The weather as Spring Track opens is always a crapshoot, one day it can be 75 degrees and smell like the beach; the next it can be 35 degrees and smell like ski slops. Honest!
This year, it's a beach! Inhale! . . . Smell it? . . . Enjoy it . . . take advantage of it as it soon will change!
Years ago we wrote a story about a college-age Coach Shaklee that helped to explain his attitude towards practice in whatever weather and an attitude that you should appreciate!
__________________
"Years ago, the coach was on the Drexel Track team and, because of the disruptive 5-year academic, work/study program at Drexel, many of the athletes were forced to train on their own. He often practiced with his old coach from high school (after the high school practice was over) and, one dark, winter night, the weather was awful: cold, heavy rain and strong winds! Back then there were no cell phones so the coach waited in his office knowing the weather was nuts, he was nuts and so was Shaklee! Wait . . . it's not nuts, determined to succeed! He would show and they would practice in "the hurricane!"
"Well, he did! The two of them laughed at each other, agreed that they were nuts, and then went out and did a hard practice!"
An interesting MileSplit, Kansas article written by Rod Morrow in March, 2018 suggests the value of what Shak did and why he continues to stress such devotion with his own athletes! Check it out at: KS.MileSplit. The article is also copied on our server at: Morrow, 25 Days
(This was funny a few years ago and it still is!)
Years ago, a young runner received some advice that would carry him comfortably through many years of running: don't take the lead on narrow, wooded trails!
Lions, tigers and bears? . . . Snakes? . . . Quicksand? . . . Hidden cliffs? . . . What?!
Spider webs!
Planting your face in a spider web can be disconcerting, at best, but if it happens to someone else, it will become one of the funniest running stories you'll ever tell. For example, check out this guy here. Obviously, he's not a runner but you get the idea!
Alas, recent news from the American Southeast adds an even more annoying "dimension" to the story: the Banana Spider, is moving northward and it's BIG! The body is between 1 and 2 inches, the leg span between 4 and 5 inches! Yikes! But even more impressive . . . their silk webs are strong and sticky, generally at human-eye level (where the flying insects are), and span several feet wide! Yikes, again!
Is there good news here? Absolutely! (1) When you tell the story of how one of your friends reacted to encountering one of these webs, everyone will laugh uncontrollably and snot will come out of their noses; (2) the spider is not venomous to humans unless eaten raw; and (3) if you remove the poison sack, cooking the spider briefly with a burning match will make a tasty little running snack! Yum!
Enjoy your runs! ; < )
Welcome to Spring Track! ; < )
Years ago, the Haddonfield Running Company sponsored the "Bancroft 5K Run," partly as an effort to raise money for the Bancroft House, a facility that provided living facilities and assistance for grievously sick and disabled children. That arrangement continued when Bancroft moved elsewhere and the "Adrenaline 5K Run' was established. Back in those early days, when indoor racing facilities were primitive at best, Distance Coach Shaklee used the then-called "Bancroft 5K Run" as a time-trial for his athletes who had been training all winter. Everyone ran it, competing in separate Cherokee teams, and ran it hard against each other!
Today, with the indoor tracks as common and good as they are, the coach does not use the "Adrenaline 5K Run" as any kind of a time-trial and does not require any of his athletes to run the race, . . . and today, only a few of his runners did so.
Graduate Jack William Shea IV '17 was home from Arizona and aimed to set the record at the race! Originally, there was some talk of Freshman Jack Tindall running as a "rabbit" but that failed to unfold. Jack Tindall was in the race for a while and then dropped out. He was accompanied by three current Chiefs who finished their races: Senior Dom Pilari (16:07.24 - YIKES!); and Freshmen Evan Amato (18:04.77) and Dylan Weiner (18:29.81).
