Often, here in South Jersey, the shift from Winter Track to Spring Track is subtle! The calendar says "March" but Winter hangs on . . ..
After a pretty nasty winter, the weather shifted drastically in late February and early March with unusually high temperatures mixed with unusually low temperatures and a "little" snow . . .! The team worked through this, however, knowing that a real Spring thaw and a busy season were coming! On the early schedule, Night Racer #1, a challenging opening night of 3200's at Cherokee on April 2nd; The College of NJ High School Open on April 4th; and Batch Meet #1 at Cherokee on April 8th! GO CHEROKEE!
Unlike the weather, the staff remaines steady: Head Coach Matt Hoffman focuses on the Throwers; Coach Jeff Thompson will work with the Sprinters; Coach Steve Shaklee continues to work with the Distance squad; and Coach Jeffrey Misuraco and Coach Drew Viscidy working with the Jumpers and Hurdlers. GO CHIEFS!
Team Schedule on Conference Schedule with Cherokee T & F.
Early Spring is always a delight as the weather is often a crap-shoot! This meet, scheduled on April 2nd, 2026 might have been worse but it is unlikely. Temperatures in the low 40s, wind gusting to 15 mph, and intermittent rain showers made it an annoying experience but, I suppose, "it might have been worse."
While our photographer might describe it as, "A bunch of idiots, running in their underwear, setting PR's just to get their clothes back on," Coach Shaklee described it this way:
"The spring season got underway on April 2nd with the Cherokee Night Racer 1 Meet: Night of 3200s. It was spring track but it felt a bit more like winter with temperatures in the low to mid 40s, a 12 mph wind and misty rain. Despite the conditions, the Cherokee distance squad had some good results!
"Nineteen of the twenty-three members of the distance squad ran, and fourteen of those nineteen set new personal records in the 3200!
"Nick Carpineto got things started, running in heat 2 and setting a new PR, showing that the hard work he has put in is paying off!
"Fletcher D'Alessandro and Noah Pirrotta were in heat 6 and Fletcher had a very strong race to place 3rd with a new PR!
"Jonathan Merkel and Rocco Bellano ran in heat 7 and both set new PRs! Jonathan was a full minute and 50 seconds faster than what he ran last year at this meet!
"JJ Duncan and Brayden Pedersen were next in heat 10 and, once again, both set new PRs!
"Matt Muschek and Dylan Weiner continued that trend in heat 14 with two new PRs!
"Heat 17 had four Cherokee athletes, Evan Amato, Colton Harbold, Trayce Slumsky and Bruce Novoa. It was Bruce's first race since returning from injury and it was a good start but not quite a PR. The other three all improved on their previous bests, with Evan contending for the win up front and coming close with his 2nd place finish!
"Leo Vyvyan did not have his best day, racing in heat 18. However, we discovered after the fact that he was on the verge of illness and has since had to take a break from running to recover.
"Heat 20, the second to last heat, had three Cherokee runners - Logan Bromley, Gavin Danielewicz and Hamza Salahuddin. All three competed well but only Gavin came away with a new PR1 Logan, however, was running his first race in quite a while and he ran a strong tactical race to take the lead on the backstretch of the final lap and pull away for a 3-second victory, closing in 63 seconds! His time held up for 12th overall.
"Max Harada and Sean Sooy were in the final heat and both race very well to establish new PRs! Max ran four 3200s this winter and PRed in each! He did it again in his first outdoor race of the season, knocking a second off of his previous best and dipping under 9:30 for the first time to place 7th! Sean knocked 5 seconds off of his previous best, set earlier this winter, to take 10th!
"All-in-all, a nice start to the spring! This group's hard work is paying off and we look forward to even faster races as the season progresses!
Details at: NJ.MileSplit
Our photographer shot the entire meet, firing almost 1800 pictures for MileSplit and Cherokee, in the cold, wind, rain and darkness, and he deserves many appreciative comments! He then worked for almost five days editing with PhotoShop to save as many pictures as he could! Cherokee's pictures are posted on Coach Shaklee's Google pages!
On April 8th, 2026, a group of Cherokee's Speedsters, Throwers and Jumpers traveled to Ewing for The College of New Jersey Open, 2026 while the Distance Squad stayed home and relived the experience they had at the Night of 3200's!
Sprinter/Hurdler highlights included, in the 100m, Sophomore Davis Walker 3rd/70 in 11.05, just off his PR; and Freshman Anthony Aleva, 57th/70 in his beginner's PR of 12.42. In the 110HH, Junior Conner Staff 14th/40 overall in a PR 17.18; and Junior David Nnawuihe 22nd/40 in a PR 18.19. In the 400IH, Cherokee had three PR's by Juniors: Colin Feehan 11th/38 overall in 1:03.38; Christian Danquah 22/38 in 1:07.10; and Lucas Bianchi 24th/38 in 1:07.37!
In the Relays, Cherokee looked good in the 4 X 100m, taking 4th/23 overall in 43.81. In the 4 X 400m, not-so-good, taking 12th/15 in 3:51.25. Names unavailable!
