Looking outside, few would believe that Spring Track is upon us and practice has begun! Three Nor'eastern storms in fifteen days -- the first brought a deluge; the second brought a heavy snowfall; and thankfully, the third brought little of anything except wind and windy weather forecasters! Still, fifteen days into the season, snow remains in many corners of the campus!
That may have altered practice on a few days but, with the team's first scrimmage only twelve days away, the Chiefs are scrambling to get ready for an excitng season! Coach Chris Lynn took over as Head Coach this season and will focus on Hurdles and Jumps; Coach Steve Shaklee will continue to focus on the Distance events; Coach Jeff Thompson returned to work with the Sprinters; and Coach Ed Kramer will focus on the Throws! The core of the team returned from a decent Winter Track season and everyone is looking forward to warmer weather and a highly-successful Spring campaign! GO CHEROKEE!
The Early Spring Season is a time of continuing preparation for the season and especially for the championship meets at the end of the season! Gradually improving speed, strength, endurance, and skills are the keys to success! It begins with the scrimmage for all against Timber Creek and Haddon Heights on March 28th at Timber Creek. (The schedule says "Spring" but smart athletes will bring extra layers of clothes!) After that, the season officially opens with two at-home conference dual meets, Washington Township (April 3rd) and Eastern (April 10th), and then the Moorestown Invitational (April 14th)! While those will be challenging enough for everyone, Cherokee's Night of Racing # 1 (April 19th) is the first major event for the Distance Runners . . . a great opportunity to show off! Then, the following day (April 20th), the team, without the Distance Squad, will travel to the Eagle Relays at Central Regional High School!
GO CHEROKEE!
Faced with the fourth Nor'eastern snowstorm in twenty-one days -- weatherwags are calling it a "Four'eastern" -- the training of some track teams might suffer. Now, back in the day (a phrase often used interchangeably by older folks with "When I was a boy") late winter storms occurred, but dedicated athletes rallied with snowshovels and cleared a lane or two on the track for training. Indeed, isn't that happy guy pictured below Coach Shaklee at the Cherry Hill East track in 1971?
With that thought in mind, our photographer visited the track the day after the storm to catch our dedicated athletes in action! GO CHEROKEE!
Hmmmmm, maybe doing step drills?
Hills?
Hmmmmmm, probably out earlier . . . but what about the track?! LET'S GO CHEROKEE!
On March 28th, 2018, the team will travel to Timber Creek High School for the first event of the season, the Timber Creek - Haddon Heights Scrimmage, and, despite weather reports that indicate the temperatures will be over 50 degrees, by the time the meet begins, it will already be getting colder! Bring lots of clothing to wear before and after you compete! Look at the pros when they enter a stadium: they're carrying an "equipment bag" as big as a Fiat! Don't get caught unprepared! And, yes, it's a scrimmage so the regular uniform rules do not apply BUT wear something orange so the audience knows who the good guys are! GO CHEROKEE!
A large part of the team competed in the Scrimmage and, probably for the first time in years, the weather was relatively pleasant: yeah, a tad cool and cloudy but no wind, and no rain, snow or sleet! Yaaaa! Actually, after all these weeks of lousy weather, it felt like Florida and was a great opportunity to train!
Several of the coaches reported positively on the meet. Coach Lynn praised a number of Sprinters and Jumpers: Ty Ortiz clocked a 62.4 for a PR in the 400 IH; and Joey Carroll (63.2) and Tray Cabbagestalk (64.5) ran well in their first-ever 400 IH races! Tray returned in the 110HH and just missed another PR in that event! In addition, Frosh Chima Opara and Darnell Hightower looked good in the 100m Dash; and Senior Kevin Milligan also ran well to win the 400m Dash!
Among the Jumpers, Frosh Chris Brandreth did will in his first-time Triple Jump, hitting 32' 11". Moses Harris did nicely in the Triple Jump as well, clearing 35' 8.50"; and Frosh Mike Wolfe did well in the Long Jump as he cleared 15' 9"!