Not sure what our runners' goals were: Jack Shea won the race easily (14:27.18) but failed to set the record (someone said a really nice 14:01). Dom Pilari had a sweet time running a PR of about 20 seconds! Indeed, he ran so fast our photographer caught him only once and then didn't know he had! (No, his still-golden hair didn't help, and it didn't help that Dom wore a black Haddonfield singlet in the crowd of 1000-plus instead of something orange!) Evan, who could be seen well on his way home, impressed with his own 20 second PR but Dylan missed any PR's this time. Still, many thanks for the classic snot shot he provided on this chilly day! These and some other pictures available at our: Google site.
Details at: Run Sign Up.
Today, an administrator from the NJ State Department of Education visited the school and, for no particular reason, stopped by the track and witnessed an unusual scene. There on the center field was strewn a significant number of athletes . . . doing what?! In his questioning, he described the athletes as "half-dressed, scrawney, 'mostly as white as Norwegian polar bears,' and apparently tired from some exercise." Reports have been passed to the Superintendent, the Food Bank of SJ, the Red Cross and their mothers.
On March 30th, 2025, the South Jersey Track Coaches Association honored Cherokee's former Assistant Track and Field Coach Chris Callinan as one of their inductees!
Since 2015, the association has selected mostly South Jersey's "great" athletic performers and coaches -- Coach Shaklee was selected in 2023 -- as well as major contributors to the sport, and thanked them for all they did for Cross Country amd Track and Field over the years.
Coach Cal's extensive biography is available at _.
His pictures are available through his years of coaching on this website, starting at 2008, but here are a few chosen as quick reminders:
Head Coach Hoffman sent the following details on his staff:
Head Coach Matt Hoffman focuses on the Throws side of the team. This is his 5th year at Cherokee and he has 7 years of past experience at RVHS where he made his name producing a variety of state and sectional Throws champions!
Assistant Coach Jeff Misuraco. Jeff joined the boy's side this past winter. One of his great strengths, besides his sense of humor and easy-going personality, is his ability to bring some football players into our program. He focuses on the Sprinters in our program.
Assistant Coach Drew Viscidy. Drew returns as a utility man on the track who helps with everything from short sprints, long sprints, horiztonal, and vertical jumps. He also dabbles in hurdles. A former Cherokee Chief, Drew holds the fastest 400m time in Cherokee history!
Assistant Coach Stephen Shaklee is well known as Distance Coach here at Cherokee. Shak has produced numerous state champions in Cross Country and Track. Now retired from his Counselor position at Cherokee, he shares the Distance program with Ass't Coach Thompson in a unique combination program.
Assistant Coach Jeff Thompson. Jeff has stepped back to split his coaching demands with Shak because he is welcoming a 3rd child to the Thompson household this May! Jeff has been long considered Coach Hoffman's "track" coach, as he is an excellent overseer of all that is on the track. He is highly detailed and dedicated to keeping our ship together.
On March 31st, 2025, Cherokee traveled to Lenape Regional High School to open their 2025 Spring Track Season! The day was cloudy with some sunshine and "breezy," the team was ready to compete!
Assistant Coach Shaklee is always first to report on his guys and it's always easy when they do some nice running!
"The distance team had a pretty easy day of it in the first dual meet against Lenape High School.
"Up first was the 1600m. With 25 Cherokee runners in the field, the start was crowded, even with only two Lenape athletes. It was a windy day so the team let the first Lenape runner lead through the first two laps. Then the top group of about twelve Cherokee runners went to the front and picked up the pace. They stayed together and encouraged sophomore, Gavin Danielewicz to lead into the finish. In doing so, Gavin established a new PR! The next nine Cherokee runners all finished within 2.5 seconds of Gavin with another five finishing within ten seconds of the lead. In addition to Gavin, other PRs were set by Dylan Weiner, Evan Amato, Trayce Slumsky and Charlie Wasserott. Four other athletes technically set PRs as they were running the event for the first time!
Tate Midora ran the Open 400m and came from behind to win the event in 52.6 seconds, just edging out teammate, Colin Feehan.
