There’s no denying the talent of Cherokee senior runner Shawn Wilson — the kid is an absolute machine.
The scary part about it, he’s determined to get better.
Throughout his career, he’s established himself as one of the top runners in not only the state, but the entire country.
“He’s one of those ‘once in a very long while’ kids that you get, and I'm very fortunate to get somebody with that kind of ability,” Cherokee cross country coach Steve Shaklee said. “He’s also a hard-working, focused kid. When you put all that together, you end up with a guy who can win a whole lot of stuff.”
You can't really put it any better than that. And Wilson will have a chance to do his winning at Syracuse University, to which he formally committed Wednesday.
Wilson won the Group IV state cross country meet, held Nov. 17 at Holmdel Park in 15 minutes, 39.37 seconds — a school and Burlington County record. It’s also the second-best time at Holmdel in South Jersey history behind Paul VI’s Jason DiJoseph, who in 1988 ran the hill-covered terrain in 15:16.20 (which held up as the course record for two decades).
Wilson followed up his state title performance a week later at Van Cortlandt Park in New York in the Foot Locker Northeast Regional race, where he finished third in 15:42.50 over the Bronx course. Strangely, at that time, Wilson still hadn't received any scholarship offers.
“I was a little worried,” Wilson said. “That late in the season, all my buddies were already done their college visits and were all committed. It scared me a bit.”
Not to panic.
Wilson’s next race was the finale of his senior cross country season: the Foot Locker nationals in San Diego. As he'd done all season, Wilson rose to the occasion with a 15:43.20 clocking to finish 23rd in the nation — the best national finish ever for a Burlington County boy.
Wilson then began to receive scholarship offers from NCAA Division I programs.
“Once I got my first call it was very relieving,” Wilson said.
Tennessee was the first to call, followed by more. After weighing his options, Wilson narrowed his choices to Tennessee, Illinois, Penn State, Maryland and Syracuse. In the end, he stuck with a familiar color and committed to the Orange.
“They were all good schools, but after the visit to Syracuse I just felt the most comfortable there,” Wilson said. “Coach Shaklee told me that comfort was probably the most important part.”
And Shaklee couldn't be more supportive.
“I think he did this all the right way,” Shaklee said. “It just came down to him thinking pretty seriously about what he wants to get out of his college career and what program would be suited best for him. Syracuse has a great program and is returning a great group of runners.”
That’s a plus — Wilson has shown his ability to succeed on relay teams. Last winter, he anchored Cherokee’s 3,200-meter relay team that ran 7:43.64, third best in the nation.
As for the rest of his high school career, Wilson has a few goals in mind.
“I'm going for a lot of South Jersey records in the distance events, but if I can take down even one,” he said, “that'd be really nice.”
His fastest time in the 1,600 is 4:18.50 and his 9:14.91 in the 3,200 is eighth in county history, was 10th in the state in 2012 and also the fastest time from any South Jersey runner in 2012.
“I'm trying to break nine minutes in the two-mile this year and I'm hoping to run the mile somewhere in the 4:00 to 4:07 range,” Wilson said.
He’s also holding a bit of a personal vendetta against one of his assistant coaches, 2002 Cherokee graduate Marc Pelerin.
You see, during his high school career, Pelerin set numerous school and county records — including a time of 15:43 that stood as the county record at Holmdel for 11 years before Wilson broke it.
Wilson is determined to shatter them all.
“We always have that rivalry and he still tells me that I'm not going to get all of his records,” Wilson said, laughing. “It’s going to be nice once I start taking them down one by one.”
Shaklee, who also coached Pelerin, said the relationship between the two is fun to watch because they're always taking shots and poking fun at each other.
“In cross country, you need to keep things light occasionally because a lot of hard work goes into the long distance runs,” Shaklee said. “Shawn’s always looking to take a record from Pelerin.”
As far as the similarities in their running styles . . .
“They're different types of people and different types of athletes,” Shaklee said. “But what they do have in common is that they're both super competitive with a ton of athletic ability — both will do anything they can to win.”