Cherokee Track & Field Pictures, 2022, Page VII







Welcome to the Championship Phase of the Spring Track Season!

Mid-May to Early-June: Some important meets, like the Royal Rumble and the SJ Open, where our athletes home their skills and display much of the work they've done this season, and then the all-important State meets, State Sectionals, State Groups and State Meet of Champions! GO CHEROKEE!





~~ The Royal Rumble: A Night of 1600's ~~

On May 19th, 2022, Distance Coach Shaklee and his entire distance squad returned to Holmdel High School for one of Holmdel's classic running nights -- 27 heats of the 1600 - - and the team is still shaking from their successes!

Coach Shaklee reported quickly on their performances!

"For the first time since 2019, the boys distance squad made the trip up to Holmdel High School for the The Royal Rumble - A Night of 1600s. The long trip was worth the effort! Running under perfect conditions, the boys took advantage and came home with a slew of new PRs! Of the twenty-six who raced, twenty-one recorded their best time!

"To see all who made that happen, you can view the entire list in the results document:

Distance Track Results

"While all the PRs are great accomplishments, the most notable performances included:

"Myron Paes, running a tactically smart race and winning heat 10 with a new PR!

"Rocco Clifford knocking a huge 17 seconds off of his personal best in heat 12!

"Luke Reistle, Ben Weiner and Anthony DiBatista in heat 16, all dipping under 5:00 for the first time!

"Julian Hatch also dipping under 5:00 for the first time in heat 17!

"Liam Tindall, winning heat 20 and knocking 9 seconds off his previous best in the process! Liam was the 8th best Freshman on the night!

"Joe Natoli, in heat 23, breaking 4:40 for the first time . . . by 5 seconds!

"Bobby Poplau and Tommy Bromley taking first and second in heat 24, closing in 60 seconds each and breaking 4:30 for the first time. Their times of 4:27.33 and 4:27.89 move them to 25th and 31st on the all-time Cherokee list!

"Nick Kuenkel dropping his PR to 4:24.93 putting him at 19th on the all-time Cherokee list (3rd fastest sophomore)!

"And, finally, in the seeded heat, Juniors, Patrick Ditmars and Conor Jacob, finished 3rd and 9th in 4:15.26 and 4:18.45! The 4:18.45 moves Conor to 7th on the All-Time Cherokee List (3rd junior)! Patrick's 4:15.26 breaks the Cherokee and Burlington County Junior Class Records (previously both held by 2020 grad, Ethan Wechsler)! It also makes Patrick the 3rd fastest Cherokee runner in history behind the 4:11.69 by Shawn Wilson in 2013 and the 4:11.86 by Marc Pelerin in 2002!

"It is exciting to think that, of all the hundreds of runners who have competed for Cherokee over the years, we currently have five of the top 31, and they all return next year!"

In his recent blog SJ Track Blog: From the Backstretch article, Reuben Frank reported on "Cherokee junior Patrick Ditmars runs all-time #7 Burlington County 1,600 time at Holmdel!!!!!", and we saved the article on our server at: here.

Further details at: NJ. MileSplit.

Here are some pictures from the event, and these and the others are available at the District's Google site!



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~~ The SJTCA Open ~~

On May 21st, 2022, the SJTCA hosted the second part of their South-Jersey-only meet (the first was the "Elite" meet on May 5th) at Delsea High School, The SJTCA Open, and Cherokee took a large part of the team! MIA was the Distance Squad that had just raced a few days earlier in Holmdel.

Team report to follow. Details at: NJ.MileSplit.

Our photographer was available on the track for a short time during the meet. Here are some of his pictures and these and others are available at the District's Google site.


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~~ Olympic Conference Championships ~~

On May 24th, 2022, the top Varsity performers returned to Washington Township Regional High School for the Olympic Conference Championships and they performed welll in several areas!

Coach Shaklee sent this comment on his distance athletes:

"The Distance squad had a successful outing at the Olympic Conference Meet, despite being without top runner, Patrick Ditmars, [who had a hairdresser appointment in New York City]. (Just checking to see if anyone reads this!)

"The first event was the 4 x 800 Meter Relay. The team of Lucas Hatch, Nick Kuenkel, Bobby Poplau and Conor Jacob led from start to finish, winning with a new meet record of 7:58.38 (the old record was 8:03 by Cherry Hill East in 2015). All four guys ran well but special acknowledgement goes to to Nick Kuenkel who established a new PR of 1:58.47 on the second leg!

"Tommy Bromley and Liam Tindall were our entrants in the 1600 Meter Run. Tommy, suffering from allergy related symptoms, struggled a bit but still managed to place 7th overall! Liam was not far behind in 8th, setting a new PR of 4:37.60, an excellent time for a freshman runner!

"Conor, Bobby, Nick and Tommy all doubled back in the 800 Meter Run and took four of the top seven spots! Bobby Poplau finished the strongest and caught the leaders right at the line to become the Olympic Conference 800 Meter Champion! Conor was not far back in third while Nick was right behind him in fourth and Tommy was the seventh finisher!

"In the 3200, Bradley Popler ran a very tough race, leading from the halfway point on and holding off all challenges to become the Olympic Conference 3200 Meter Champion! Behind him, Joe Natoli finished third while Andrew Free and Bobby Hackney took eighth and ninth!

