The weather in South Jersey is slowly warming-up after what seemed to be a late winter and training and competition are warming-up too! Although the season started with two "uncomfortable" meets -- both the Danser Memorial Meet and the Bridgeton Relays were cold and windy -- the "real" Spring is in sight and the team is looking forward to the up-coming meets!
"Hey, where are the weight guys?"
"Narnia."
"Thanks, Naledge."
On April 18, 2017, Cherokee traveled to Eastern High School for a wind-swept second dual meet of the season. Throughout the meet, the lead changed from Eastern to Cherokee and back but, in the end, Cherokee came home the victor!
In the Field, Cherokee's Throwers picked up 12 of 27 possible points from a good Eastern team! In the Javelin, Senior Captain Adonis Giovetis started it off well by throwing a major PR of 149' 1" -- 13' farther than last week at Washington Township! -- he took 1st place and qualified for the upcoming Olympic Conference Championship! Junior Jared Selkow took 2nd with his own PR of 131' 2", about 5' farther than before! Sophomore newcomer Jack Vick, Freshman Nathan Chang, and Junior Collin Mahoney all threw PR's, with Collin breaking his PR of last year by about 11'!
After outscoring Eastern 8 - 1 in the Javelin, the tables were turned in the Shot Put as Eastern swept the event! Giovetis broke his outdoor PR by throwing 40' 6.5" Freshman Darien Massimino threw three PR's in a row, hitting his best at 29' 0.25", and Juniors Josh Morgan and Collin Mahoney, and Freshman Phil Quipot all threw their own PR's in the event! In the Discus, Kieran Kelly took 2nd place with a toss just short of his PR, and Giovetis stepped-up and took 3rd in the competition! Junior Mike Nessler made only one legal throw but managed a PR that was 22' better than his best last season! Jared Selkow, Jack Vick and Josh Morgan all set substantial PR's from a week ago!
On the track, 400m Intermediate Hurdlers Ryan Betz and Ty Ortiz took 1st and 3rd respectively! It was Ryan's first victory in a dual meet; and both Ty and Naledge Brown matched their PR's set last Saturday! In the 110m High Hurdles, Anthony Natale and Tra Cabbagestalk took 1st and 2nd respectively! Collectively, the hurdlers outscored Eastern 14 - 4!
Among the Sprinters, in his first race in some time, Terrance Graves tied for 2nd in the 100m Dash, with EJ Bard and Matt Powell close behind! Powell and Graves returned in the 400m Dash, with Powell taking 1st and Graves coming in a close 4th! The 800m Dash, usually dominated by distance-trained runners, was manned by Sprinters: Junior Captain Kevin Milligan-Tinker ran negative splits and won the event, and Freshman Ty Jackson clocked under 2:10 and took 3rd! Both look forward to racing the 800m again! Indeed, someone reported that both asked the Coach to put them in the 1600m soon! GO KEVIN! GO TY! ;< )
Most of the Distance runners were held back to prepare for a race two days later but, in the 1600m Run, the team was well-represented by Jake Hyzy and Mike Moraschi who took 2nd and 3rd in the event! Mike set a new PR! Matt Morgan closed well for 4th and a new PR; and Aathi Arandan held off a challenger down the stretch to finish with his own 17-second PR!
The final race on the track, the 4 X 400m Relay was a 4-second victory for Cherokee! CJ Lee led off the relay and passed the baton to Matt Powell only a second or two behind Eastern's top quarter-miler. Powell then took the lead with the fastest split of the day, passing to Naledge Brown, who then passed to Aatish Gupta, who took the baton home in 1st!
Among the Jumpers, in the Long Jump and the Triple Jump, Nkenna Opara took 1st in both, with a PR in the Trip; and Tra Cabbagestalk stepped-up and took 2nd in the Trip. Both are difficult events to do well in strong winds, and that was even more conspicuous in the High Jump! Still, Andrew Elsey and Freshman Joey Carroll both cleared 5' 6" and took 2nd and 3rd places! Carroll had a 6" PR to grab that last, highly significant, point of the meet!