In the Jumps/Vault, Senior Noah Calderon took 8th/54 overall in the LJ at 19.10, and 11th/30 in the TJ at 40.2.50. Sophomore Silas Francino took 25th/54 overall in the LJ with a PR 18.01.75; and followed up in the TJ with 25th/30 in a PR 35.9.50. Finally, in the PV, Junior Justin Cecchetto set an Outdoor PR of 9'6".
In the Throws, Junior Matthew Greski set the standard for Cherokee's Discus Throwers, taking 15th/61 overall with 109.05; and in the Javelin, Senior Hunter Cardone finished 24th/52 with 112.0.
Further details available at: NJ.MileSplit.
MileSplit sent no photographers to the meet! Our photographer was unavailable because he was still working on his pictures from Cherokee's nightmarish Night of 3200's
On April 8th, 2026, Cherokee welcomed four teams to the Olympic Conference Batch Meet #1: Bishop Eustace Preparatory High School, Camden High School, Eastern Regional High School and Lenape High School.
Generally, the Batch Meets are treated as "practice," as the results aren't counted towards the Conference Championship, which is scheduled for April 29th, 2026. Coach Shaklee, for example, usually trains around them or schedules certain runners to participate for their personal growth. Other Cherokee coaches do much the same. Not sure what the other conference schools do.
Coach Shaklee sent some comments on his distance guys at the meet!
"Coming off of a successful first meet at our Night of 3200s, seven Cherokee distance runners continued that success at the Olympic Conference Batch Meet #1, held at Cherokee on Wednesday, April 8th.
"All seven athletes were entered in two events each, the 1600 and, about an hour later, the 800. Some quick math tells us that it was a total of 14 races run . . . and there were 11 new PRs set!
"Bruce Novoa led the team with a first place finish in the 1600 and a new PR! He came back an hour later to PR in the 800 while finishing in 2nd place!
"Jack Finley was third in the 1600 and fifth in the 800! While neither time was a PR, it did show that Jack is getting back to fitness after missing a couple of weeks of training due to illness!
"JJ Duncan finished fourth in the 1600, narrowly missing his PR set in the late fall time trial run on the roads. JJ came back later to establish a new PR in the 800!
"Jonathan Merkel may have been the most impressive of the group! He not only knocked a chunk of time off of his previous 1600 PR, while placing 5th, he broke his 800 PR in the same race as his elapsed time through the first two laps was well under his previous best!
"Rocco Bellano, Fletcher D'Alessandro and Nick Carpineto all ran two strong races and all set two new PRs on the day!
"This level of success is a tribute to the hard work these guys have been putting in over the past six weeks! We should see even better performances as we move forward through the spring season!"
Further results at: NJ.MileSplit
Again, our photographer was unavailable as he was still recovering from Cherokee's Night of 3200's! He will see you at LaSalle!
On April 10th, 2026, the Varsity team traveled across the river and Northeast Philadelphia to Springford Township, just northwest of Philadelphia, and next to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, the final resting place of Dennis' Grandparents. (This reference has nothing to do with the team's performance at the track facility next door!) There they participated in the Explorer Invitational at LaSalle College High School.
Coach Shaklee sent his review of his Distance Squad's performance!
"On April 10th, the Cherokee Boys Track & Field team took a ride to Cheltenham, PA to participate in the Explorer Invitational at La Salle College High School. Thirteen distance runners competed, eleven in the Mile and two in the 800, with all thirteen doubling back in the 4x400 Relay at the end of the meet. While it was sunny with a nice temperature, the wind picked up in the late afternoon and made the backstretch a little extra challenging each lap.
"Overall, the distance team didn't achieve the results we had hoped for but there were some highlights. Despite the wind, in the second of three heats of the mile, both Max Harada and Evan Amato set new PRs for the distance, coming through 1600 at 4:30.39 and 4:40.50, respectively, on their way to mile times of 4:32.00 and 4:42.16! And, in the final heat, Jack Tindall made his return to competition a good one, leading from start to finish (and fighting the wind solo) to record a time of 4:21.88 (4:20.35 through 1600)! Seven Cherokee runners finished among the top twenty, more than any other team on the day!
"The Relay results showed that the speed work the team has been doing may be paying off, as eight of the thirteen distance guys set new 400 PRs (FAT splits were taken by the timing company). The biggest jumps were made by Dylan Weiner (55.49) and Sean Sooy (54.98). Dylan knocked over five seconds off his previous PR while Sean took about three seconds off of his!
"Next up, some of the team will complete in Olympic Conference Batch Meet #2, on April 15th, while Jack Tindall and Ben Realley will travel to North Carolina for the Carolina Distance Festival, and run in a very loaded 3200 Meter field on April 17th!"
Our photographer tipped his hat to his much-loved Grandfather and Grandmother resting next door and, as soon as he returned home, began working on his pictures from the meet! Coach Shaklee will post them on the team's Google site soon!
Further details available at: PA.MileSplit