For many of the Throwers, this was a "rust-busting" event as there's no competition in the Javelin or Discus during the indoor season. But Coach Kramer reported that it was a good start for the season, with eleven PR's either broken or established at the meet! In the Javelin, Nathan Chang set an 11' PR, and Ahmad Miller had a 16' PR! In the Discus, the athletes struggled a little with the muddy conditions, but there were several PR's: Josh Morgan had a nice 2' PR, and Colin Mahoney had a 4' PR! The Shot Put saw some good marks as well. Mike Nessler PR'd by over a foot; Al Fofanah had a nice 5' PR; and Captain Kieran Kelly led by example with a throw of 43' 0.5"! It was his first throw over 40' and breaks his outdoor PR by over 6 feet! The coach concluded by saying, "The guys who didn't PR still had a great day and, as a group, we have set ourselves up nicely to have a really strong season."
For the Distance squad, the scrimmage did not match well with the training schedules of most of the group but, according to Coach Shaklee, many of those who did compete did very well! He was especially impressed by the aggressive way his runners attacked the 1600m Run, especially Mike Moraschi, Bryan Lafferty, Matt Zeitz and Matt Campbell, all of whom set a pace for the first 400m well ahead of their PR paces! Although they paid for it over the 2nd half of the race, the Coach was glad to see the enthusiastic effort they put forth! No one PR'd but Bryan Lafferty came closest, missing his indoor best by 2/10th of a second!
The 800m Dash was almost the exact opposite! It went out slowly up front and picked up considerably over the final 400! Mike Iannotta ran well until about 50 meters from the finish when his all-out effort, combined with too much forward lean, caused him to fall forward. Fortunately, he kept himself from hitting the track but he completely lost momentum and struggled to the line. Even with that, his 2nd lap was still 2 seconds faster than his first! Also, Matt Morgan managed to PR by a couple tenths even though it was his second race of the day!
For the record, Brandon Marks and Mike Iannotta both technically PR'd in the 200m Dash as it was the first time they were actually timed in the event! Just sayin'.
The Distance squad generally competes in the meet-ending 4 X 400m Relay for training and, not counting the athletes running it for the first time (Brian Lafferty and Daanyal Kaleem), the only Distance PR in the event was set by Mike Moraschi who knocked almost a second off of his best from last year on the lead-off leg . . . his 3rd race of the day! Matt Morgan and Matt Zeitz also ran well with times not far off their PRs!
On April 5th, 2018, the team welcomed Washington Township High School to Cherokee for the first dual meet of the season! However, the big story of the day was the wind, and maybe the cold temperatures! Javelins went left, distance runners struggled into the wind, sprinters flew with the wind at their backs, and jumpers complained of the cold! ; < )
Coach Kramer reported that the Throwers had a nice day, despite the weather! In the Javelin, Ahmad Miller picked up the victory with his last throw of the day; and both Aiden King (14' PR) and Ethan Hilburn had decent performances in the event! In the Shot Put, Marcus Dawson, Ethan Hilburn, Darian Massimino and Josh Morgan all threw nice PR's! Kieran Kelly didn't have his best throw but squeaked-in for a 3rd place score! Luch Pizarro fouled on his first two throws and switched to a stand throw to pick up the victory . . . and he did just that! The Discus was a rough day for the top guys but Luch Pizarro stepped-up and took 2nd place with a PR! Also Josh Morgan, Phil Quipot, Ethan Hilburn, and Darian Massimino all picked-up PR's! In addition, Morgan, Hilburn, and Massimino PR'd in every event in which they competed!
Coach Lynn reported that the Hurdlers/Sprinters/Jumpers had rewarding days as well! In the 400 IH, Joe Carroll clocked a PR and took 2nd in the race! In the 100m and 200m Dashes, EJ Bard, Andrew Parker and Will Delendik swept both events; and the 400m Dash, Kevin Milligan took 2nd, and CJ Lee took 3rd! In addition, the Jumpers won every event! Kenny Sprankle won the Pole Vault on his one and only required vault; and Nkenna Opara won the Long Jump on his final attempt! Moses Harris won the Triple Jump with a 1' 6" PR (that also met the qualifying standard for the end-of-the-season Conference Championships); and Tray Cabbagestalk took 2nd in the event! Joe Carroll and Andrew Parker tied to win the High Jump on their first and only attempts! Finally, Dylan DiPietro, Zach Palfy, Chris Brandreth, Denny Sweeney, Jeremy Sher and Rakesh Chandraraj all established PR's in the Long Jump!
