Cherokee Track & Field Pictures, 2018, Page I





Winter Preparation!


Back in the Dark Ages, when Winter or Indoor Track was first envisioned by coaches here in South Jersey, the programs were designed for really tough athletes! Many of the local meets were so-called "Polar Bear Meets," held outdoors when coaches thought having young people running around wearing shorts and singlets in freezing temperatures was good for their physical and personal development! In addition, other meets were held indoors although these facilities were badly designed for racing! They fashioned flat "tracks" of irregular lengths or set-up shaky banked wooden tracks in gymnasiums or "armories" generally untouched since World War II! At several places back in the 70's and 80's, the sprint track ended through garage doors into a parking lot! Yes, sprinters did 40 or 50 yard dashes and finished out in the parking lot where, on snowy or icy days, coaches caught them before they fell! At one major city Armory, before it was renovated, homeless people lived in the stairways and often urinated "close to home." And everyone who ever participated in Indoor Track back in the 70s and 80s will remember the pungent oder of "Atomic Balm" until the day they die! Today, the indoor facilities are much improved: the Toms River "Bubble" is tight but fairly comfortable, and the Ocean Breeze facility on Staten Island is absolutely magnificent! If only someone could work on those long bus rides! (Ask Coaches Shaklee and Shea what it was like "to be manly-men when they were just boys!")

Those early programs were designed as preparation for the Spring Season (and a way to sidestep NJSIAA rules about coaching athletes out of season). Coaches concentrated on foundation or strength training for distance athletes, and skills training and conditioning for the sprinters, jumpers and throwers. That continues today, although the team participates in a number of meets at decent indoor facilities (including the Throws Meets at Cherokee High School) for both experience and a change of pace.

Last winter, the season began with cold temperatures and gusting winds, and that seems to be the pattern this year! Three light snow storms before Winter Break added to the fun! But Cherokee's athletes are unfazed -- remember their physical and personal development? -- they'll ignore the elements and train outdoors looking forward to indoor opportunities to show their improvement! GO CHIEFS!






South Jersey Track Coaches Association Meet # 1

On December 15th, 2017, South Jersey's "lid-lifter" of the season, the Olympic Conference Meet #1 was supposed to be held at "the Bubble," the Bennett Center in Toms River, New Jersey but it was postponed to the December 21st because of snow! This meet was designed for the "experienced but rusty" or the "brand new" and most teams were likely to bring only a few athletes to compete/practice. Cherokee was to be one of those teams!

On December 19th, 2017, a small group of team members traveled the oft-used roads to the Bennett Center in Toms River for the South Jersey Track Coaches Association Meet # 1 Some teams showed up with all their "big guns," probably planning to set times for the Winter Sectionals, but most raced their "rusty" or new guys at the meet.

Cherokee brought a small group of Distance and Sprint competitors. Among the Distance runners, the highlight was Ethan Wechsler's PR on the anchor of the Distance Medley Relay! Mike Iannotta also had a pretty good night: showing a little "rust" from his time off after cross country and no "speed work," he nonetheless ran a competitive lead-off on the DMR's 1200 leg and came back with a strong anchor on the 4 X 800m Relay!

Among the Sprinters, Sophomore Mohamed Fofanah provided the meet highlight as he kicked off this indoor season right where he left off! He ran his previous PR in the 55m dash (7.25) in the final SJTCA meet last year, and then he dropped a 7.20 in his first outing at the distance this season! He also led off the 4 X 200 Relay with a 24.4 split, which was the fastest split of the four guys in the event!

Official details at: NJ.MileSplit.

Our photographer tried his best in that Dark Hole, The Bennett Center, but his results are only marginal. That said, his highlight for the meet came in a series from the 4 X 800m Relay where our athletes introduced "the underarm pass!" Here are some comments made from the cheap seats: (1) "Come on, they're distance guys!"; (2) "Smooth!"; (3) "Whadda ya think, maybe another short session on Baton Passing?"; and from the coach himself (4) "Perfect! Just the way we covered it in practice!"


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Here are some other shots from the meet!

