Cherokee Track & Field Pictures, 2017, Page VII






Championship Season, Step-Up or Stay Home!


The weather and the competition are heating up rapidly in South Jersey! It's the Championship Season, Part I, starting with the Olympic Conference and Burlington County Championships, and moving fast to the South Jersey Sectional Championships! Thrown-in are a Dual Meet against Cherry Hill High School East; the second of Holmdel's Twilight Series, the Night of 1600's; and a Last-Chance Meet at Haddonfield! GO CHIEFS!




Olympic Conference Championships


On May 16, 2017, Washington Township High School hosted the Olympic Conference Championships and a number of Cherokee's Varsity qualifiers competed! The meet opened with the 4 X 800m Relay and the team performed well but was disqualified after an unfortunate incident at the finish line! Kevin Milligan-Tinker ran a strong lead-off leg with a big negative split to give Cherokee the lead! Freshman, Tyler Jackson was caught by Camden Catholic and Washington Twp but pulled away from them down the homestretch to keep Cherokee in 1st! Cam Wilburn handed off after the 3rd leg in 2nd behind Washington Twp; and, although anchor Nick Falk made several attempts to get by the Township runner he was unsuccessful and the team finished in 2nd place. Unfortunately, the team was DQ'd when Nick threw the baton to the ground in frustration at the finish!

The 400IH followed with Ryan Belz and Tyler Ortiz both clocking PR's in the event! Sprint events followed with 100m Dash qualifiers Will Delendik, EJ Bard and Terrance Graves all running FAT season bests! In addition, Will qualified for the finals and ran 11.67 to place 3rd, bringing home "1st Team All-Conference honors in the process In the 110m High Hurdles, Ant Natale ran a PR of 16.48 to qualify into the finals, and there he ran a bit slower 16.78 but finished 5th and earned a medal!

In the last (and maybe most surprising) of the Sprint events, the 4 X 100m Relay, Tray Cabbagestalk, Terrance Graves, EJ Bard and Will Delendik ran a season best 43.99 and took 1st place overall for the first time since Jon Scott, Brandon Rapp, Matt Jackson and Darren McCluskey won the event in 2010 (44.27)!

In the 1600m Run, Jack Shea fell off the lead pack after the first lap but closed well on his final lap to place 3rd with a 2-second PR!

Further details at: NJ.MileSplit.



Conference Conference Conference Conference Conference Conference
Conference Conference Conference Conference Conference Conference
Conference Conference Conference Conference Conference Conference
Conference Conference Conference Conference Conference





Cherry Hill High School East Dual Meet and Holmdel's "Night of 1600's"


On May 18, 2017, the team had two meets on their schedule and several goals in mind. The meets: the fourth dual meet of the season, this one against Cherry Hill High School East; and another distance invitational at Holmdel, The "Night of 1600's". In addition, facing the need to prepare for the upcoming Burlington County Open and the South Jersey Sectional Championships, the coaches needed to consider those who would benefit from additional training and those who benefit from some rest. As a result, some stayed home, some traveled to and competed at CH East, and some traveled to Holmdel for their "Night of 1600's!"

At East, several Sprinters scored well! Chris Cato picked up a 1st in the 400m Dash and returned to take 3rd in the 200m Dash! Matt Powell, who usually races the 200m and 400m Dashes, stepped-up to the 800m Dash and took 1st in a race that he led from the gun! Brandon Fisher took a 3rd in the 110HH; and Joe Sands, Aatish Gupta, Anton Specht and Koehler Housel took another 1st in the 4 X 400m Relay! In the Jumps and Throws, Ryan Bishop took 1st in the Pole Vault; Dan Schwartz took 3rd in the Long Jump; and Jared Selkow took 2nd in the Javelin!

Our photographer took pictures at the CH East meet before traveling to Holmdel for that meet. Here are some from CH East:


East East East East East East
East East East East East East
East East East East East East
East East East East East East
East East East East East East
East East East East East East





Holmdel High School's Twilight Series: "Night of 1600's"


On May 18, 2017, while many of Cherokee's Sprinters and Jumpers competed at the CH East Dual Meet, most of the Distance team traveled to Holmdel High School for the final part of their Twilight Series, their Night of 1600's, and it was well-worth the trip . . . eleven of the twenty Cherokee runners at the meet set new PR's!

Cherokee's action started in Heat 9 where Matt Campbell knocked a big chunk of time off and dipped under 5:30 with George Villanueva close behind him in a new PR as well! Heat 10 had, perhaps, the best Cherokee results! Pat Mahoney ran a very tough race to knock 11 seconds off of his previous best and dip under 5:10! Chris Monteleone had only run the 1600 twice before (once last year and once in 2015) but his time knocked over 40 seconds off of his previous best!