According to Coach Shaklee, the Distance racers were negatively affected by the gusting winds and their races can best be described as "tactical." In the 1600m, no one wanted the lead and they went through the 800m in a leisurly 2:45! It continued to dawdle until the 1000m mark when Chris Spisak took the lead and accelerated, bringing Justin Kelly, Chase Miller and one Washington Township runner along. In the final backstretch, Kelly took the lead and, off the final turn, all four runners were in contention with Justin at the front! Chris and Chase ran well down the homestretch to pull away from the Township runner and give Cherokee the 1-2-3 sweep!
In the 800m, Brandon Marks bravely took the lead from the start and lead the pack through the wind. Ty Jackson ran smart throughout, and very tough over the last 100m, to secure the win with a big negative split! Brandon held on for 3rd with Mike Iannotta in 4th! In the JV heat, Mike Moraschi led wire-to-wire and came close to his PR despite the wind! Jake Hyzy finished 2nd, with Matt Morgan in 3rd with a 2-second PR! The only other PR was set by Daanyal Kaleem who knocked nine seconds off the time he ran in the Timber Creek scrimmage!
In the 3200m, Justin Kelly volunteered to lead and he pulled Chris Spisak and Ethan Wechsler along to a 1-2-3 sweep which gave Cherokee a 24-3 margin in the three distance events!
Finally, in the Distance Squad's training 4 X 400m Relay, four athletes improved on their previous best times despite the wind, three of whom were on the winning squad - Brett Shea, Nico Grilli and Chase Miller! The fastest split of the day came from Ethan Wechsler who, having just competed in the 3200m, still managed to lay down a 58.0 anchor leg, a 2-second improvement over his best from last year!
Final Score: Cherokee: 90; Washington Township: 49! GO CHEROKEE!
Dual Meet Record: 1 - 0!
Our photographer shot over 600 pictures at the meet, edited and saved 260, and will post around 65. Don't expect that many in the future! The award for the "Worst Performance at the Meet" goes to the two guys working the rakes at the LJ and TJ pit! They probably flunked "sandbox" in Kindergarten and will never get jobs as golf caddies! GO GUYS!
On April 29th, 2018, the 12th Annual Richard's River Run 5K around Cooper River Park is scheduled to raise money to combat childhood cancers and, over the years, Cherokee Track and Cross Country athletes showed-up to help achieve that goal!
Besides that, the fight is a personal one for Cherokee Track and Cross Country because, back in 2008, Tim Frantz, one of our team members died from bone cancer and the River Run provides an opportunity for us to remember him and the courageous battle he fought!
Check out these pages on our website for a brief look at Tim and plan to be there on Sunday morning to honor him: Tim's Pages.
GO CHIEFS!
On April 10th, 2018, Cherokee hosted their second dual meet of the season, this time against Eastern High School, and again won an easy victory! Important points came from each part of the team!
Among the Sprinters/Hurdlers, the team swept the 100m Dash for 9 points, and then returned in the 200m to take 1st and 3rd for 6 points! EJ Bard won both the 100m and 200m Dashes, hitting PR's in both! Andrew Parker clocked an impressive PR in the 100m Dash, dropping from 11.5 to 11.1; and Devin Ibarrondo PR'd in botht he 100m and 200m Dashes, taking 3rd in both!
Not to be left out, the Sprinters in the 400m Dash swept their event as well! Kevin Milligan took 1st; Ty Jackson was 2nd; and Rome Young and CJ Lee tied for 3rd! In addition, Jamarie Forrester and Aatish Gupta both clocked PR's in the event!
The Freshmen/Sophomore Sprinters deserve some credit too! In the 100m Dash, Mateo Calderon, Zack Palfy and Jake Free all ran PR's; in the 200m Dash, Chima Opara, Zack Palfy, Mateo Calderon, Darnell Hightower and Brad Rafkin all clocked PR's; and in the 400m Dash, Chima Opara and Brad Rafkin broke 60-seconds for the first time, setting new as well!
Several Hurdlers had nice races too! In the 400IH, Joey Carroll won his first varsity event ever and set another PR; and Ty Ortiz grabbed 3rd in the same race; and in the 110HH, Naledge Brown (PR in the HH by 3 seconds!) also won his first varsity event ever and dropped his PR by and incredible 3 seconds!
The Jumpers stepped up as well! In the Long Jump, Nkenna Opara cleared a PR to placed 1st and Liam DiFerdinando grabbed 3rd on the last jump of the competition! There were several "young guys" who picked-up PR's including Mike Wolfe, Denny Sweeney, Mateo Calderon (a 2 foot PR), Jeremy Sher, Zack Palfy and Chris Brandreth!