The 800m was divided into two heats. Logan Bromley, Enzo Corona, Dom Pileri and Ben Realley ran in the first heat and went out very slowly. They picked it up on the second lap and swept the first four places. However, in heat two, Max Harada and Matt Muschek went through the first lap 6 seconds faster than the seeded heat had! Max closed well enough to end up with the fastest time for first place overall, and a new PR! Matt finished sixth overall and Leo Vyvyan was seventh, also with a new PR! Other PRs were set by Evan Amato, Dylan Weiner, Trayce Slumsky and Charlie Wasserott.
Lenape did not run anyone in the 3200 -- really!? -- so the five Cherokee runners, Liam and Jack Tindall, Sean Soy, Ben Weiner and Anthony DiBattista worked together for the first few laps at a moderate pace. Over the last half of the race, Liam and Jack pulled away to take first and second, with Sean a little behind in third.
We entered seven teams in the 4x400 Relay and mixed them up so the first three would compete with each other, and the next three would compete. The last really consisted of the new runners. A number of athletes established new PRs: Dom Pileri, Logan Bromley, Jack Tindall, Sean Soy, Max Harada and Leo Vyvyan. Several others were running the event for the first time, so they also technically set PRs (from which to build)!
Next up for the distance crew (as the Don Danser Invitational was cancelled) is the Cherry Hill East dual meet next Monday, with the Cherokee Night of 3200s three days later".
For further details, Coach Shaklee provided the following Distance Spreadsheet.
Assistant Coach Misuraco gave us this summary of what his Sprinters did at the meet:
"Senior Captain Liam McCloskey started the meet the right way by collecting 5 points with a 1st place finish in the 400IH in 61.0! That time was a big PR for Liam, who missed the winter season with a foot injury sustained at soccer in the fall. We're excited to have him back!
"The 100m saw some positive early season results. In his first varsity race, freshman Davis Walker took 2nd place in 11.3, coming in behind only Lenape's MJ Lincoln, who placed top 10 at MOCs in the 55m this past winter. Senior Evan Bryfogle took 3rd in 11.4, his first ever 100m race as well. The two newcomers led the way ahead of junior Mateo Rosario (11.7), senior Murad Campfield (11.8), and junior Noah Calderon (11.8). That collection of athletes figure to compete for places in the 4x100 at the Penn Relays next month, and we are excited to see how they improve in the coming weeks.
"In the 100HH, senior captain Sam Green showed that he is more than just a high jumper, reeling off a time of 16.8 for a 1st place finish! Sam is an extremely versatile athlete who is going to be asked to compete in some key areas for us this season. Hurdling seems to come pretty naturally to him and we can't wait to see how his season unfolds.
"In the 200m, Davis Walker led the way, once again finishing in 2nd with a time of 23.0. He is a freshman with a massive amount of raw talent and a very, very high ceiling. He can run every race in the sprint category and is developing some high jump technique at the moment as well. We were happy to see him compete well at this meet and think things will only continue to improve from here. Behind him was junior captain Mateo Rosario, who took 3rd in 23.8. Bryfogle (23.8), Campfield (24.6) sophomore Colin Feehan (24.3), and freshman Eric Zheng (24.8) also had strong showings for themselves at the top of the depth chart!
"In the Field, the reigning indoor Group IV State champ in the pole vault, Tobin Horwath, continued to show his consistency, hitting 13-0 to take 1st. In the high jump, Sam Green (6-2), Noah Calderon (5-8), and Davis Walker (5-8) swept the event, going 1-2-3, respectively. Noah did not work at high jump very often in the winter, but has shown he has plenty of potential in that category. His real 'bread and butter' is the long jump, where he took 1st with a jump of 19-5 despite coming in under his PR. He is an extremely hard working kid with an unbelievable attitude; he has a lot of great things ahead of him if he continues to develop the habits he has established.