The final score was closer than any dual meet in recent history! The Chiefs won by a single point! Score was 68.5 - 67.5!
Dual Meet Record: 1 - 1!
Here are some pictures from the meet. Some events are missing because of the separation between the Throws area and the Track, and some athletes are missing because the photographer's super high-speed camera just wasn't fast enough to capture them in action:
On April 20, 2017, the Cherokee Track Distance Squad hosted the 4th Annual Night of 3200's and welcomed over 300 athletes who competed in 13 races throughout the evening!
Despite the cool and breezy weather -- let this be a lesson for you, when the weatherperson says "breezy," you need a heavy windbreaker and, perhaps, one of those tents explorers use in Antarctica -- it was a good night for Cherokee Distance!
Cherokee's two top Freshmen, Chris Spisak and Chase Miller, both broke 10:00, becoming the 6th and 7th Cherokee Freshmen to do so: along with Nick Falk - 9:48.87 in 2014, Greg Bredeck - 9:49.9 in 2003, Justin Kelly - 9:55.54 in 2015, Keith Krieger - 9:56.8 in 2000, and Jack Shea - 9:57.65 in 2014! Chris is now the 2nd fastest Freshman on the list, just a tick behind Nick's time, while Chase moves to 6th!
Cam Wilburn moved closer to the sub-10 list with a 7-second PR, while David Jackson ran a strong effort in his first 3200m! Jon Conn and Matt Smith both had sizable PR's over their times from last year, and Bobby Hackney ran a nice time for a Freshman -- and won a nice battle all the way to the finish line -- in his first attempt at the distance!
In addition, Jake Hazy improved by over a minute from his time in last year's meet. Also dipping under 11;00 for the first time were Matt Morgan, Ethan Wechsler and Mike Moraschi. One of the most impressive improvements came from Freshman, Matt Campbell who PR'd in the 1600m en route and still held it together with a fine 2nd half! George Villanueva finished close behind Matt as they both broke twelve minutes for the first time! Aatha Anandan also ran a very strong race, finishing 2nd in his heat and running a full minute faster than his seed time!
Perhaps the brightest highlight of the evening came, appropriately, in the top-seeded, last heat of the night! Team leaders, Jack Shea and Nick Falk came into the race with great confidence, Jack, who was injured throughout the winter and is just coming back into shape, took the lead early on but fell back a little after the mile mark, finishing 8th/13 in the race! Nick ran the race differently and his results were excellent!
Nick stayed with the pack and covered every surge, saving his move until the final 800m! He moved to the lead in the penultimate lap and then made a very strong move over the final 400m to leave his opponents well behind! He crossed the line in 9:19.18: a PR and a meet record! Nick was already 4th on the "All-Time Cherokee 3200m" list behind Marc Pelerin - 9:01.89, Shawn Wilson - 9:04.05 and Keith Krieger - 9:17.17!
Further details at: NJ.MileSplit
Though they usually have tracks, high school stadiums are constructed largely for the activities that happen inside the track oval. As a result, any lighting is aimed at the center and only ambient light reaches the outer rim and the surrounding track. All this means is, picture-taking in the evening/night, and the results, are often painful. Check these out and see:
The coaches selected Ben Rosenberg and Nik Kadirasani as the "Heroes of the Meet" for "actions above and beyond the call of duty!" GO BEN! GO NIK!
On April 22, 2017, the team separated with one part going to the Georgian Court High School Challenge at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, NJ, and another going to the 45th Annual Woodbury Relays in Woodbury, NJ. Both sites were fairly cold, windy, and with intermittent rain so neither provided a location-advantage!