In the Triple Jump, Liam DiFerdinando made his 2nd best jump ever and notched 40' 8" for the win; and Nkenna Opara came back for 3rd! Other "young guys" getting PR's included Mike Wolfe, Chris Brandreth, Jeremy Sher, Dylan DiPietro, Denny Sweeney, and Zack Palfy!
Fun Fact: Freshman Zack Palfy had 4 PR's during the meet! GO ZACK!
The Distance team took care of business against Eastern with a 27-0 sweep of the points in the 800m, 1600m and the 3200m! Chase Miller and Ethan Wechsler did the heavy lifting, doubling in the 16 and 32, taking 1st and 2nd and 2nd and 1st respectively! Mike Iannotta, despite losing a shoe mid-race for the second time this year, took the 3rd spot in the 1600m while freshman, Nico Grilli, running his first 3200m race of his career, placed 3rd! Justin Kelly led the sweep of the 800m with Brandon Marks and Chris Spisak taking the next two spots, with Chris setting a new PR despite the heavy workload of training in the early season! In the distance training 4 X 400m, Justin Kelly, Brett Shea, Mike Iannotta, Mike Gavio, Mike Moraschi, Matt Morgan and Bryan Lafferty all set new PR's!
In the Field events, several Cherokee athletes scored well! In the Javelin, for example, Jared Selkow picked-up 2nd place, and Ahmed Miller finished right behind him for 3rd! In the Shot Put, Luch Pizarro and Kieran Kelly also picked-up 2nd and 3rd places; and Darien Massimino, Colin Mahoney and Mike Nessler all threw PR's! Finally, in the Discus, Mike Nessler threw a fantastic 11' PR and picked up the victory! Colin Mahoney also threw a PR in the Discus, giving Mike and Colin 2 PR's each on the day!
Final Score: Cherokee: 90.5; Eastern: 43.5! GO CHEROKEE!
Dual Meet Record: 2 - 0!
On April 14th, 2018, many on the team traveled to the Moorestown Invitational for their first "big" weekend invitational of the season! So far, Cherokee had several race days when the temperature was unusually cold but, at Moorestown, the temperature did a flip-flop and rose into the 80's! That may seem fortuitous but rapid changes in temperature, especially from cold to excessive heat, often makes racing difficult, especially for those in distance races! (But let's not carry this too far: the windy 80's felt a lot better than the windy 40's!)
That said, the weather didn't seem to bother the Throwers! As Coach Kramer reported, they made a good showing, medaling in all three events! Maybe not so obvious to newcomers to Track, the Throws "relays" are "sort-of relays" in the sense that the distances of two athletes throwing separately are combined for scoring purposes. In the Shot Put Relay, for example, Luch Pizarro had the second best individual throw of the competition, and his partner, Mike Nessler, continued his big week with another foot-long PR! They combined to take 3rd Place medals! In the Javelin Relay, Jared Selkow threw a 2-foot PR, and he combined with Ahmad Miller for 5th! Finally, in the Discus Relay, Kieran Kelly and Mike Nessler combined to take 4th Place medals!
Coach Lynn reported some decent performances from the Sprinter/Hurdlers/Jumpers, including the 3rd Place showing of the 4 X 100m Relay team consisting of Tray Cabbagestalk, Devin Ibarrondo, Andrew Parker and EJ Bard. He also highlighted the 2nd Place (Division) showing of the 4 X 200m Relay team of Kevin Milligan, Rome Young, CJ Lee and Devin Ibarrondo, with Rome clocking the best split! He specifically mentioned the performance of Devin, who is "off to a great start for a first-timer out for high school track!" Finally, among the Sprint team, the 4 X 400m Relay team of Ty Ortiz, Rome Young, CJ Lee and Joey Carroll placed 6th in the event!
In the runners' "sort-of relay" event, the 2 X 400IH, where the times of two athletes running separately are combined, Ty Ortiz and Joey Carroll placed 6th, with Joey clocking another PR and Ty only .07 off his PR!
Finally, in the Long Jump Relay, another "sort-of relay" event, two Freshmen, Mike Wolfe and Zack Palfy jumped PR's and placed 6th to grab medals!