"First-year athlete Namon Sanchez also scored his first varsity points with 3rd place finishes in both the long jump (18-1) and triple jump (38-8.25). Sophomore Xiangrong Yue, who recently moved to this country from China, popped off a 39-2.5 triple jump to take 2nd in the event. While we currently have to coach him through a translation app on his phone until he understands a little more English, he has shown that he definitely understands how to jump far! We are very excited about our jumpers and the depth we have in those areas this spring and some eyes have been peeking at the relay record board to see if we can create a combo to replace some records that have been up there since the '07 and '08 seasons. With the way these guys are showing up to practice, we wouldn't put it past them to do some special things in the coming months."
Head Coach Matt Hoffman passed along these comments on his Throwers.
"The Throwers brought their A-game to Lenape, winning their events with a score of 19-8. To lead all throwers, Francisco Sandoval took first in Javelin (124-0), first in Shot (43-1), and second in Discus (100-3)! Therefore, "Sisco" scored 12 of Cherokee's 19 points!
"Jonah Bluestein missed a PR by half an inch, throwing 40-4 to take second in shot put! Senior Brody Ludman reluctantly took second in javelin (123-4) behind Sisco, but he knows he has much more in the tank, trying to capitalize from his 125-2 PR last year! Brody also took 3rd in discus. Frosh Jacob Cranmer took 3rd in javelin in his first dual meet with a (98-9) and shows a promising future this early in his career!"
Here are some of the many pictures taken at the meet. Our photographer is having physical problems so all of the pictures this time were taken at the finish line. He looks forward to getting around more in the future. These pictures and more are available on our Google site.
Years ago, Coaches Shaklee and Callinan introduced several meets devoted to distance running.
Coach Shaklee reported the following: "On April 11th, 2025, the distance team had a good night at their first Night Racer Meet - The Cherokee Night of 3200s. Of the 23 Cherokee athletes who competed, 19 of them came away with new PRs!
"Jonathan Merkel got it started in Heat 3 where, despite getting tripped up and injuring his wrist, he still managed to set a small PR.
"Heat 8 included three Cherokee runners, senior, Sam Wright, and sophomores, Matt Muschek and Brayden Pederson. All three ran well with Sam placing fourth in the heat and knocking over twenty seconds off his previous best. Matt and Brayden were both running their first ever 3200 race and they did a great job, placing 6th and 13th respectively!
"Four Cherokee runners were in heat 15 and all four PRed! Sophomore, Jack Finley, ran an exceptionally strong race to finish second with a time over twenty seconds faster than his seed! The other three athletes, Trayce Slumsky, Evan Amato and Dylan Weiner are all freshmen but they ran like experienced upperclassmen, and all three set new personal bests with Trayce the fastest of the three!
"Sophomore, Bruce Novoa and senior, Liam Daimler, were in heat 18. Both raced very smart and tough, and both set new PRs by a wide margin!
"Three sophomores, Max Harada, Gavin Danielewicz and Leo Vyvyan, were in heat 19 along with senior, Anthony DiBattista. All three sophomores set new PRs but the best of the three was Max. He ran 12:59 in this meet last year and came in this year with a PR of 11:47.76. Although we knew he would easily best that early time, we were still surprised by his performance! Max closed his last lap in under 64 seconds to win the heat and break 10:00, running 9:58.71! Wow! (He means Yikes!)
"Middle distance runner, Tate Midora, was in heat 20 and he ran 10:03.04 to PR by ten seconds!
"Heat 22, the second-to-last section, featured Sophomore, Sean Sooy, junior, Dom Pileri, and senior, Ben Weiner. Sean came in this season with a 9:50 PR and. tonight he dropped that down to 9:39.61! That makes Sean the twelfth fastest Cherokee sophomore ever! Dom, who spent much of last year out with injury, was running his first 3200 since his freshman year and managed a sub-10 effort, stopping the clock at 9:58.29! Although Ben did not have his best race, he still managed another sub-10, finishing just a step behind Dom in 9:58.80!