"Finally, both Conor and Bobby came back on the 4 x 400 Meter Relay and both set new PR's despite having already run twice prior. With their strong running, the team of Kevin Hess, Lucas Hatch and Conor and Bobby took third place overall!"


Congratulations to Senior Bradley Popler for winning the Olympic Conference Championship in the Open 3200m; to Sophomore Bobby Poplau for winning the Olympic Conference Championship in the Open 800m; and to Senior Lucas Hatch, Sophomore Nick Kuenkel, Junior Conor Jacob and, again, to Bobby Poplau for winning the Olympic Conference Championship in the 4 X 800m Relay!


Olympic Champions!

OK, Olympic Conference Champions!

Bradley Bobby

~ Click to open ~

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Haven't heard anything from the other coaches yet but further details are at: NJ.MileSplit.com. A quick look shows several PR's and a bunch of close-to PR's on the day! Junior newcomer, Wesley Davenport clocked another PR in the Open 100; Josh Pawlik got a small PR in the Open 400; and Nick Kuenkel set another PR in the 800m Run! Among the Jumpers/Throwers, Azariah Cooper picked-up a PR in the Long Jump and wasn't far off his recent, excellent 40' 10" performance in the Triple Jump; and Ryan Bender made his unofficial PR of 5' 10" in the High jump official and took 3rd! Senior Thrower Holden Wolfert took 1st with a nice but less-than-PR toss of the Javelin; and Sophomore Zack Ott took 3rd with a PR throw! In the Discus, Sophomore Brody Wolfert took 6th place with a PR throw; and Sophomore Shane Sloan threw his first 100+ Discus in competition, taking 13th and setting a PR!

Check out the Open 800 Video with Bobby, Conor and Nick! Y-I-K-E-S! Not sure why the videographer shot from inside the announcer's box and wrecked his video with the various blocking posts but ya gotta love the race anyway! Conor does a huge amount of work, pressing the top seed, Justin Penny, even trying to pass him on the last turn, while Bobby cruises past in the final-50 and takes the race! Guys should save that video for your grandchildren! NJ.MileSplit, 800m video.

Here are some pictures from the track area, and these and others are available on the District Google site!


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~~ Haddonfield Distance Night ~~

On May 31st, 2022, a freakishly hot day in South Jersey, the Distance team bused to nearby Haddonfield for the annual Haddonfield Distance Night: all survived the conditions and many exceeded expectations, their own and others'!

Distance Coach Shaklee sent this summary of events:

"Despite the oppressively hot conditions, several of the Cherokee distance runners recorded new personal records at the Haddonfield Distance Night!

"When the meet started, with the Freshman 800, the temperature was 95 and the sun was out on three quarters of the track. Still, Liam Tindall managed a small PR while Rocco Clifford knocked several seconds off of his previous best!

"The Varsity 800 was highlighted by Conor Jacob who took the win and established a new PR of 1:55.93, moving him to tenth on the All-Time Cherokee List! Not far behind in 5th, was Bobby Poplau who set a new PR of his own at 1:57.10! Tommy Bromley was next and, although it was not a PR, he once again dipped under 2:00! Joe Natoli, running his first 800 of the year, made it a good one with his 2:04.17 clocking, with Josh Pawlik right behind him at 2:04.54! In an earlier heat, Brett Yagiello also set a new PR!

"The highlight of the Freshman 1600 was the performance of Zach Ciabattoni who ran his best race of the spring season, knocking almost five seconds off his previous best time and dipping under 5:00 for the first time!

"In the Varsity 1600, the bravest race of the night may have been run by Nick Kuenkel who raced super-aggressively, splitting 2:05 for the first 800 and ultimately holding on to break his previous best by almost 4 seconds with a very fast 4:21.62! Bradley Popler continued his impressive season with yet another tough race! He closed his last 400 fast and held off challengers all the way to the line to break 4:30 for the first time with a 4:29.06 clocking! In addition, Danny Hassall PR'ed by almost 4 seconds but it was Myron Paes who made the biggest jump as he knocked 11 seconds off of his previous best!

"The hot night ended with the 3200 Meter Run. It was very difficult conditions for a race of that length (the temperature had dropped into the mid-80s but the humidity had gone up). Despite the heat, Ben Hackney ran a very good race to take 3rd! Behind him, Luke Reistle set an new PR and broke 11:00 for the first time!"

Haddonfield Distance Night is meant as a last-chance opportunity for those ending their seasons to go out with a great race and as a sharpener for those moving on to the state's championships races. It clearly accomplished both!

Details, videos and an interview with winning speedster Conor Jacob at NJ.MileSplit.

In his recent blog SJ Track Blog: From the Backstretch article, Reuben Frank reported on "Conor Jacob, Robert Poplau continue Cherokee 800 dominance; Lathan Brown, Billy Clewell also go sub-1:57 at Haddonfield!!!!!", and we saved the article on our server at: here.

Our photographer was there and he has slightly over 5,000 pictures from this meet and Sectionals. Too backed-up to provide samples here but he has the Haddonfield pictures on the District's Google site. Hope you find something you like!


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