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Olympic Conference Meet # 1

On December 21st, 2017, the team returned to the Bennett Center for the previously-postponed Olympic Conference Meet # 1 and quite a few of them scored well in the event!

In the Field, Kieran Kelly opened his season in the Shot by throwing a PR of 39' 8" to place 4th; and Darien Massimino followed with a decent PR throw of 29' 4"! In the High Jump, Joey Carroll, in his indoor debut, hit a PR of 5' 8' to place 2nd; and Andrew Parker, though he had a tough night, placed 3rd at 5' 6"! Finally, in the Vault, Kenny Sprankle set his own PR clearing 10' 6" to place 3rd and earn his first Varsity medal!

The Distance squad was well-represented by the team's best Freshmen! Competing against Varsity teams in both the Distance Medley Relay and the 4 X 800m Relay, they appeared confident and ran tough! Dylan Odud opened the DMR with the 1200m leg; Sophomore Ty Jackson took the baton in the 400m leg; Bryan Lafferty followed in the 800m leg; and Brett Shea anchored in the 1600m. They took 7th in the event! Later, those three Freshmen were joined by Freshman Ian Baily in the 4 X 800m where they finished in 6th place! Both Dylan and Ian experienced "learning opportunities" in their races, Dylan when he got crushed on the starting line, and Ian when he disappeared in the biggest "scrum" of the evening! "Help me!"


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The Sprinters and Hurdlers had a very nice first appearance in the 2018 season! Certainly, the highlight of the evening was the team's victory in the 4 X 200m Relay! Will Delendik, Andrew Parker, CJ Lee and Kevin Milligan, with Kevin clocking the unofficial fastest split of 23.3! The Shuttle Hurdle team of Tray Cabbagestalk, Joey Carroll, Ty Ortiz and Naledge Brown placed 2nd! For the record, this was the first Shuttles race for both Joey and Naledge, and only his second for Ty! The Sprint Medley Team of Kevin Milligan (unofficial 52.80) CJ Lee, Tray Cabbagestalk and Ty Jackson placed 2nd, with Ty clocking an unofficial opening 2:06! Finally, the 4 X 400 of Rome Young, Joe Sands, Naledge Brown and Ty Ortiz placed 3rd, with Ty splitting an unofficial Indoor PR of 54.97, and Rome running an unofficial 53.88 by himself in his first ever 400m! For the record, every Sprint/Jumper earned a medal at the meet!

Details at: NJ.MileSplit.

Despite lousy photographic conditions -- try taking a picture of the inside of your pocket! -- our photographer, with the help of PhotoShop, did OK!


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Coach Glynn Holiday Relay Carnival

On December 28th, 2017, the team traveled to the Ocean Breeze Athletic Center for the Coach Glynn Holiday Relay Carnival to test their skills at one of the best Track and Field venues on the East Coast!

More on that later but there's a quote from the meet circulating: "Really! . . . no kidding! . . . there are only 4 laps in the 800!?" Anyone understand the point here?

The Sprint Squad ran some impressive times on OB's fast track! Kevin Milligan clocked an Indoor PR of 51.38 in the 400m Dash and finished 5th overall, and newcomer Rome Young won his heat and set a nice PR in the same event! Andrew Parker won his heat and set his own PR in the 55m Dash, and returned to set an Indoor PR in the 200m Dash! In the 55m High hurdles, Tray Cabbagestalk clocked a PR of 8.77; and Naledge Brown won his heat in the same event! In the Freshman Sprints, Chima Opara won his heat in both the Frosh 55m Dash and Frosh 200m Dash, running PR's in both; and Joe Juliano clocked his own Indoor PR in the Frosh 200m Dash! Finally, Ty Jackson ran his first ever 600m Dash in 1:27.55 and likely set the school record in the event!

Among the Jumpers, Nkenna Opara cleared 19' 7" in the Long Jump for a lifetime PR and 5th place overall; and Liam DiFerdinando cleared 18' 9" in the Long Jump for a lifetime PR as well!