At Georgian Court, the team was made up largely of Jumpers and Throwers, though several of Cherokee's Hurdlers raced as well. In the 400m IH, for example, Naledge Brown clocked a new PR of 64.51; and in the 110m Highs, Anthony Natale ran well, finishing 4th in 17.20.
Among the Jumpers, the Triple Jumpers provided the major highlights of the day: Freshman Liam DiFerdinando jumped to a new PR of 38' 2-1/2" and placed 6th; and, once again, Nkenna Opara provided the winning jump at the end! At 41' 6-1/2", his last jump was only 1/2" short of his PR and, even more important, it was the winning jump in the event! In the Long Jump, Nkenna returned to finish 7th with his 2nd farthest jump ever at 18' 11-1/2"! Each jump in his series was an improvement!
The Throwers competed in all three throwing events! In the Discus, Cherokee's Junior Kieran Kelly and Senior Adonis Giovetis threw well but missed the awards platform by a hair! Kieran finished 4th with a best throw of 114' 7", just 1" short of 3rd place; and Adonis finished just behind Kieran in 5th with a throw of 112' 9"! In the Shot Put, Adonis finished in 12th place with a best throw of 37' 2" and Luch Pizarro finished a few spots back in 15th place with a best throw of 35' 11". Finally, in the Javelin, Adonis took 5th place with a throw of 133' 8", and Sophomore newcomer Jack Vick made his Saturday "big meet" debut and took 18th place with a throw of 99' 5", only 4 feet off his PR.
Further Georgian Court details at: NJ.MileSplit at Georgian Court.
There are no pictures from this meet because our photographer went to . . .
At the Woodbury Relays, the coaches took some of Cherokee's top Sprinters and a small number of Distance runners to compete at the Division 4 Level.
The Sprinters competed in three events. In the 4 X 100m Relay, Tray Cabbagestalk, Terrance Graves, Matt Powell and Will Delendik clocked 44.77 for 4th place in their Division! In the 4 X 200m Relay, Tray Cabbagestalk and Matt Powell were joined by CJ Lee and Kevin Milligan to clock 1:34.65 and finish in 4th again! Finally, in the Sprint Medley Relay, Kevin Milligan led off with a strong 51.3 in the 400m leg. Kevin handed off to CJ Lee who ran 23.1 before giving the baton to Will Delendik for the second 200m leg, which he ran in 22.8. Cam Wilburn took the baton in 3rd place with no one within 20 meters of him. Despite running his 800m leg all alone and showing some effects of Thursday's race, Cam stayed tough, and ran 2:09! Their combined efforts resulted in a time of 3:47.79 and 3rd place!
Coach Shaklee was ambivalent about racing his Freshman Distance squad because most of them raced hard only two days earlier but he wanted to see the Freshmen smash the Freshmen Distance Medley Relay Record so, with his fingers crossed, he set them loose on the track! They gave it a good effort but Chase Miller, Bobby Hackney and Chris Spisak were still feeling the effects of Thursday night's hard effort. They were all a bit flat and the times were not what they are capable of. Ty Jackson, however, ran an awesome 400m leg, splitting 52.19 (FAT), a new PR by a full second! More good news: the final time of 11:09.09 was still a school Freshman DMR Record by 18 seconds! That's how good these guys are!
Additional meet details at: NJ.MileSplit at Woodbury.
The photographer was dumb enough to stand in the on-and-off rain to shoot athletes who were dumb enough to run in the on-and-off rain. Some shots worked, some didn't; some races worked, some didn't. ;< )
On April 28 and 29, 2017, Cherokee sent two select relay teams to the 123rd Annual Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia! The meet's insane, the competition's insane, just getting to Franklin Field is insane . . . the place is mobbed and the crowd is noisy . . . but, even if you got whipped, you'll never forget the experience! Indeed, when you're older and talking to another former runner about your track experiences, so often the question will come up: "You in the Penn Relays? . . . Yeah, what'd ya run?!" and you'll reply softly, . . . "I did the 4 by 1!"
