Pair of Thirds - MOC at Ocean Breeze
Pair of Thirds - MOC at Ocean Breeze
Meet of Champions Recap from Coach Shak
The Cherokee boys had some outstanding performances at the State Meet of Champions on Sunday, March 3rd at the Ocean Breeze Track & Field Center on Staten Island, NY.
In the field, Sam Green saved his best for the biggest meet of the season, clearing a PR of 6’4” to place 5th!
On the track, the 4x 800 Relay team of Ben Realley, Tate Midora, Sean Sooy and Andrew Free finished 19th. Although three of the four have recently missed school due to illness, they still acquitted themselves well against the best teams in the state. Tate Midora had the fastest split which was about a half second faster than his best open time. Freshman, Sean Sooy had a particularly good race, beating his previous best time by almost 3 seconds.
Bobby Poplau was up next in the 800. Against a loaded field, Bobby ran a great race to finish in third with a new PR and a new indoor school record! His time of 1:53.45 makes him the second-fastest Cherokee runner in the event, indoors or out! He was also the top finisher from South Jersey and has not lost to another runner from South Jersey this season!
Nick Kuenkel and Liam Tindall ran the 3200. Like the 4x800 guys, Liam was returning from illness and was not at 100%. Although he was disappointed with his time, it is good to note that a disappointing time for Liam now is much faster than he ran all of last year. He has definitely moved to a new level and he has had a great winter season!
Although the coach was unaware of it ahead of time, Nick Kuenkel was under the weather coming into the meet (illness has been making it’s way through the team over the past couple of weeks). In his usual stoic fashion, Nick kept it to himself and did not make excuses. He put everything he had into the race and came away with a third place finish in a time (9:08.42) that makes him the third fastest Cherokee runner ever in the 3200! His determination was impressive! It also put him in the medical room receiving treatment for 30 minutes following the race. It was quite possibly one of the toughest races we have ever witnessed by a Cherokee runner!
Next, the team will travel to Boston for the New Balance Indoor Nationals. Hopefully, everyone is feeling healthy and ready to go when we get there! It’s been a great winter season and we want to end it on a high note!
Results can be found here on Milesplit.
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