A large group of Distance runners raced well at the meet! It all started with Justin Kelly's fascinating battle with another well-experienced runner from Indian Hills in the 3200m! They both laid back in the pack for the first 2000m or so and then they exchanged the lead over the next few laps, testing each other. In the last 400m, Indians Hills took the lead and, with 200m to go, stretched it about 6'. Justin picked it up -- he clocked a 28.8 in the last 200m! -- and attempted to pass Indian Hills on the back stretch, about 100m from the finish line. Indian Hills held him off and Justin lost his momentum for a second. He surged again coming off the turn and he and Indian Hills raced to the finish line. The electronic clocking gave both the same finish time and the decision was left to the officials in the booth (who gave it to the other guy)! Still, the goal was to set a nice time for Sectional qualifying and that race -- an Indoor PR -- certainly accomplished that!

The distance races continued with a series of 4 X 800m (or 3200m) Relays. In the Varsity competition, Coach Shaklee reported that Chase Miller learned the hard way how important it is to get out fast Indoors! He got stuck in the crowd and never got into a position to run a fast 800m leg. Following him, Eathan Wechsler ran well on the second leg, setting a 3-second PR; and Mike Ianotta had a very good third leg, setting his own PR and finishing with the fastest time of the four! Brandon Marks anchored with a nice first 400m and a nice closing 200m but he laid off in the middle 200m and the team finished only 8th out of 21 teams.

Following the Varsity, Cherokee entered two 4 X 8's in two Novice races. On the A Team, Bobby Hackney led off with a decent 4-second improvement over his last race; Matt Smith also had a decent showing even though it was his first race of the year and not his best distance; Jon Conn PR'd on the third leg, as did the team's anchor, Mike Gavio! The B Team, stated mildly, didn't fare as well! Matt Morgan looked like he was running his first race of the season (which he was!) and handed off to Mike Moraschi in the middle of the pack. Mike ran well, close to his PR, but when he came around to hand off, the third runner, Ian Bialy was not in position. Instead of finding him and handing off, Mike kept running and then had to turn around, run back, and hand off! Now, hang on, it gets worse! The officials then put the anchor, Nik Kadirisani, out to receive the baton a lap early so Ian ran only three laps! Then, Nik was way too conservative and never really got going. All in all, a "learning experience" that will never be repeated . . . please!

Cherokee also entered a Freshman 4 X 800m and it was a nice outing for this group! Lead-off Brett Shea ran a strong 800m with a 3-second PR and passed the baton in 1st place to Nico Grilli who also ran a decent leg but relinquished the lead. The third leg, Bryan Lafferty, kept the team in 2nd with a 1-second PR but gave the baton over to Dylan Odud about 30 meters behind the leading team. Dylan steadily closed on that team's anchor and passed him coming off the final turn to win! In doing so, he dropped a 6-second PR! Yikes!

Official results at: NY.MileSplit.


In Track, everyone has had an awful race when you thought, "Ahhh . . . man, everyone is looking at me and I look like crap!" but have you ever had a GREAT race where you battled to the end and EVERYONE WAS LOOKING AT YOU?! Very cool! The only failure here is the lack of video!



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Ocean Breeze, though much lighter than our usual indoor venues, has "backlight" on three sides and it affected many of the pictures badly! Our photographer is looking forward to the Spring, and since it's 9 degrees and "breezy" outside, so are many of our athletes! BTW, our photographer had to leave early so he missed the later races. Message to athletes: convince the coach that you perform best when you first arrive at a meet!



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Ocean Breeze Holiday Festival

On December 30th, 2017, several members of the Jump Squad returned to Ocean Breeze for the Ocean Breeze Holiday Festival. This was largely for experience/training because Cherokee's jump areas are frozen over and unavailable for training. At the meet, Tyler Ortiz improved his Indoor Long Jump PR; and Kenny Sprankle tied his lifetime PR of 10' 6" in the Pole Vault and took 2nd in his Division, 10th overall!

Our photographer was unavailable and there are no jump/vault pictures on the meet site.

Official results at: NY.MileSplit.







Ocean Breeze Freedom Games

On January 6th, 2018, Coach Lynn traveled with three athletes to the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex "on the Island of Staten" for the Ocean Breeze Freedom Games!

