, Cherokee hosted the South Jersey Cherokee Throwdown # 2 in the school's gymnasium. About 200 throwers competed in three divisions -- Freshmen, JV and Varsity -- and Cherokee team highlights include another John Hemple 3rd in the Varsity Division and Lucciano Pizarro's 3rd place in the Freshman Division!
In addition, Avi Patel and Kieran Kelly PR'd by over a foot in the JV Division, with Kelly using the spin technique for the first time; and Matt Tilden followed with his own PR!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On February 1, 2016, Cherokee traveled once again to their second home during the Winter Season, the Bennett Center, for the Toms River Frosh/Novice Meet and, while the whole team made impressive improvements, the highlight of the meet was the Freshmen Sprinters!
This meet was a great opportunity for Cherokee's Freshmen and Novice runners to check how they rank among others at their level and "The Four Horsemen," as Coach Kramer called them when he took the picture, made a nice impression! Will Delendik, Tramil Cabbagestalk, Adam Parker and Mike Coon went 3-4-5-6 in the 55m Dash, and then 1-3-4-6 in the 200m Dash (with Cabbagestalk and Parker switching places)! The four combined to take ten medals at the meet!
Other Sprinters did well too! Among the JV Division runners, Ant Natale set his own PR in the Hurdles; Dan Weiss set a nice time in the JV Division 55m Dash and, in the 200m Dash, both Danny and Sebastian Graterol ran well! In the 400m Dash, JV runner, Anton Specht and Freshman Amir Epps looked good in the 400m Dash! The Epps story deserves further mention because his name will not be found in the results but his picture will be found in our report! Apparently, Epps was DQ'd for cutting in too soon but he raced like a veteran as he closed fast and won his heat convincingly!
In the Field, Adam Parker took 3rd in the High Jump; Colton Schneeweis jumped well in the Pole Vault while Lucas Marnin PR'd by a foot in the same event!
Lots of good things happened among the Distance squad! Kevin Bookwalter ran well in his first 3200m to go under 11 minutes! Matt Morgan, also running his first 3200m, finished under 11:30! In the 1600m, Brendan Falzone raced competitively to take 3rd and improve his time from earlier this winter by 10 seconds; and Cam Wilburn, Matt Smith and Brian Cackowski all set season bests! In the 800m, Joey Thompson ran aggressively to set a new PR, with Mike Moraschi, Chris Monteleone, Matt Zeitz, Mike Algarra, Nik Kadirisani and Ben Rosenberg all following with their own PR's!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On February 2, 2016, members of the team's Varsity squad traveled to the South Jersey Track Coaches Association Meet # 11 for both practice and to establish seed times for the upcoming NJ State Sectional Championships. Before making that report, however, the team wants to thank Daulton Hopkins' Uncle Sugar, the starter at the meet, for allowing Daulton to continue in the 55m Dash even though he performed a major dance at the start of the race and should have been DQ'd: "Thanks, Uncle Sugar!"
In addition to Daulton, who did well in the 55m Dash despite a wobbly start, Rob Curley clocked a nice PR in the same event; and Terrance Graves, despite suffering a fall earlier in the 400m Dash, managed to get within .01 of a second of his PR!
In the 55m High Hurdles, both Dave Osterhout and Becker Elbanna set new PR's; while in the 400m Dash, both Kevin Milligan-Tinker and Terrance Graves did well, especially considering that Graves fell on the first turn of the event!
In the Field, both Sam Kramer and Rico Petterson tied their PR's in the High Jump!
Among the Distance runners, Brandon Marks probably had the best night as he came within a second of his outdoor PR in the 1600m and improved his time by 7 seconds over the time clocked at the Armory in December! Mike Zurzolo didn't set any records but he ran tough and took 6th in the same race; and Steve Gravlin set a season-best in the 800m Run!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On February 9, 2016, the team's throwers welcomed hundreds of Shot Putters to the South Jersey Cherokee Throwdown # 3, the last of the local indoor Shot Put events.
Being polite young men (?), they allowed their visitors to dominate the meet. But there were a few noteable throwers! Avi Patel threw a nice 2 foot PR; Kieran Kelly also threw a PR; and Billy Weissman threw a season PR!
Further details at: NJ. MileSplit.
On February 13, 2016, most of Cherokee's top performers returned to the Bennett Center for the South Jersey Indoor Group IV Sectional Championships, where they had mixed results.