Though he worked the Distance crew very hard this past week, Coach Shaklee was pleased with the performances of his runners! In the 5K, Jon Conn and Matt Smith "held it together" and finished 1st and 4th in the Large School Division (2nd and 6th overall)! Neither PR'd but both raced very tough! Later, the 4 X 800m Relay team of Ty Jackson, Mike Iannotta, Brett Shea and Nico Grilli ran very well! Ty had the fastest split on the lead-off and put the team in good position! Mike Iannotta tied his PR on the 2nd leg to keep Cherokee in the hunt; and the two Freshmen running 3rd and 4th, Brett Shea and Nico Grilli, set big PR's to put the team in 4th overall and 3rd in the Large School Division!
The best distance performance of the day came in the 1500m Run where Sophomore, Ethan Wechsler, ran an aggressive race and finished 2nd with an excellent time of 4:07.97, equal to a 4:26.25 in the 1600m, a PR by 8 seconds! Chase Miller, feeling the effects of the heavy training schedule, still managed to hold it together and place 3rd in the field of 20 runners!
Official results at: NJ.MileSplit.
Our photographer stuck to the finish line and failed to get to the Throws or Jumps areas. Apologies, guys! He's asking for a golf cart but, ever since the Meet Director at Woodbury struck a runner mid-race -- yes, on the track -- a few years ago, that seems unlikely!
On April 19th, 2018, Cherokee Distance welcomed around 400 distance athletes for the Cherokee Night Racing: Night of 3200's. For the record, the weather conditions were nuts! Temps in the low 40's, winds between 15 and 25 mph! De-e-e-e-e-lightful!
Despite the weather, it was a good night for Cherokee! Of the eleven Cherokee boys who raced, ten of them set new PR's! The coach held out several athletes, including the team's top two 3200m runners: Justin Kelly and Chris Spisak, as they will run their first competitive 3200m races at the Holmdel Twilight Meet on May 4th.
Ethan Wechsler continued his outstanding year with a 2nd place finish and a new PR of 9:31.77! To put that in perspective, in this meet last year, Ethan took 90th running 10:53.31! Fellow sophomore, Chase Miller, was not far behind Ethan in 4th with a new PR of 9:36.97! Although it's early in the season, currently, Ethan and Chase have the 2nd and 5th fastest times by New Jersey runners this spring; and their times put them 13th and 20th on the Cherokee All-Time List!
The team's top two freshmen, Nico Grilli and Brett Shea, also ran very well! They were the top freshmen of the night and both of them PR'd by a good amount! Brett did so even though someone stepped on the back of his shoe and took it off with three laps to run!
Others setting new PR's were Mike Gavio, Matt Morgan, Mike Moraschi, Bryan Lafferty, Matt Campbell and George Villanueva!
Official details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Our photographer worked diligently trying to save the evening's pictures. Try this: set the camera program on your smart phones, put your phones in your pockets, and then take some pictures. The results will be similar to those taken at the meet! Someone might ask the school to aim just one of the many lights aimed at the football field onto the track! Just sayin'. ;< )
On April 20th, 2018, many of the team's Hurdlers, Sprinters, Throwers and Jumpers traveled to the Eagle Relay Invitational at Central Regional High School in Bayville, N.J. where they produced some interesting results!
The 3 X 400IH Relay team of Joey Carroll, Tyler Ortiz and Naledge Brown placed 2nd! Joey dropped another PR of 1:01.80 and the coach expects him to go sub-60 in time for Sectionals!
Several Sprint results were interesting too! The 4 X 100m Relay team of EJ Bard, Devin Ibarrondo, Andrew Parker and Will Delendik placed 3rd in the event; the Swedish Relay (100-200-300-400) of Tray Cabbagestalk, EJ Bard, Kevin Milligan and Rome Young placed 3rd; and the 4 X 400m Relay of Joey Carroll, CJ Lee, Tyler Ortiz and Kevin Milligan placed 2nd!
In the Field, the Discus Relay of Kieran Kelly, Luch Pizarro and Mike Nessler took 5th, with Kieran throwing a qualifying distance for the Conference Championships and Luch throwing a PR! In the Shot Put Relay, Luch Pizarro, Kieran Kelly and Mike Nessler placed 2nd, with Mike throwing a new PR!
Among the Jumpers, the Triple Jump Relay of Tray Cabbagestalk, Nkenna Opara and Zack Palfy placed 6th, with Zack clearing a 3' 05" PR! Zack also grabbed a 1' PR in the Long Jump!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit
Our photographer was unavailable for the meet.