According to Coach Lynn, the youngest of the jumpers, Sophomore Liam DiFerdinando, started the day off by winning the Long Jump (White Division) with the second best jump of his career at 18' 4"! Later, he competed in the Triple Jump (Red Division) and soared to a PR of 40' 7" to finish his day in 9th/40 overall)!

Cherokee's second jumper, Senior Nkenna Opara, started his day by finishing 8th in the Long Jump (Red Division) with a PR at 19' 8"; and then followed that with a 3rd place finish in the Triple Jump (Red Division) with a jump of 41' 11"!

Finally, Cherokee's third jumper, Junior Moses Harris, had the best "personal day"! He first grabbed a PR in the Long Jump, hitting 16' 3.50"; and then his big PR came in the Triple Jump where he hit 35' 11", a 1.50' PR!

All in all, a nice trip for Cherokee with four PR's in six events!

Offical details at: NJ.MileSplit

The NY.MileSplit website provided several Nkenna pics that we edited:


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SJTCA Meet # 5

On January 6th, 2018, a good portion of the team returned to the Bennett Center in Toms River for the South Jersey Track Coaches Association's Meet # 5 -- a relay meet for Groups I and IV -- and performed well!

The distance events were manned by different athletes as the coach sought to determine who would play what roles in the upcoming Sectional Championships. In the Distance Medley Relay, Freshman Brett Shea led-off in the 1200m leg; followed by Senior Joe Sands in the 400m, Sophomore Bobby Hackney in the 800m; and Freshman Nico Grilli anchoring in the 1600m. The team placed 6th/13 overall!

Possibly the distance highlight of the evening was the 4 X 800m Relay! Earlier Coach Shaklee challenged the team to clock "around 8:30" in the event and so they did! Sophomore Ethan Wechsler, Senior Brandon Marks, Senior Mike Iannotta, and Sophomore Chase Miller combined for 8:30.43 and 1st place in the event! Later, the coach was quoted as saying, "I should have asked them to run 8:20!"

The Sprinter/Hurdlers stepped up in several events! The Shuttle Hurdle Relay of Junior Tray Cabbagestalk, Sophomore Joey Carroll, Junior Tyler Ortiz, and Senior Naledge Brown combined to take 6th in the event! In the 4 X 200m Relay, Junior Tyler Ortiz, Junior Tray Cabbagestalk, Senior Naledge Brown, and Senior Rome Young combined to take 13th.

The Sprinters provided another highlight of the meet in the Sprint Medley Relay! Senior Kevin Milligan led-off in the 400m (52.2), followed by Senior CJ Lee in the 200m (24.5), Junior Will Delendik in the second 200m (24.3), and Sophomore Tyler Jackson anchoring in the 800m (2:05.6)! Their combined time of 3:46.66 took 1st place in the event!

In the Field, Junior Andrew Elsey cleared 5' 6" in the High Jump and finished 10th/21 overall! In the Shot Put, Junior Lucciano Pizarro threw a lifetime PR (indoors or out) in his season-opener, reaching 41' 3" for 5th/28 overall! In addition, Senior Kieran Kelly had the second best throw of his life (indoors or out) with a put of 38' 2.25" for 12th!

Further details at: NJ.MileSplit.



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Cherokee Throwdown # 1

On January 9th, 2018, the team hosted the first of three Throws Meets, the Cherokee Throwdown # 1, and, while several Cherokee's throwers were held out to prepare for the upcoming State Relays, a number of Cherokee's throwers did compete!

Welcome to Junior Ethan Hilburn and Freshmen Chika Omeronye who opened their careers as Cherokee Shot Putters with throws in the 20's; and welcome back to Sophomore Darien Massimino who upped his Indoor PR with a throw in the 30's, just about 8" off his all-time PR; and to Senior Josh Morgan who upped his Indoor PR by three feet, a huge improvement in the Shot Put! Finally, after struggling in his first meet a few weeks ago, Sophomore Phil Quipot threw in the 20's, just 2" shy of his indoor PR from last season!

The official results are at NJ.MileSplit.



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