Lady Chiefs Sweep County and Conference Titles
Coach Jarvis recaps both the County and Conference Titles
The championship season officially kicked off with the Burlington County Open, held on Friday, October 18th, at Mill Creek Park in Willingboro. This course holds a lot of history for the BC Open.
Burlington County Meet
While the meet has been hosted in several locations over the years, it’s primarily been held at Mill Creek, giving it deep roots with our program. However, the course itself has varied significantly over the years. There’s the original course, the new course, the year it was altered due to weather, the year it ran short, and the year it ran long. This year, the hill section was removed for safety reasons. Regardless, our goal remained clear: show up and compete.
JV Race:
The meet began with the JV race, where we saw some standout performances. Brooke Hibbs and Emily Butler led from the start and never looked back, both breaking the 22-minute barrier for the first time. Brooke took gold with a time of 21:48, and Emily was just behind at 21:53. We placed four runners in the top ten, with Gabby Urban finishing 5th and Chloe Burdette placing 8th. If team scoring were applied, the girls would have finished a close 2nd to Moorestown, 29 to 34.
Varsity Race:
Next up was the Varsity race. Continuing our tradition, the team donned vintage Puma uniforms for the county meet. This was our first head-to-head with Moorestown, who recently won the SJ Open at Dream Park. Megan Niglio and Maddie Meder controlled the pace throughout, finishing 2nd and 3rd with times of 19:19. Our next group, consisting of freshman Erin Healy, junior Maya Kumar, and senior Grace Wojciechowski, worked well together through the first two miles.
Exiting the woods, they were right with Moorestown’s #2 runner. Erin (20:15) and Maya (20:18) placed 8th and 9th, while Grace (20:31) finished 12th. Rounding out our top seven were Genisa John (21:20) in 21st place and Sofia Recinto (21:56) in 26th. The team took the win with 31 points, ahead of Moorestown’s 49.
This victory marks the fifth County Meet win for the girls in the past six years and the eighth in program history: 2004, 2009, 2010, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, and now 2024.
Olympic Conference Meet
Conditions at Dream Park were near perfect, with temperatures in the upper 60s and a light breeze. The stage was set for an exciting competition as four top-20 teams in the state faced off: Cherokee (4), Paul VI (5), Moorestown (12), and Cherry Hill East (17). Other strong teams, including Eastern, Camden Catholic, and Lenape, added to the challenge, with a total of 14 teams and 103 runners competing.
Varsity
Our main objective was to win our division, with the added goal of taking the overall conference meet title. From the gun, the team looked ready to compete, as six runners formed a lead group, setting a quick early pace and coming through the first mile in around 5:50. The field remained tight through the mile mark, but by the two-mile point, the race began to stretch out. Megan Niglio and Maddie Meder led the way for Cherokee, running together in the front pack, followed closely by Erin Healy, Maya Kumar, and Grace Wojciechowski, who were tightly grouped. Genisa John maintained her position ahead of our 7-10 runners.
Between the first and second mile, Maddie took a tumble after being tripped but quickly recovered, rejoining the lead pack. With a half-mile to go, Megan and Maddie were in strong position behind PVI’s top runner, Macy Huber. Erin and Maya followed closely behind PVI’s third runner, with Grace just behind their fourth.
In the final 200 meters, Maddie unleashed an incredible kick, passing Huber to cross the line in 18:15, breaking Kate Rathman’s course record of 18:23 and setting the 11th fastest time ever run at Dream Park. Megan finished 3rd in 18:24, tying her for Cherokee’s #3 all-time with Nikki Clifford. Erin followed in 11th place with a time of 19:25, breaking Kerry O’Day’s freshman record of 19:51, and Maya was right on her heels at 19:28, placing 12th. Grace finished in 18th place, crossing at 19:52. Genisa came in next, running 20:36 (30th), followed by Emily Butler at 20:53 (36th), Sofia Recinto at 21:31 (42nd), and Gabby Urban at 21:50 (49th). Unfortunately, Brooke Hibbs rolled her ankle between the 2-mile and 3-mile marks and could not finish.
For the first time at Dream Park, we had five runners break the 20-minute barrier. Eight girls achieved lifetime bests for the 5K across all courses. Our top five runners are now in Cherokee’s top 10 all-time at Dream Park: Maddie #1, Megan #3, Erin #8, Maya #9, and Grace #10. The team’s average time of 19:05 ranks 4th all-time at Dream Park for all schools and is the fastest team average outside of Sectionals. The team scored 45 points, edging out Paul VI with 55 points to claim the American Division and Olympic Conference titles.
First-team all-conference honors were earned by Maddie Meder, Megan Niglio, and Erin Healy, while Maya Kumar and Grace Wojciechowski were named to the second team.
JV
The JV race followed, with a smaller team due to injuries and absences. The four who raced made the most of it: Chloe Burdette celebrated her birthday with a lifetime best of 22:23 to finish 8th, Grace Gorsline ran a season-best 23:15 for 12th place, Alexa Butler set a huge personal best of 23:52, placing 19th, Kyla Petragnani ran a lifetime best of 25:22 to finish 33rd, and Joelle Barcenas crossed in 27:22, just off her personal best, for 43rd place. Overall, we had 11 lifetime bests and 1 season best out of the 14 girls who raced.
Next is the South Jersey Group IV Sectional meet at Dream Park next Saturday.
Fundraising Goals
It is the mission of 4xAlumni to support the current crop of track and field and cross country athletes.
We are focusing on 5 major areas that we feel, with the support of the coaches, are important for this generation of student-athletes:
Offset or completely cover the cost of post-season events not sponsored by the school. This includes National Meets (cross country, indoor and outdoor track) and invitationals (Oregon, etc).
Award scholarships for deserving seniors.
Provide State Champions and School Record holders with gifts.
Support families with athletes who would like to attend a cross country camp but cannot afford it.
Provide funding for athletes needing physiotherapy who cannot afford it.
We currently only have the availability to collect funds via Venmo, but we are actively seeking ways to collect via credit card, Zelle, PayPal, and other forms to accommodate the ecosystem in 2024.
During the months of September, October and November, we will be collecting funds that will directly contribute to funding for cross country post-season meets. Please consider donating to help fund our scholarship money.
Venmo: @ Cherokee4xalumni
About 4xAlumni
We are a non-profit organization with volunteer board members that seek to help provide funds that go directly to the current team. Our mission is:
to provide funding for travel and lodging to championship meets not covered by the school.
to provide scholarships to graduating seniors.
to provide recognition and awards to State Champion winners and new School Record holders.
to provide funding for current athletes who need assistance attending cross country camp.
to provide funding for current athletes who need assistance seeking treatment from injuries related to track/cross country.
Our Board
President: Jeff Storch ‘99
Vice President: Michelle (Bilicki) Wolosky ‘00
Secretary and Treasurer: Caitlin (O’Malley) Bertheaud ‘05
Social Media & Communication: Lisa Burkholder ‘06
Marketing & Fundraising: Marc Pelerin ‘02
Event Coordinator: Tim Haggerty ‘96
Team Liaison: Dave Sitzer ‘00
Voting Members: Joe Halin ‘00 & Sunny Patel ‘96
Venmo: @ Cherokee4xalumni