Among the Sprinters/Hurdlers, Matt Powell set an Indoor PR in the 400m Dash; Dave Osterhout and Becker Elbanna also ran their best times of the season in the 55m High Hurdles; and Rob Curley PR'd and broke seven seconds for the first time in the 55m Dash! The 4 X 400m Relay team of Kevin Milligan-Tinker, Terrance Graves, Rico Petterson and Matt Powell ran well and won the unseeded heat where they were placed but six teams in the seeded heat beat their time and they finished 7th with a respectable season PR. Unfortunately, none of the Sprinters/Hurdlers advanced to the Group Championships.
Sam Kramer stayed consistent at 5' 8" in the High Jump but Cherokee's top Field performers, Shot Putter John Hemple and Vaulter Mark Kirby finished far out of the running! Here, again, no one advanced.
The Distance Squad had their "ups and downs" as well. Brendan Falzone and Cam Wilburn both ran PR's in the 800m, with Brendan dropping below 2:10 for the first time! The best news for the Distance team, however, came from Justin Kelly in the 3200mm! He dropped his PR by 12 seconds, placed 5th and advanced -- YES, ADVANCED! -- to the upcoming State Group IV Championships! Justin's time jumped him up 15 spots on the all-time Cherokee performance list (from 35th to 20th)! Behind him, Nick Falk, doubling back from a tough 1600 race, finished 7th and added another sub-10 clocking to his total. With his junior spring season and winter and spring of senior year still remaining, Nick is already at the 6th highest total in school history with 10 (behind Krieger, Pelerin, Halin, Tom Yersak and Ben Werbos). Krieger is the all-time leader with 25 sub-10's. And not to be missed, in the same race, Sophomore Brandon Marks, knocked 8 seconds off of his previous best time to finish in 10th place!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Once again, TMZ went beyond its "Thirty Mile Zone" to report on doings in South Jersey . . . and "doings" there were!
Reporters were intrigued when they saw the normally alert and focused Rob Curley looking fuzzy and uncertain at the State Sectional Championships in Toms River:
They reached far and wide for an explanation and discovered that Curley was feeling the aftereffects of an exciting victory in the recent past . . . when one experiences the glories of heaven it can be awfully disconcerting to return to the mundane world!
Here's the story! A few days ago, Cherokee High School presented its annual Mr. Cherokee contest and, despite aggressive competition from fellow team members, Dave Osterhout and Daulton Hopkins, and others from the school, Curley rocked the house with an artfully staged presentation of a Beyonce original!
Inexplicably, the story is being kept under wraps by school officials -- no report on their official website -- but TMZ has learned that Osterhout wowed the audience with a classical guitar recital that rivaled Andres Segovia, while Hopkins responded with a less sophisticated but just as challenging piano presentation of "The Three Blind Mice!" Others challenged Curley as well but they were no match for his ingenious act!
Rob Curley was named "Mr. Cherokee" for 2016, though Daulton Hopkins won recognition as "Faculty Favorite!"
Little more is known but the following pictures, including a blurry one showing Curley's masterful "Tribute to Beyonce," with its hint of Les Miserables, were sent to TMZ!
On February 20, 2016, Cherokee showed-up at the NJSIAA Indoor Group IV Championships with its only qualifier, Sophomore Justin Kelly and he made quite an impression! Justin raced in the seeded heat of the 3200m Run and placed 11th with a 2 second PR! His time of 9:41.02 placed him 17th on the all-time Cherokee list! In addition, he is the 5th fastest Sophomore in school history -- behind Nick Falk, Marc Pelerin, Jack Shea, and Keith Krieger -- and his time is the fastest indoor time ever by a Cherokee Sophomore! GO JUSTIN!
That said, on February 21, 2016, NJSIAA invited Justin to the upcoming Indoor Meet of Champions as the 6th and last qualifying "Wild Card" in the 3200m Run! Yikes! . . . GO JUSTIN!
Meet details at: NJ.MileSplit.
On February 27, 2016, Cherokee's lone qualifier, Sophomore Justin Kelly, and a large "support-team" of parents and athletes returned to the Bennett Center for the ultimate challenge of the state indoor season, the New Jersey State Meet of Champions! Racing the 3200m, Justin ran tough but didn't get what he wanted!
Regardless, Justin had an outstanding winter season! Three weeks ago, his 3200 PR was 9:55. Over the last three weeks, he ran 9:43 at Sectionals, 9:41 at Groups, and 9:42 at the Meet of Champions! He went into the race as the 31st seed and finished 23rd! That's a nice job and it suggests his readiness for a great spring season! GO JUSTIN!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Final Jeopardy . . . Category: Smart Runners . . . the answer is, "the smartest runner at the Meet of Champions."
Justin: "Who is the guy in the longest race who brings his own private photographer?!"