"The final heat included five Cherokee runners. Sophomore, Ben Realley, had the best outing of the group, taking the lead on lap 5 and running tough to the finish from there to take 3rd and set a new Cherokee Sophomore record of 9:15.93, breaking Nick Kuenkel's mark from 2022, of 9:18.87! That puts Ben at number si' on the all-time Cherokee list behind Cherokee greats Marc Pelerin '02, Shawn Wilson '13, Kuenkel '24, Ethan Wechsler '19 and Nick Falk '17! Ben also did this with a big negative split (4:45 / 4:30) which indicates he may have more in the tank! Senior, Liam Tindall, was next for the Chiefs, placing 11th in 9:29.87. While it was not quite a PR, it was Liam's best race this school year and a good sign that he is ready for some faster racing later this spring! He also negative split (4:47 / 4:42). Liam's freshman brother, Jack Tindall, was next and, while his time and place were not what he is capable of, he managed a respectable 9:32.09 for 13th, despite throwing up mid-race and, as a result, struggling over the last few laps. That time is the third fastest ever by a Cherokee freshman (behind Ben Realley and Nick Kuenkel)! It will be interesting to see just how fast he can run when he isn't experiencing stomach distress! Junior, Logan Bromley, was the fourth Cherokee runner. While he did not PR, Logan did run an aggressive race, leading the first couple of laps before losing some ground over the later stages of the race. He still managed a very decent time of 9:36.89, good for 16th! The final Cherokee runner in heat 23 was senior, Enzo Corona, who, despite not feeling his best, and worried about not impressing his girlfriend, still set a new PR of 9:38.23 for 18th!
"With nine athletes under 10:00 and nineteen new PR's, we were happy with the results and look forward to bigger and better things come championship season!"
Details at: NJ.MileSplit.
Our photographer hated this evening of raw 40 degree temperatures delivered to the track by 15 MPH winds. He looked forward to some classic snot shots but the only one with a runny nose was himself. Still, he stayed but, rookie-like, mixed the results of three cameras and the picture numbers they produced. He's a tad confused, and the pics confusing, but you can catch all of them at: our Google site.
Thanks Josh for the hot chocolate! Thanks Bill for stopping and chatting!
On Monday, April 14, 2025, the team welcomed the team from Cherry Hill High School East for their second dual meet of the season and sent them home as losers!
Coach Shaklee reported on the performances of his distance squad below:
"The distance group, especially Coach Shaklee, does not love dual meets. They are unnecessary disruptions to the training regime for the important meets. However, since the Olympic Conference AD's are still operating in the dark ages and treating track & field like it is the same as baseball or softball, teams are stuck having to compete in them if they want to contend for a division championship. Some duals don't require hard racing and can be used as workout days. That, however, Was not the case going into the Cherry Hill East dual meet. They have a very strong distance group and we knew we would have some tough races.
"The 1600, featured nine athletes with sub-4:30 PRs, four East runners and five from Cherokee. The weather was good so Jack Tindall decided to go to the lead early and push the pace. He was able to build a slight lead on the East runners and the rest of the Cherokee pack with a lap to go. However, taking the lead early left him fatigued and he really had to tough it out to just hold of East's first man in a time of 4:22.7. Ben Realley and Liam Tindall took 4th and 5th, with Ben dipping ever so slightly under his previous PR with his time of 4:25.6! Liam was only a few steps back in 4:26.2! Other PR's were set by sophomores, Max Harada and Leo Vyvyan!
"Several of the 1600 runners doubled back in the 800 which turned into a tactical affair. The pack was through the 400 in around 64 seconds before the pace began to pick up on the backstretch with 300 to go. Ben Realley, Jack Tindall, Enzo Corona and Dom Pileri swept places 2nd through 5th behind the winning East runner. New PR's were established by Evan Amato, Dylan Weiner, Trayce Slumsky, Gavin Danielewicz and Rocco Bellano, with Evan's being the most impressive as he dropped from 2:19 down to 2:13!