The good news continued throughout the evening! Heat 13 saw Mike Gavio and Mike Moraschi both go under 5:00 for the first time! Also, Matt Morgan knocked a few seconds off of his previous best and moved closer to that sub-5 standard! In Heat 14, Matt Smith PR'd in a negative split race. He made a strong move on the 3rd lap to go for the win and held on for 2nd! In Heat 15, Jon Conn finished well over the last lap to PR by 5 seconds! In Heat 15, Mike Iannotta got caught on the inside and struggled to get some running room. When he did, he finished well to PR by a couple of seconds!

In Cherokee's last two races of the evening, more good things happened! In Heat 17, David Jackson made a good run at the sub-4:40 mark and, although he fell a few tenths short, he PR'd by 4 seconds! And in Cherokee's last race of the evening, Heat 20, Justin Kelly ran aggressively and continued his progress back from injury with a nice time only 2 seconds off of his previous best, while Chris Spisak ran the 2nd fastest time ever by a Cherokee freshman (just behind his own school record)!

Further Holmdel details at: NJ.MileSplit.


Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600
Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600
Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600
Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600
Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600 Holmdel 1600





Burlington County Open Championship


On May 20, 2017, the top performers on the team traveled to Rancocas Valley High School for the Burlington County Open Championships and many did well! Just looking at the numbers, the Distance Squad had the best day, taking 32 of 48 points despite something of a glitch in the 3200m Run, but many of the Sprinters looked good too!

In the Distance events, Chris Spisak was very impressive in the 3200m Run! He ran a smart race and easily pulled away from the field with a big negative-split second mile to win but, unfortunately, was DQ'd for stepping inside the cones going around the first turn of the California start. Behind him, David Jackson ran a big PR and dropped under 10 minutes for the first time with his own negative split to finish 3rd (moved up to 2nd with the DQ)!

Soon after that, in the 4 X 800m Relay, all four guys ran well! Brendan Falzone had his fastest time of the season and looked great with a strong kick to run down an opponent in the last 100m! The next three - Mike Iannotta, Matt Smith and Ethan Wechsler - all set new PR's to bring the team home in 3rd place!

In the "very loaded" 800m Run, Kevin Milligan-Tinker -- note how the Distance team is slowly stealing Kevin from the Sprint team . . . next Fall, they'll have him out for Cross Country! -- ran with the lead pack for 600m and held on for 7th! Cam Wilburn suffered a leg cramp in the 2nd lap which hindered his performance in the race.

The last of the Distance races, the 1600m Run, was another "very loaded" race with many of the best in South Jersey, including our own Jack Shea and Nick Falk! Shawnee's Mark Miller took the lead from the very beginning and stretched out the field after only the first 400m! Jack and Nick stayed calm and added some big points to the team's tally! Jack took 2nd and clocked a new PR, running one of the top ten fastest times ever run at the Open! In addition, he became the 6th runner in Cherokee history to run under 4:20 in the 1600m! Nick finished close behind in 3rd with another new PR, and Justin Kelly held off a challenge in the final stretch to place 4th!

In the Sprints, several performances stand out! In the 100m Dash, Terrance Graves improved upon his Olympic Conference meet performance! EJ Bard and Will Delendik placed 14th and 13th (out of 40), with times of 11.79 and 11.77, respectively. There was a timing glitch in the last heat of the Trials and Will ran 75% of the race before being called back to the starting line. In the re-do of his heat, Will was not at 100%.

In the 400m Dash, Chris Cato ran a solid 53.84 for 17th place out of 26; and in the 400IH, Tyler Ortiz dropped his PR by a full second to clock 1:02.51 and take 12th; and in the 200m Dash, CJ Lee ran 24.24 for 17th place out of 32!

The Relays were very competitive with the teams taking 2nd in both races! Coming off their season best 43.99 at the Conference Meet, the 4 X 100m Relay team of Tray Cabbagestalk, Terrance Graves, EJ Bard and Will Delendik placed 2nd out of 9 teams in 44.36! The chilly/windy conditions made it tough for the guys to improve upon their season best but their consistency and technique was impressive! In the final race of the day, the 4 X 400m Relay, the team of Matt Powell, Tyler Jackson, CJ Lee and Kevin Milligan-Tinker improved their season best by nearly 2 seconds, running 3:27.35! Each athlete ran well with splits of 52.6, 51.9, 52.1 and 50.7! By the way, their time was the fastest they have run all season! It was also the fastest 4 X 400m Relay a Cherokee team has run since the 2012 squad of Brandon Rapp, John Barr, Drew Viscidy, and Colin Merrigan ran 3:20.99 at the Olympic Conference Championships!

