6 in the top 7; 4 in the top 5
Varsity & JV packed it in at the Conference Meet
Coming off of the Burlington County Meet, which we were able to take a low-key approach to, we knew that the conference would be a different story. We would be facing off against New Jersey’s sixth-ranked team, Cherry Hill East. When we last faced them, at the Shore Coaches Invitational, we narrowly beat them by only three points. East had not raced since that meet and we knew they were coming in looking for an upset victory.
Varsity Race:
Early in the race, things were going as expected as most of the front pack consisted of Cherokee and Cherry Hill East runners. Halfway through the race, it was a toss-up. As the front pack hit the 2-mile mark, Jack Tindall began to assert himself and the pack started to string out. With 3/4’s of a mile to go, the complexion of the race was changing in favor of Cherokee. Still, the East runners were close so the outcome was not yet determined. Over the last part of the race, the Cherokee runners did a great job of finishing strong and, as they crossed the line, Cherokee had six of the first seven places!
Just as he had done at the county meet last week, Jack Tindall became the first freshman to win the Olympic Conference championship and he established a new freshman record on the Dream Park course of 15:33!
Ben Realley crossed next in 15:41, the second-fastest sophomore time ever recorded on the course! Liam Tindall not only finished third but he held off a challenge from East’s first runner to secure that spot! His time of 15:46 was twenty-five seconds faster than what he ran at the conference meet last year! After Cherry Hill’s first runner crossed in fourth, Logan Bromley, Sean Sooy, and Enzo Corona swept the next three spots all running between 15:53 and 15:58, giving us six runners under 16:00!! The seventh man, Ben Weiner, was not far back, finishing twelfth in 16:08 and, for good measure, Anthony DiBattista and Tate Midora finished in nineteenth and twentieth, running 16:24 and 16:29! The tenth man, Dom Pileri, had a challenging day as someone clipped his heel early in the race and his shoe was on the verge of coming off from that point, until it finally did, a half mile from the finish. Dom fought through that adversity and still managed a respectable 39th-place finish in the field of 114 runners, with a time of 17:12.
With a score of 17, we easily beat the rest of the conference. If they were combined into one team, the score would have been Cherokee - 17, Everyone else - 42. In addition, the boys established a new 5 man average record at Dream Park of 15:45, breaking the old record of 15:48 set by the 2022 Cherokee squad at the sectional meet!
JV
The JV team then took to the course and were determined to live up to the example set by the varsity squad. And they did!
Gavin Danielewicz, Max Harada, and Leo Vyvyan led the charge, sweeping the first three spots, all running between 17:05 and 17:13! Carlo Brown, in his first year of cross country, and only his third race, took fifth in 17:40! Freshman, Dylan Weiner, completed our team scoring, finishing 11th in 18:12! That gave us a low score of 22 points, good enough to, once again, beat the rest of the conference even if they were all one team! Almost every other Cherokee runner ran extremely well, with Charlie Wasserott getting the award for the biggest improvement, running 4:34 seconds faster than his time from last year! Last year he was 102nd. This year he finished in 21st place!
Next up, everyone but the top seven will race on Tuesday at the Haddonfield Sub-Varsity Meet. The varsity squad will prepare to compete for their 6th consecutive sectional championship next Saturday back at Dream Park!
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