On Friday, Cherokee entered the 4 X 100m Relay of Tra Cabbagestalk, Terrance Graves, Matt Powell and Will Delendik, but only Matt and Terrance had raced at Penn before! The team finished 94th/242 in their "Large Schools" Division, clocking 44.12. To give this further perspective, had they run in the "Small Schools" Division, they would have finished 76th/311. All in all, 553 high school teams raced on Friday -- is your head spinning yet? -- and the team beat 383! In addition, this year's team beat last year's team -- Kevin Milligan, Daulton Hopkins, Matt Powell and Terrance Graves -- by 1.04 seconds, a huge time in the 4 X 100m!
The 4 X 100m Relay is an amazing race and so much depends on split-second timing! Look through the results and see the incredible difference ONE SECOND makes! This year, for example, the team finished 94TH in 44.12. Had the team run ONE SECOND faster, they would have finished in 28th; and had they finished TWO SECONDS faster, they would have finished 9th! Watch the race sometime this season and concentrate on the exchanges: one tiny mis-step and the race is generally decided!
SAT Prep Word For The Day: Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear -- often for amusement -- in conjunction. For example, this morning the Penn Relays Tweeted: "Race walk action underway!" Here we have TWO magnificent oxymorons: Race - walk; and Race walk- action!
On Saturday, Cherokee entered Kevin Milligan, Tyler Jackson, Cam Wilburn and Matt Powell in the 4 X 400m Relay. This was the first time ever that Ty and Cam competed at Penn! Their race, one that focused on South Jersey "Large Schools" only, didn't work out as hoped with the team finishing a disappointing 3:46.16. Kevin led-off the team with a 51.51 split but Ty fell at the first exchange (always the most dangerous) and that pretty much ended the team's chances.
Penn provides a fantastic free website with all the teams and races featured! Go to The Penn Relays.
Our photographer was unavailable and few pictures of average athletes are available from the Penn Relays. MileSplit used to provide thousands of pictures from every aspect of the meet but they had no photographers there this year -- probably a fight over licensing agreements -- and all the other sites focused mainly on "the greats!" If you have anything from the meet, please pass it along to the coach! Thanks!
On April 30, 2017, Coach Shaklee and ten members of the distance team participated in the 11th Annual Richard's Run at Cooper River Park. The race benefits the Go 4 the Goal Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding research for pediatric cancers. The race is named after a young man who died of a childhood cancer but Cherokee has a special connection to the organization: Tim Frantz, one of our own, died in 2008 of Ewing's Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Indeed, a feature in the race is the Tim Frantz Award to the top finisher!
The team is in the middle of the season and doing a roadrace hard just isn't in the cards but it was still nice to see a team member win the Tim Frantz Award! Nick Falk (accompanied for a second year by his intrepid dog, Shadow!) took 1st, followed by Brandon Marks, David Jackson, Brendan Falzone, Matt Smith, Mike Iannotta, Ethan Wechsler, Chase Miller and Chris Monteleone. Gimpy Bobby Hackney served as "Honorary Statistician" while he's recovering from a ginker.
Coach Shaklee returned to run his second race in two years after a foot operation and dropped his place and time from last year: 13th to 12th, dropping 54 seconds (19:35, 6:19 pace)! In addition, parent and designated chauffeur, Keith Jackson also ran, taking one spot ahead of Coach Shaklee, clocking 19:31 (6:17 Pace)!
Reality star and internationally known "Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan, was, by chance, in the race area and was asked to comment on Nick's unusual dog, the fleet-footed Shadow. (Shadow dropped his/her time by 54 seconds this year!) Millan declined but was later overheard asking, "Is that a dog? If it is, it's a breed with which I am unfamiliar."
Despite this insult to Nick's "dog," the guys enjoyed the run and the opportunity to honor Tim's life and courage. More on Tim can be found on our site at: Tim's Memorial Page.
Race details at: L and M Sports.