The Jumpers struggled throughout the meet. In the Triple Jump, Nkenna Opara cleared 40' 5.6" to place 7th; and Liam DiFerdinando jumped his second farthest distance of the year! In the Pole Vault, Kenny Sprankle tied his PR of 9' 6"!

The Throwers also had a tough day! Although Kieran Kelly just threw a big PR of 38' 1.25" in Cherokee's dual meet against Cherry Hill East on Thursday, he struggled with his technique and only managed a best throw of 32' 8.25" for 28th place. Kieran returned with Tom Deutsch in the Discus and threw 114' 7" for 13th place while Tom reached 106' 7" for 17th! In the Javelin, Adonis Giovetis' best of 135' 2" put him 11th, and Jared Selkow's best throw of 125' 5" landed him in 20th place!

Overall, the team finished in 4th place with 48 points. Distance led in points scored - 32 - but the Sprinters made some noise with their two Relay performances and 18 points!

Additional results at: NJ.MileSplit.


BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open
BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open
BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open
BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open
BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open BC Open





Haddonfield Distance Night


On May 23, 2017, a select group of Cherokee's Distance elite -- OK, let's just say, most of the distance guys -- traveled to Haddonfield High School for their annual Haddonfield Distance Night. The meet was originally designed as a "last chance before Sectionals" for distance guys to sharpen for their Sectional races or for distance guys to finish their seasons with a PR on a track protected from winds by the surrounding woods. The meet offered three distances, the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m, and Cherokee runners competed on each level.

In the Freshman 800m Dash, Cherokee had both Chase Miller and Bobby Hackney running their first races since returning from injury and they both ran very well with Chase setting a new PR and finishing 4th, while Bobby came close to his PR and got 6th!

In the Open 800m Dash, Justin Kelly was Cherokee's 1st finisher with a new PR in a big negative split race! It was a good tune-up for him as he prepares for the 1600m Run at Sectionals. Freshmen, Tyler Jackson and Chris Spisak were next for Cherokee with Tyler setting a new PR as he raced to the line with Junior Justin Kelly! Both will be racing this weekend -- Ty in the 4 X 800m and 4 X 400m Relays and Chris in the 3200m Run -- big stuff for Freshmen! Cam Wilburn used this race to prepare for the 4 X 800m Relay on Friday and the Open 800m Run on Saturday. Mike Iannotta set a new PR, while Brendan Falzone and Matt Powell both had season-best times!

In the Freshman 1600m Run, Ethan Wechsler placed 2nd with a strong 2nd half, while Matt Campbell and Aathi Anandan both set new PR's!

In the Open 1600m Run, Sophomore, David Jackson broke 4:40 for the first time in the 1600m, while Mike Moraschi, Pat Mahoney, Nik Kadirisani, Chris Monteleone, George Villanueva and Ben Rosenberg all set new PR's!

Finally, in the Open 3200m Run, the last race of the evening, both Jon Conn and Matt Smith set new PR's while finishing 5th and 6th!

Further details at: NJ.MileSplit.

Here are some incredible pictures taken under some very difficult conditions!



Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night
Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night
Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night
Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night
Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night
Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night Haddon D. Night





South Jersey Sectional Championships


On May 26 - 27, 2017, Cherokee's finest traveled to Egg Harbor Township High School for the NJSIAA's South Jersey Sectional Championships, the first major steppingstone to the Meet of Champions! Many of the guys were excited about the possibility of advancing -- top 6 in each event move on -- to the State Group Championships! Sophomore Will Delendik was seeded in the final heat and had a real chance to go sub-11 and advance! Jack Shea was the top seed in the 3200m; and Nick Falk qualified in both the 1600m and the 3200m and expected to race in both! Freshman Chris Spisak was in the top heat of the 1600m and he hoped to PR and lower his Freshman Class School Record. Indeed, if he advanced, he would be the first Cherokee Freshman to qualify for Groups! Finally, all of the three relays -- with eleven other guys -- had the potential to advance, though the 4 X 100m Relay seemed to have the best chance! GO CHEROKEE!





The meet began on Friday with the 400IH where, Naledge Brown ran Cherokee's fastest time and clocked an FAT personal record, and then moved to the Trials of the 100m Dash, where Senior Terrance Graves broke 12 seconds for the first time (11.98); Freshman EJ Bard clocked a PR (11.54); and Sophomore Will Delendik dropped his PR (11.29), finished 4th and advanced to the Finals! In the Finals, Will dropped his PR again, finished in 4th and advanced to Groups! For the record, this was the first time that a Cherokee boy advanced to the State Groups in the 100m Dash since Will Rapp in 2009! Will Delendik was the only non-senior in the Final and the only non-senior in the top 9 at the meet, and Will is now the 5th fastest Sophomore in the state of New Jersey!