"For some reason, Cherry Hill East decided not to run anyone in the 3200 so the sweep of that event went to the Tindall brothers, Liam and Jack, and sophomore, Leo Vyvyan, who got recruited into the event literally 30 seconds before the start!
"Cherokee also had three distance runners in the 400, led by Tate Midora, who won with a new PR of 51.7! Matt Muschek also set a new PR, dropping a couple of seconds off his previous best at 54.8. In addition, sophomore, Sean Sooy, doubling back on very short rest from the 1600, managed a respectable time of 58.8, only about a second off of his PR!
'Finally, in the 4x400, we had two distance guys on the varsity squad and four other relay teams running as well. Our varsity squad beat the East contingent with both Tate Midora (51.6) and Dom Pileri (53.1) establishing new PR's! In addition, on the other four teams, six athletes established new PR's: Trayce Slumsky, Evan Amato, Gavin Danielewicz, Dylan Weiner, Noah Pirotta and Rocco Bellano!
'Because of the previous rain, the pit was not fit for jumping so the meet has not officially concluded. With the long jump and triple jump remaining, the score is Cherokee 66 and East 55. It remains to be seen if East will simply accept the loss as is, or if they will reschedule those two events. They would need to take first and second in both to win, while we simply need 5 points to take the victory".
Editors comment. Despite Coach Shaklee and the distance group's argument, ya gotta love dual meets! Check out the results! Guys get thrown into events and situations that, often, they've never faced before, and, often, they excel at! It can be great for the team, the coach AND the athlete! Multiple guys ran the 1600 in the 4:20s IN A DUAL MEET! Nuts! Multiple guys dropped seconds off their PRs in the 400m! East just doesn't want to exhaust their distance guys by having them compete in the 3200 against Cherokee's studs! Crazy stuff! Numerous Sprinters and Distance guys set PR's in the 4 X 400, and the final battle was epic: two of the last guys in the slowest heat got forced into a long neck-and-neck battle to the finish line! Great stuff! And now the coach knows what all of these guys CAN DO and he'll expect equal performances in the future! Great stuff!
Coach Misuraco sent his view of the meet!
"The meet against East went fairly well for the sprint group! Davis Walker (Frosh - 10.9) and Mateo Rosario (JR - 11.2) took 1st and 3rd in the 100m, while many of our athletes walked away with season best marks! Rosario also took 2nd in the 200m with a time of 22.4! It was great to run a 200 apparently, as every single sprinter who competed managed to reel off a PR!
"In the 400, Tate Midora (Sr - 51.6) took 1st again, while Colin Feehan (So. - 53.3) earned a 3rd place finish! Both of those guys have been competing well in the 400m and have proven to been valuable dual meet pieces.
"In the hurdles, Liam McCloskey (Sr - 62.3) continued his consistent performance for a 2nd place finish in the 400IH, while the 110HH saw sophomores David Nnawuihe and Conor Staff put together strong performances for themselves!
"In the vertical jumps, Tobin Horwath (Sr - 13') took 1st, as Sam Green (Sr) cleared 10'6" and walked away with a 2nd place finish in his first ever crack at the event! New vaulter Justin Cecchetto (Jr) rounded out the sweep with an 8'6" jump to earn his first varsity points. Meanwhile, the brooms stayed out as Green (Sr - 5'10), Noah Calderon (Jr - 5'8), and Isaiah Williams-Lewis (So - 5'6) swept the high jump. Unfortunately, our sand pit was looking more like a lake, so long and triple jumps are still waiting to be contested, but we were pretty pleased with how things shook out for the remainder of the competitors!"
There is no NJ.MileSplit report on the meet.
Our photographer stayed with the Throwers and most of his pictures are of them! Still, he caught a number of 4 X 400m races that he enjoyed. Check out the few below and check out the Google site!