In the 1600m Run that followed, all three Chiefs ran well! Senior Nick Falk PR'd and advanced in 5th, less than a 1/2 second out of 3rd! Justin Kelly, injured through most of the Winter and Spring, just missed advancing as he finished 8th, his season best time; and David Jackson went out too fast with "the big guys" but still held on to finish with a new PR! After that, in the 400m Dash, Senior Matt Powell ran his fastest time since he set his PR of 52.30 in his sophomore year, and Junior Chris Cato finished just behind him with his own PR!

The last race on Friday was the 4 X 800m Relay where the team finished 6th with their fastest time of the year and advanced! Freshman Ty Jackson went out like he was going for the win in the 400m! Despite his overly aggressive start, he held on to PR (2:02.7) and kept Cherokee in contention! Kevin Milligan-Tinker also PR'd (2:07.2) and moved into 5th on the second leg! Justin Kelly was fatigued from his earlier 1600m race but still managed to hold Cherokee's position with a near-PR (2:04.0), and Cam Wilburn ran tough on the anchor (2:04.3) to finish in 6th place! After the race, Cherokee moved to 5th when Egg Harbor was DQ'd!

In the Field and Jumps on Friday, Ty Ortiz cleared 17' 2.5" in the Long Jump, his second-best outing of the year; Senior Captain Adonis Giovetis had a best throw of 129' 3" in the Javelin, which was good enough for 19th/46 overall; and Junior Jared Selkow's best was 115' 0", which placed him 35th in the Javelin. Finally, in the Shot Put, Kieran Kelly edged-out teammate Luch Pizarro with a throw of 36' 11.75", a half-inch back at 36' 11.25"! Kieran finished in 36th place and Luch finished in 37th place.

On Saturday, things started off well for Ant Natale as he finished his career with an all-time PR of 16.38 in the 110m High Hurdles! In the following 800m Run, all three Cherokee runners raced well! In Heat 2, both Brendan Falzone and Mike Iannotta set new PR's with strong races; and, in Heat 3, Cam Wilburn knocked almost 3 seconds off of his PR with an excellent race!

In the 3200m Run, Senior Jack Shea PR'd by 12 seconds to take the Championship! His time puts him 5th on the All-Time Cherokee List and takes him into the state meet with the fastest Group IV time from all 4 sectional races! Senior Nick Falk, doubling back from the 1600m and finished 3rd to advance to groups! Nick was the only Cherokee athlete to advance in two individual events! Freshman Chris Spisak became the first Freshman in school history to advance to the state meet in a distance event (800-1600-3200) with his 6th place finish!

In the 4 X 100m Relay, the team of Tra Cabbagestalk, Terrance Graves, EJ Bard and Will Delendik knew they were seeded 8th going into the event and knew they needed to take race very well to take 6th or below to advance to Groups . . . and race well, they did! They clocked a season-best 43.43 to finish in 4th place and advance! This was the fastest time run by a Cherokee squad since Kevin Merrigan, Niraj Patel, Chris Steliga and Will Rapp set the school record of 42.81 in 2009!

In the 200m Dash, Senior Terrance Graves battled with injuries during much of the winter and early spring season, and it was nice to see him come within a half-second of his PR as he ran 23.92 for 28th! In addition, Freshman EJ Bard returned to clock 24.25 and finish 32nd! Finally, on the Track, in the 4 X 400m Relay, Matt Powell, Tyler Jackson, CJ Lee and Kevin Milligan-Tinker knew they were seeded just outside the top six and knew what they needed to do to advance . . . and advance they did! They moved the baton in a season-best time of 3:26.49 and took 5th place! This was the fastest time clocked by a Cherokee squad since Brandon Rapp, John Barr, Drew Viscidy and Colin Merrigan ran 3:20.99 (for 3rd place at the Olympic Conference Championship) in 2012!

In the Jumps and Field, Freshman Joey Carroll cleared a challenging High Jump opening height of 5' 6", matched his PR, and finished as the second-best Freshman at the meet! In the Triple Jump, Nkenna Opara failed to reach his PR but finished 10th/42 overall, and Freshman Liam DiFerdinando hit 40' 0", the first Cherokee Freshman to do so! Also, he was the top Freshman in the event and finished 14th overall! Finally, in the Discus, Tom Deutsch threw a lifetime PR of 122' 6" to finish in a tie for 17th/42 overall, and Kieran Kelly threw 112' 10" to finish in 30th place!

Further details at: NJ.MileSplit.

Here are some pics from the meet. As usual, apologies to most of the Field guys who got missed . . ..



Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals Sectionals
Sectionals Sectionals










Return to the index for Cherokee Track & Field Pictures, 2016 - 2017.

Return to the Main Page for Cherokee Track.